Research framework: Over the past decade, social science research has been profoundly renewed by the measurement of socioeconomic inequalities, which no longer takes into account only socio-professional status, labor income, or qualifications, but also wealth. Family matters for inheriting wealth, saving it, or accumulating it through returns on investments. The accumulation of wealth brings into play the three major dimensions of kinship: descent, siblingship, and alliance.

Objectives: To establish a dialogue between the literature on socio-economic inequalities and the social sciences of the family.

Methodology: This introductory article is based on a literature review of various social science disciplines in economics, sociology, demography, history, anthropology, political philosophy and law.

Results: This issue of the journal Enfances Familles Générations is a plea for the social sciences to take into account both family ties and family assets, based on the concrete issues of inheritance, marriage, indebtedness and home ownership. Inheritance, its accumulation, preservation and transmission are, in fact, concerns within families of all social backgrounds.

Conclusion: Family dynamics – in interaction with the multiple actors in the family field – play a part in structuring economic inequalities within the family (especially gender inequalities) and between families (especially class- and race-based inequalities). But exploring inequalities in asset and debt also provides a better understanding of family relationships, since wealth participates in the making of the family.

Contribution: This introductory article affirms the importance of studying family wealth strategies across all social classes, and of multiplying the historical, national and cultural contexts of study.

Keywords: wealth, debt, inheritance, marriage, homeownership, economic inequality

Research Framework: The growing contribution of inheritance to social inequality in many countries is stimulating research into how this transmission takes place within families. However, very few studies have been conducted on the subject in the Canadian context.

Objectives: This research examines the extent to which Canadian families benefit from inheritance according to their social position. It also aims to study the temporal trends specific to the phenomenon, as well as the factors explaining the changes observed.

Methodology: Using 2005, 2012, 2016, and 2019 data from the Survey of Financial Security, regressions were conducted to study the odds of receiving an inheritance, and its value according to household characteristics and survey year.

Results: Families with higher socioeconomic status, as well as couples, are more likely to receive an inheritance, generally of greater value. A rise in inheritance has also been observed in Canada. Changes in the age structure partly explain this, but the more significant increase observed in Quebec and among households of lower socioeconomic status indicates the influence of other factors.

Conclusions: Inheritance contributes to the reproduction of economic inequalities due to its unequal distribution, and is a growing factor in Canada. The aging population explains some of the trend, but the influence of increasing rates of home ownership and house prices, as well as a change in wealth accumulation behaviours for children, may also be at play.

Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding of inheritance, which has scarcely been studied in Canada. The unequal distribution of inheritance raises equality issues in opportunity, and the role of the state in mitigating its effects.

Keywords: inheritance, socio-economic inequality, wealth, Canada, intergenerational transmission, aging, financial support, generation, parenting practice

Research Framework: In a French context of widespread access to home ownership since the 1980s, rental property has long remained neglected in sociological analysis, in favor of owner-occupation analysis.

Objectives : This article aims to measure the ways in which working-class families accumulate rental assets across generations and genders, and to assess the effects on social trajectories.

Methodology: The article is based on a statistical analysis of Institut National de la Statistiques et des Etudes Economiques (Insee)’s “Histoire de Vie et Patrimoine” survey (2017-2018) and on interview material from 30 upper-, middle- and working-class landlords in Lille conurbation. This article focuses on 10 respondents from working-class backgrounds, one of whom is experiencing a strong upward social mobility towards the middle classes: 5 women and 5 men, aged between 43 and 75, mainly of North African immigrant origin.

Results: The analysis shows the importance of hard work on self-rehabilitation and division of dwellings that unabled them to become owners and then landlords. Rental income appears as a means of stabilizing the family group’s economy, as a form of “subsistence work” (Collectif Rosa Bonheur, 2019). Being a landlord is a marker of social success for immigrant families, supporting the social mobility of their children. Equal property rights serve, after separation or death, the autonomy of women who have managed to defend their share of the estate.

Conclusions : This article helps to understand the mobilization of kinship group in the context of working-class household savings, and the role of deindustrialized urban space in the creation of real estate wealth and rental income.

Contribution : This article contributes to the sociology of working-class and immigrant property ownership and to the renewal of analyses on social strata.

Mots-clés: landlord, working class, rental housing, family, gender, immigrant

Mots-clés: money, care, debt, family, couple, gender, wealth, socio-economic inequalities

Research Framework: By limiting the number of marriages per generation, the noble families from the 17th century created a large number of single men and women. The patrilineal ideology imposed itself and set back the egalitarian impulses that animated the nobility of previous centuries. Single individuals, mostly cadets, saw their inheritance shares reduced or transformed, with the aim of leaving the family patrimony in the hands of the eldest males.

Objectives : This article examines how single men and women adhere to this patrilineal ideology. By accepting the unequal inheritance order and actively participating in the financial well-being of the lineage, single men and women seem to have internalized their subordinate condition, while developing a high awareness of their role as economic pillars.

Methodology: This article offers a qualitative study of single men and women born between the late 16th and the late 17th centuries, into four French noble families. The study is based on notarial sources, such as inheritance settlements, donations, marriage contracts and wills.

Results: Single men and women pass on their paternal inheritance to the eldest males of the family, with the claimed goal of preserving the lineage heritage. They may also make donations and bequests to unmarried siblings or younger nephews/nieces, but these are usually life annuities or marginal inheritance.

Conclusions : Single men and women put their heritage at the service of patrilineage, favouring the eldest male and participating in the compensatory system that takes care of cadet siblings, thus reducing the risk of family conflict.

Contribution : This article provides an insight on the social history of French nobility and on the family history of Ancien Régime. It also sheds light on single men and women, who are still little-known individuals.

