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Topic · Demography

Family Dynamics and Relationships

Family Dynamics and Relationships is a research topic within Demography. Science Explorer counts 23k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the complex interplay between family demographics, including divorce, cohabitation, and marriage, and its impact on fertility patterns, parenting dynamics, and children's well-being. It delves into the evolving roles of fathers, the consequences of changing family structures on child development, and the societal shifts influencing fertility decisions.

  • Divorce
  • Fertility
  • Family Structure
  • Parenting
  • Cohabitation
  • Fatherhood
  • Marriage
  • Children's Well-being
  • Life Course Theory
  • Gender Roles
Research works
23k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Family Dynamics and Relationships

Which countries lead Family Dynamics and Relationships research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.1k and 418 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 China 418 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 201 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 194 works
  5. 5 Iran 180 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 161 works
  7. 7 India 139 works
  8. 8 Germany 135 works
  9. 9 Canada 127 works
  10. 10 Australia 110 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 40.9%China: 14.9%United Kingdom: 7.1%Türkiye: 6.9%6 others listed: 30.3%41%largest
United States1,149 · 40.9%China418 · 14.9%United Kingdom201 · 7.1%Türkiye194 · 6.9%6 others listed851 · 30.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Family Dynamics and Relationships research?

By volume in 2022-now, Islamic Azad University, Tehran publishes the most Family Dynamics and Relationships research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham Young University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 50 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 25 works
  3. 3 Brigham Young UniversityUnited States 23 works
  4. 4 Stockholm UniversitySweden 22 works
  5. 5 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 20 works
  6. 6 The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 18 works
  7. 7 Pennsylvania State UniversityUnited States 18 works
  8. 8 Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaSpain 17 works
  9. 9 University of MichiganUnited States 16 works
  10. 10 University of GroningenNetherlands 16 works

Who are the leading researchers in Family Dynamics and Relationships?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Family Dynamics and Relationships include Ronald C. Kessler, Mika Kivimäki and Victoria Clarke.

  1. 1 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  2. 2 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  3. 3 Victoria Clarke United Kingdom 285k citations
  4. 4 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Family Dynamics and Relationships?

The most cited paper in Family Dynamics and Relationships is "Measuring Dyadic Adjustment: New Scales for Assessing the Quality of Marriage and Similar Dyads" (Graham B. Spanier, 1976), with 7,120 citations. Next come "Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process." (6,318) and "The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence" (4,040).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Measuring Dyadic Adjustment: New Scales for Assessing the Quality of Marriage and Similar Dyads Graham B. Spanier · Journal of Marriage and the Family Feb 1976 7,120
2 Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Cindy Hazan, Phillip R. Shaver · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1987 6,318
3 The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence Gay C. Armsden, Mark T. Greenberg · Journal of Youth and Adolescence Oct 1987 4,040
4 Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring Robert L. Trivers, Dan E. Willard · Science 5 Jan 1973 3,886
5 The Determinants of Parenting: A Process Model Jay Belsky · Child Development Feb 1984 3,777
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Family Dynamics and Relationships research done?

The largest centres of Family Dynamics and Relationships research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Tehran (Iran) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Provo.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 84 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 59 works
  3. 3 TehranIran 53 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 48 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 44 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 40 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 36 works
  8. 8 AnkaraTürkiye 35 works
  9. 9 SeoulSouth Korea 31 works
  10. 10 StockholmSweden 30 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ProvoUS · 23.5 works21×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Family Dynamics and Relationships than the world average.

See Family Dynamics and Relationships on the map

Where is the best place to study Family Dynamics and Relationships?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Florence, National University of Singapore and Peking University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.37%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of FlorenceUniversity of Gronin…Peking UniversityNational University …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of FlorenceItaly 56.341.3%3.9×9 -1.5%
2National University of SingaporeSingapore 55.320.5%3.5×16 +46.5%
3Peking UniversityChina 53.423.5%2.1×16 +221.9%
4University of GroningenNetherlands 52.723.7%6.2×16 -6.3%
5Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 49.61.6%7.9×50 +17.6%
6Sapienza University of RomeItaly 49.512.4%4.5×20 +155.4%
7Renmin University of ChinaChina 47.926.4%7.7×10 +90.2%
8University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 46.520.2%2.7×12 +18.1%
9Brigham Young UniversityUnited States 45.513.2%25.3×23 +3.9%
10Stockholm UniversitySweden 45.510.9%16.9×22 -30.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Family Dynamics and Relationships, country by country

Is Family Dynamics and Relationships research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Family Dynamics and Relationships.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Family Dynamics and Relationships as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Family Dynamics and Relationships0.019% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Family Dynamics and Relationships over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Family Dynamics and Relationships10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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