Appendix B: Comparison of Family Rituals and Family Routines

Meanings

Have special meaning and
symbolic significance

Often have special meaning or
symbolic significance

Associations

Closely tied to extraordinary
events

Closely tied to ordinary family
life

Usually tied to culture,
religion or faith, ethnicity, and social customs

Meaningful behaviors tied to
family identity, member needs, and valued family events

Initiation

Often intergenerational;
becomes more tightly enacted as the family is more committed over
time and interests in retaining and transferring meaning to the
future increase

Initiated when members identify
themselves as family and desire a collective identity; tend to
become more patterned and organized over time

Traits

Repetitive and highly
structured actions related to celebrations, traditions, and
cultural customs that include the entire family and have
accompanying role expectations

Repetitive, with both highly
and somewhat structured actions related to daily life and family
function that may include the entire family, dyads, or triads and
have accompanying role expectations

Continue relatively unchanged
across the life course

Changes based on members’ and
family household needs

Systematically planned
according to revered practices and customs

Response to valued behaviors,
stress, change, transitions, development, and predictable life
events

Mostly based on esteemed family
traditions

May be intentional, deliberate,
and directed by shared values of multiple family members, but may
also be unplanned

Intergenerationally transmitted
with few changes

Some may be transmitted across
generations, but patterns may change

Licenses and Attributions for Appendix B: Comparison of Family Rituals and Family Routines

“Appendix B: Comparison of Family Rituals and Family Routines” by Monica Olvera is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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Contemporary Families in the US: An Equity Lens 2e Copyright © by Elizabeth B. Pearce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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