Jessica Boyle interviews her Father-In-Law

Human Development

Jessica Boyle

University of Calgary

SOWK 304 Diversity and Oppression Theme Course

Gail Zuk

September 26, 2021

Introduction

As an aspiring social worker, life stage theories are often studied and discussed, and they are an important part of the knowledge base that comprises social work education. It is incredibly important to question the dominant narratives around life stage theories and decide if they are helpful or harmful for the people they do not accurately describe. It is important to know that these theories are just that: theories and are not universal.  However, for this assignment, I interviewed a man whose life seemed to follow the dominant western life stage theories very closely.

For this assignment, I chose to interview my father-in-law, Chris Boyle. He is a 70-year-old man of Irish descent who was born in Saskatchewan and went on to live in the prairie provinces for his entire life. He is the eldest of two children, and his sister is two years younger than him. He married at age 20 and went on to have 3 sons of his own. He grew up rurally, and was part of a faith community, as well as the local farming community.

In the interview with Chris, four themes emerged. Chris spoke extensively about family connectedness, parental values, political thought and launching into adulthood. Below I will discuss these themes, and their significance to Chris’ development.

Family Connectedness

Chris spoke extensively about his relationships with his extended family members. He grew up in the same yard as his paternal grandparents and lived only a short drive from his maternal grandparents. He had numerous aunts and uncles around, and family events were a regular and common part of his life. When asked what family meant to him, he said “it was normal as breathing”  (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021). He spoke of many memories where his immediate family traveled to stay with other family members, speaks of travelling with cousins in his young adult years, and still maintains the habits of connecting with various relatives when traveling, utilizing the resources they have and calling on them for favors or needs. Thomas et al. (2017) discusses the importance of family connections, asserting that they “can provide a greater sense of meaning and purpose as well as social and tangible resources that benefit well-being” (p. 2). It is important though, that these relationships are a more of a source of support than strain, otherwise they can have a negative effect. In Chris’ case, family relationships seemed to be incredibly supportive and positive, which has had profound influence on his lifespan and development. He has a definite sense of belonging, which is shown to be an important indication for both physical and mental health (Mcgibbon, 2021).

Parental Values

 When asked what his parents valued, Chris emphasized that “values were a stress point their entire life” (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021). He remembers clearly that his father valued hard work, and wanted to make the land feed his family, and his mother wanted to give her children every opportunity available yet didn’t necessarily have the finances to do so. He spoke of his mom instilling the idea early on that he should “look beyond the farm for [his] life and career” (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021). This value was in stark contrast to the norms in his community. He reflected on a memory that specifically illustrated this for him when one week during harvest when he was fourteen, he showed up at school, and he was the only boy in the whole school. All others were helping their families with the harvest. He said he “saw the irony of this immediately” (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021), and returned home to help on the farm. He also noted that his parents valued their children’s individuality and believed that they shouldn’t try to unduly influence their children one way or another. This led to Chris developing a sense of independence and autonomy early on, which positively impacted Chris’ development.

While Chris described his parents as having competing values, he did not describe any instances of witnessing marital strain, which can have a negative impact on childhood development (Mcgibbon, 2021). Instead, the values that Chris witnessed in his family helped shape him and continue to influence him to this day.

Political Involvement

Chris spoke extensively about the role politics played in his family. He grew up in the constituency of Tommy Douglas, and both his paternal and maternal grandparents, as well as his own parents were heavily involved in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He remembers his grandparents chauffeuring Tommy Douglas and remembers his grandfather marching to Ottawa. He affectionately recalls his mother being a “rabid socialist” but also notes that she often debated passionately with someone into the night, but still had coffee with them and maintained good relationships with them, even when they disagreed politically.

 During his adolescent and young adult years, Chris also spent time considering where he stood politically. Because Chris and his family lived a short distance from the US border, there was a great deal of American draft dodgers from the Vietnam war. He remembers clearly that the nightly news was always informing citizens of how many enemies were killed or captured. He remembers wondering “where does one put their patriotism?” (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021).  Adelson (1971) described adolescence as being a time of political development. He asserts the adolescent “is on the threshold of ideology, struggling to formulate a morally coherent view of how society is and might and should be arranged” (p. 1013). The environment Chris was growing up in forced him to reflect on what war meant, and how politics affected his life. His parents modeled political activism, which instilled a belief in Chris that his voice could be heard, and he could effect change in the world, which is not a privilege afforded to all (Mcgibbon, 2021).

Launching into Adulthood

Immediately after graduating high school, Chris moved to Regina for University. During the summer of 1967 he also took his first independent trip to Montreal and calls that summer the ‘summer of love.’ This was an incredibly important time during Chris’ development, as he was learning for the first time what it meant to live on his own. He said “it was a momentous time, a unique time” (C. Boyle, personal communication, September 24, 2021). Even though the university he attended did not have dorm rooms, Chris remembers there being a push from parents and other community members to offer students a chance to experience dorm life, so he lived in cooperative housing with fellow students. This is where he met his wife.

The period of development between adolescence and emerging adulthood is a time where there is a myriad of cultural expectations. Young adults are expected to move out and live on their own and are often also expected to marry “Anthropologists see life stage concepts as ways that cultures organize social life and provide people with guidelines for the roles, they are expected to fulfill at various times in their lives (Jensen Arnett, 2016). While Chris did not speak of overt cultural expectations, he did follow the trajectory of current life stage theories, especially when it came to launching.

Conclusion

While life stage theories are not universal, there are those whom they describe well, and Chris is one of those people. However, this makes sense, seeing as Chris is of the demographic that these theories were often based on. The development across Chris’ lifespan shows clearly that his life was full of circumstances and structures that positively impacted his development. He had supportive family relationships, his parents valued his education, and were committed to providing opportunities for him, they modelled political activism which helped to instill the belief that Chris could affect positive change on his environment, and he then successfully launched into his own independent life. These circumstances are not the experiences of most people but shows how your environment can have an incredibly positive impact on development.

References

Adelson, J. (1971). The political imagination of the young adolescent. Daedalus, 100(4), 1013–1050. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024045

Jensen Arnett, J. (2016). Life stage concepts across history and cultures: Proposal for a new field on indigenous life stages. Human Development, 59(5), 290–316. https://doi.org/10.1159/000453627

Mcgibbon, E. A. (Ed.). (2021). Oppression: A social determinant of health (2nd ed.). Fernwood Publishing.

Thomas, P. A., Liu, H., & Umberson, D. (2017). Family relationships and well-being. Innovation in Aging, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igx025