Family Rituals

Family rituals have been identified as powerful organizers of family life that provide stability during times of stress and transition (Bossard and Boll 1950). Researchers have discovered that rituals provide access to how the family, as a group, is organized and finds meaning in their collective lives. Such studies have found that there is a developmental course to the practice of family rituals (Fiese et al. 1993); rituals serve to protect mental health under high-risk conditions (Bennett et al. 1987) and vary in significant ways across cultures (Martini 1996).