Managing Uncertainty in Family Life: Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Contemporary Society

Uncertainty increasingly shapes family life, everyday decision-making, social participation, and long-term planning. Within families - understood as social institutions shaped by norms, inequalities, and broader structural conditions - it is negotiated through transitions, disruptions, adaptive processes, and is interpreted in relation to social roles, evolving norms, and relational dynamics. Although uncertainty is a defining feature of contemporary societies, shaped by rapid social change, global crises, and shifting life trajectories, its sociological analysis within family studies remains conceptually fragmented, with limited integration between sociological and psychological perspectives. Recent work points to the role of family configurations, social networks, family policies, digital environments, and cross-cultural difference in shaping how uncertainty is perceived and managed within families, but integrative frameworks, comparative studies, and innovative methodologies are still needed.This Research Topic addresses that gap by examining uncertainty as a sociological feature of family life across the life course. It explores how family structures, norms, inequalities, and policy contexts interact with cultural conditions and with psychological processes such as coping, resilience, and identity reconstruction, and seeks contributions that help families, individuals, and communities adapt and sustain well-being.We welcome work across domains such as family policy and interventions, care arrangements, health transitions, migration and transnational families, intergenerational relations, and changing family configurations, including studies of how families draw on social networks, institutional resources, and kinship support. Contributions on relational functioning, intergenerational dynamics, fathering and mothering practices, couple formation and dissolution, and family organization are especially encouraged. Alongside empirical, theoretical, methodological, cross-cultural and comparative work, and studies addressing interventions or policy implications.Key themes include, but are not limited to:• Family policy, care regimes, and institutional contexts of uncertainty• Intergenerational relations, kinship, and elderly care across the life course• Health transitions, identity reconstruction, and active ageing within family contexts• Resilience, adaptive coping, and intergenerational dynamics in families• Social networks, community engagement, and digital resources for managing uncertainty within family systems• Migration, transnational families, and the cultural, religious, and normative contexts that shape family uncertainty-management repertoires• Gender, sexuality, and family change: navigating uncertainty in changing normative landscapes• Theoretical contributions on uncertainty as a sociological concept in family studies• Empirical, methodological, and comparative cross-national or cross-cultural studies of everyday uncertainty in families• Intervention studies supporting families, individuals, and communitiesWe welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, Hypothesis and Theory, Brief Research Reports, and Commentaries. Topic editors: Marius MARICI, Mihaela Rus, Lucian Marina Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80963/managing-uncertainty-in-family-life-sociological-and-interdisciplinary-perspectives-in-contemporary-society