Doing Family, Doing Gender, Doing Religion: Structured Ambivalence and the Religion-Family Connection

The relationships among family, gender ideology, and religion appear more heterogeneous and tenuous than family scholars have expected, with conservative religious belief not necessarily translating into conservative familial behavior. In this article, I suggest the perspective of structured ambivalence as a theoretical framework for better understanding how religion may affect family life. I discuss conceptual and methodological issues as well as recommendations for future research on the religion-family connection.