Page 111 - IJPS-11-3

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Family image, cultural values, and family policy

from a global perspective

Sonja Drobnič* , Johannes Huinink , and Mandy Kusnierz
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Abstract
The creation, design, and implementation of state policies for families vary across
different country contexts. Our focus is on the diverse cultural conditions that can
subtly influence the perception, acceptance, or dismissal of specific policy measures.
The ways in which states invest in families, and whether and how they consider
normative and moral aspects, as well as the roles and behaviors of family members,
can differ significantly across societies, even if they are at the same stage of economic
development. While this article does not directly establish a causal link between
cultural conditions and family policy instruments, we leverage survey data from
the World Values Survey and other supplementary information sources to examine
attitudes and cultural conceptions of the family, along with broader cultural conditions
worldwide. Our descriptive analysis of values and attitudes covers key dimensions,
including familiarization/defamiliarization, secularization and emancipative values,
*Corresponding author: gender roles, and openness toward diverse family forms. In addition, we examine
Sonja Drobnič societal attitudes toward demographic developments and demonstrate that cultural
(sonja.drobnic@uni-bremen.de) divisions align to a considerable extent with societal attitudes and governmental
Citation: Drobnič, S., Huinink, views on fertility levels. Importantly, our findings reveal systematic disparities among
J. & Kusnierz, M. (2025). Family world regions, emphasizing the idea that distinct cultural traditions and values may
image, cultural values, and family
policy from a global perspective. be intertwined with specific policy configurations.
International Journal of Population
Studies, 11(3): 105-124.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1993 Keywords: Family policy; Cultural values; Family image; Fertility rate; Global comparison;
World Value Survey
Received: October 6, 2023
1st revised: January 8, 2024
2nd revised: May 15, 2024 1. Introduction
Accepted: May 16, 2024
Family policies have a profound impact on the functioning of families, affecting the lives
Published online: July 18, 2024
of family members in various ways. While the formation and implementation of family
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). policies can be traced from supranational levels, such as the United Nations (UN), to
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the local, organizational, and company levels (Nieuwenhuis & Van Lancker, 2020a), the most
Creative Commons Attribution consequential layer remains the nation-state. Nation-states dominate the policymaking
License, permitting distribution, and implementation of various family policy measures, as well as comparative research
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is in this field. Ministries dedicated to family affairs or family development exist in many
properly cited. countries, underscoring the state’s genuine interest in the functionality of families as
vital social institutions.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with However, questions arise: how are family policies devised within nation-states?
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional What goals do states pursue, and how do they choose from among numerous policy
affiliations. instruments? In this article, we do not directly examine the intricacies of the decision-

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 105 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1993