Since its inception, the IsFamily Santander Chair, headed by Montserrat Gas Aixendri, has launched four research projects and published 30 articles. Through its interdisciplinary approach (IsFamily includes researchers from the Faculties of Education, Law, Business Administration and the UIC’s Sant Cugat Campus, in addition to researchers from the Institute of Advanced Family Studies - IESF) the Chair aims to establish a firm footing for future research and networking.
One of those research projects was spearheaded by the group Parenting, Equality and Work-Life Balance, whose goal is to analyse the transfer of family care (raising children, socialization and education) within the concepts of positive parenting and co-parenting, based on co-responsibility.
The Chair is notable on an international level for contributing the paper “Mapping Family Change and Child Well-Being Outcomes” to the World Family Map 2014. The team of researchers from the World Family Map is currently at work on their next academic article, “Family Instability and Early Childhood Health in the Developing and Family Structure Across Europe and Children’s Psychological Health”, which was developed as a result of the first article.
Some of the IsFamily Chair’s activities are more directly applicable to current matters in Spain, such as the research and assessment it has conducted on the Dependency Act (39/2006), which was implemented nearly 10 years ago. Given the ageing population, the issue of dependency is shaping up to be one of the greatest challenges of the century, and a high priority for European legislators. The researchers behind this project are attempting to analyse the dependency system’s foundation in Spanish law and make suggestions for a safety net that they believe will better addresses the needs of families.
