A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: Cause for celebration?
Abstract
This article is a qualitative review of 32 publications appearing since J. Bossard and E. Boll's (1950) seminal work on family rituals was conducted. Definitions are offered whereby a distinction is made between family routines as observable practices and family rituals as symbolic representations of collective events. The relative occurrence of family routines, as described in the literature, appears to follow a developmental course and is affected by the cultural environment. Family routines and rituals were found to be related to parenting competence, child adjustment, and marital satisfaction. The studies were limited by inconsistent methods of assessing family routines, reliance on samples of convenience, and a failure to distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Recommendations are made to better integrate theory with empirical efforts to demonstrate the importance of family routines and rituals in contemporary life.
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Greater engagement in general everyday routines is associated with positive child outcomes, including enhanced language development, academic achievement, and social-emotional and behavioral functioning.
“increased engagement in general, everyday routines is associated with positive child outcomes, including enhanced language development, academic achievement, and social-emotional and behavioral functioning [21,33,34].”
From Benefits of a bedtime routine in young children: Sleep, development, and beyond. (2018) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- Fiese, B. H., Tomcho, T. J., Douglas, M., Josephs, K., Poltrock, S., & Baker, T.
- Affiliations
- Syracuse University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Family Psychology
- Published
- 2002
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 381-390
- ISSN
- 0893-3200 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1293
- OpenAlex
- W4230099692
- Cited by
- 761
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 39 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 24.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Family Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH51771-01, R01MH051771)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- family routines, family rituals, family life course, family development
- MeSH terms
- Ceremonial Behavior, Family, Family Relations, Humans
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