Perspectives from the APS Psychology of Relationships Interest Group
Although understanding relationships is important to just about every area of psychology, the members of the APS Psychology of Relationships Interest Group (PORIG) have a particular interest in understanding the relationship factors, processes and dynamics that shape the way couples and families handle various life challenges and stressors. These stressors include such significant events as the transition into parenthood, relationship separation and divorce, dealing with loved ones facing a chronic illness, sexual dysfunction, and the developmental challenges of adolescence and young adulthood. PORIG, which has a membership of around 350, has explored these and many more aspects of relationships through facilitating various activities including an annual relationships conference, publication of conference proceedings, national seminar/workshop tours by renowned scholars, and the publication of a regular newsletter.
Over the last 10 years, PORIG has organised and run an annual national conference on relationships, and in 2007, hosted the International Association for Relationship Research mini-conference. In 2006, the conference included a national forum on the changes to the Family Law Act and the roll-out of the Family Relationship Centres. Since 2007, PORIG has conducted an annual national seminar/workshop series presented by leading international relationship researchers on topics such as communication, attachment relationships and romantic relationships in adolescence.
The annual PORIG conference brings together researchers, practitioners and service delivery providers to discuss a broad range of matters related to relationships. The conferences have comprised keynote addresses by eminent national and international relationship scholars, symposiums and individual paper sessions, and in more recent years have included practitioner forums and workshops. Topics covered have included the impact of relationships on social and mental wellbeing, relationship transitions, maintaining relationships across generations and geographic distance, balancing work, family and community responsibilities, and building resilience through personal, family and community relationships. Since 2001, the conference has hosted a total of 450 presentations, and 10 volumes of conference proceedings totalling around 200 peer-reviewed publications on relationships.
A consistent theme of our activities over the last 10 years has been examining factors that place relationships under pressure. It seems to us that models for relationships have become increasingly diverse. While this can be viewed as a good thing, it is somewhat of a double-edged sword, as it can generate new pressures for couples, families and governments. Now more than ever, couple and family relationships are taking different forms, and this brings with it ambiguity about how best to develop and maintain satisfying relationships (Quah & Bowles, 2004). Many of the couple and family forms addressed as part of our activities go beyond the traditional nuclear family and include: cohabiting and married heterosexual couples, step and blended families, same-sex couples and families, living apart together couples (i.e., romantic partners that live apart but regard themselves as a couple), separated families that differ in their parental care arrangements of children, families with two or more generations in the same household, and Indigenous families.
Shifts in the social timing of relationship milestones, such as delayed marriage, parenthood, and the higher rates of divorce, mean that younger couples do not always have clear and well-defined models that correspond to the diverse ways of forming and maintaining relationships in today's world (Noller & Karantzas, in press). As a consequence, the distinction about what is and is not considered as appropriate has become blurred. Changes in traditional work patterns alter family roles and further contribute to family stress (Stevens & Fallon, 2010). Importantly, the more difficulties couples and parents have in navigating relationships, the greater the likelihood that they will act as poor models for how adolescents and young adults of subsequent generations may negotiate their own relationships (Wilkinson, in press).
As a society we are struggling with how best to cater for the needs of increasingly diverse family forms. Psychology has a major role to play in helping us to understand, adapt and support individuals and their chosen families, of whatever form, through the challenges that they face. Clearly there are some things we know about what puts families under pressure, what breaks them up, what keeps them together, and how to help them, but there is more we need to discover about our complex patterns of evolving and transforming relationships.
For more information on the APS Psychology and Relationships Interest Group, go to www.groups.psychology.org.au/porig/.