Mots-clés: singlehood, heritage, transmission, eldership, cadets, nobility

Research Framework: Scientific literature shows that farmers are particularly at risk of experiencing mental health problems. However, many farmers mention that their role as fathers is directly related to their state of health. To date, no study has examined the experience of paternal commitment in this population group.

Objectives: This article aims to describe the paternal commitment of Abitibi, as they perceived it.

Methodology: Descriptive phenomenological research was carried out with 14 farmers. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and a descriptive phenomenological analysis was used to interpret the results.

Results: The farmers’ comments show that being actively present with their children is the essence of fatherhood, leading them to become involved as fathers in order to meet the physiological and emotional needs of their children, mentor them and ensure their education.

Conclusions: This study shows the work/family balance issues specific to farmers. However, further studies are needed to better understand the impact of these issues on the well-being of farmers and their families.

Contribution: This research shows that more support is needed for agricultural families, particularly by establishing resources to enable farmers to benefit from paternity leave, to have more time available to spend with their family, and to be able to bring their children to work safely.

Keywords: paternity, farmer, family, father

Research Framework: The concept of personal origins is constantly evolving as the ways in which families are formed diversify. In France, parents who have recourse to sperm donation are now encouraged to pass on to their child the circumstances of their birth. These narratives are particularly important for single mothers: they are supposed to give the donor a part in the family history, without compensating for the absence of a second parent.

Objectives: This article aims to analyze how narratives about origins – in this case about donors – are constructed by single mothers.

Methodology: As part of a doctoral thesis, eighteen biographical interviews were carried out with single women who had become mothers through sperm donation, both abroad and in France. These interviews were complemented by the analysis of an online group, which was a productive field of investigation for observing family intimacies.

Results: Revealing one’s history gives rise to a variety of practices and narrative strategies, based on a moral norm of dual responsibility for single mothers. Investigating these narratives reveals the place assigned to the donor. He embodies a symbolic figure in family history, that is unrelated to kinship or filiation. His place is constructed in a feminine group that includes other single mothers, and is then negotiated with the close family. Furthermore, these narratives are materialized through the creation of various supports (books, images, films, etc.), testifying to single mothers’ desire to assert their family model.

Conclusion: The creation of the origin story is part of the narrative work of single mothers, aimed at their children and their relatives, and contributes to family memory.

Contribution: This article contributes to a better understanding of the experience of single mothers, and more generally of the place given to a donor in the history of families born of donation.

Mots-clés: single mother, medically assisted procreation, donation, procreative work, narrative, script, memory

Research Framework: This article is based on a doctoral thesis in Social Work on the development of a generic marriage preparation program within the Maronite Church in Lebanon. In this context, marriage preparation faces major challenges such as reluctance and disinterest on the part of couples, mainly as a result from insufficient adaptation to contemporary expectations.

Objectives: To develop a generic marriage preparation program that meets the needs and aspirations of couples, while encouraging their active participation. The objectives of this process are to involve participants in the analysis of existing marriage preparation programs, in the study of couples’ needs, and in the design of the program.

Methodology: This study is supported by a needs analysis as a program planning tool. Results from the first phase of data collection were used as the basis for the initial development of a generic marriage preparation program. The second phase featured an interactive community forum that aimed to finalize the program.

Results: The analysis of current programs and couples’ needs led to the design of a program with a dual preventive and promotional focus. This program outlines the skills and learning objectives targeted, the key concepts, the content components, as well as the pedagogical and management approach. It leaves it up to the participants to adapt it according to their expertise and resources.

Conclusion: Research highlights the importance of premarital preparation for contemporary couples, while stressing the importance of addressing their needs and concerns.

Contributions: To offer a marriage preparation program that is adapted to the needs of contemporary couples and that incorporates motivational strategies to encourage their active commitment, and thus enhance their responsibility for the success of their marriage.

Mots-clés: need, conjugality, couple, commitment, motivation, partnership, mariage preparation, prevention, marriage

Research Framework: Although indebtedness can promote socioeconomic mobility, for example by facilitating the purchase of a home, it can also lead to over-indebtedness, resulting in stress, social isolation, and precariousness. Against this trend, many studies have sought to understand the sources of indebtedness and identify households that are most vulnerable to over-indebtedness, but few have examined the effect of having dependent children.

Objectives: We analyzed the indebtedness of parents compared with that of people with no dependent children in Quebec. Drawing on research on intensive parenting, we argue that many parents use credit to meet their children’s needs, resulting in higher levels of indebtedness and a higher risk of overindebtedness than childless people.

Methodology: We used data from the Quebec Household Indebtedness Survey conducted in January and February 2022 (N: 4,433). Through logistic, linear, and ordinal regressions, we compared the probability of having debts, the amounts owed, the experience of debt repayment difficulties, and the stress they cause among parents and those without dependent children.

Results: This study revealed that parents are more likely to be in debt than people without dependent children. They find it more difficult to repay their debts, and experience more debt-related stress than people without children, particularly if they are single or in a relationship. Nearly 20% of parents identified expenses related to their children’s well-being as a reason for debt.

Conclusions: Parents are substantially more indebted and more at risk of overindebtedness than individuals without dependent children. We link this phenomenon to the rise of an intensive parenting norm that demands unprecedented levels of commitment from parents, particularly mothers, in their children’s development.

Contribution: This study fills a gap by examining parental indebtedness. It highlights the specific challenges faced by indebted parents, and it reveals that financial difficulties persist even in a context where public policies support families.

Mots-clés: parent, debt, intensive parenting, family dynamics, parental commitment, financial hardship, stress, family, money