For selected populations, fictive kin hold the same informal rights and statuses as biological relatives, and they are presumed to engage in duties of the extended family. This happens by way of providing emotional support during times of distress, by being of financial assistance, and by caring for an individual in the same manner as his or her blood relatives would.

Many professionals working with families and family members themselves have experienced important contributions from voluntary kin (VK) in modern family life. Relationships with biological or legal family (BLF) are not always available or desirable, and VK may be better able to meet the needs of some family members when there has been death or estrangement in the BLF, smaller families than in the past, geographic distances that prevent or lessen contact, or differing experiences or values that make seeking family outside of the BLF valuable or imperative.

When I began writing this article, I did not immediately think of my own family. It was a discussion with my sister that led me to reflect. She began talking about a friend who was unable to spend the holiday with us. With this manuscript in mind, I asked her how she viewed that friend.

Queer kinship is a diverse concept with multiple meanings. Sometimes queer kinship refers to chosen families among SGM individuals (Weston, 1991). However, queer kinship can also denote widely varying forms of organizing family. Thus, queer kinship may mean the blurring of boundaries among the family of origin, chosen kin, and nuclear family.

The growing number of single people, especially those who live alone, has stirred panic in the hearts of pundits and even some scholars; they worry that the U.S. is becoming a nation of isolates. Even people who do marry and have children can be cause for concern, as, for example, when they lose their spouse to death or divorce. Their grown children sometimes live far away, and even if they are nearby, they can be preoccupied with their own lives. As they look at their futures they may wonder, “Who will be my family?”

In the homeless population, fictive kin play a crucial role in the emotional and economic support of individuals and families. To understand their role, however, it is important to first have an accurate conceptualization of homelessness and the homeless system within which they operate.

There is a unique type of family structure emerging in the U.S.: Companies are offering direct-to-consumer (DTC) ancestry autosomal DNA (atDNA) testing and other genetic genealogy tools. Consumers are increasingly able to identify extra-extended relatives from among the other testers with the company.

To understand the role of leisure in military families, it is helpful to look at the role of stress and transitions in military family life. Research has demonstrated that for some military families, major life transitions such as repeated military deployment or military training are often associated with perceptions of relational turbulence and negative family interactions.

This year, NCFR celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Journal of Family Theory & Review (JFTR), the newest of the organization’s three scholarly journals. JFTR publishes original contributions in all areas of family theory, including advancing theories through critical and metatheoretical projects, and comprehensive reviews of literature and media.

There are many ways NCFR can be involved in issues of the day beyond advocating for policy. These include providing resources to family scholars and professionals, generating original research about the issues of the day, disseminating the research that has been produced about families that is relevant to the issues of the day, and providing trainings and resources to members so they can advocate at various levels.

Happy summer! NCFR staff spent the first half of 2018 looking outward at how events around the world impact families and also looking inward at how to continue to serve our members in the family field.

Food provides opportunities for families to learn about responsibility and chores, and about working and sharing time together. Simply put, food does much more than simply nourish our bodies.

Reflecting on the theme of this issue of Family Focus, the Inclusion and Diversity Committee (IDC) would like to share some observations related to the topic of play from a social justice perspective. Play has multiple meanings; what is traditionally referred to as free play is observed among young children in diverse cultures as they engage with their physical and social worlds.

Intense program planning work for the 2018 Annual NCFR Conference has officially begun! I am very excited about the many intriguing topics being proposed. I also want to take this opportunity to extend a huge thank-you to the many reviewers who have volunteered to assess the proposals. This will be another NCFR conference that none of us will want to miss!

The 2018 NCFR Annual Conference is just months away! We will be meeting in beautiful sunny San Diego, California, for the conference. Hurry and register to get the early bird registration rate. Here are some exciting things to look forward to at this year’s conference.

The Ohio Council on Family Relations (OHCFR) was a member of the Midwest Regional Council, one of the original NCFR affiliates, as far back as the 1930s. Today, OHCFR, now its own affiliate, strives to remain visible, relevant, and useful to Family Science professionals, academics, students, and interested others through new forms of engagement and promotion.

Gun violence moved to the forefront of national news after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018. It also moved to the forefront of topics covered for Family Focus. As the contributing authors demonstrated, gun violence has strong implications for families.

The rise of violence and the gun culture in the United States and Canada cannot be separated from the rise in militarism, which is the belief that a country must maintain a strong military capability and must use, or threaten to use, force to protect and advance national interests.

There are more guns in the United States than there are residents, who numbered 325.7 million in 2017. The public health impact of resulting gun violence is staggering. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2017) reported that there were nearly 39,000 firearm-related fatalities in this country in 2016.

Linking violent crime, including gun violence, to fatherlessness has become commonplace, both in the public discourse and among social scientists. For example, after the February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, several media outlets filed unsupported reports claiming that 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history came from fatherless homes.

Providing space for unexpressed trauma and grief or loss, helping heal attachment wounds between children and caregivers, and exploring gun violence as a symptom of unjust intergenerational processes is needed. As family professionals, we are especially equipped to address these initiatives.

While the gun violence in low-income, mostly racial/ethnic minority communities does not often occur en masse, it does occur often. Despite its frequency, though, it is not covered in the media as a social problem that needs attention; in fact, it is presented as just a way of life for Black and Brown people. It is important for family professionals (whether teachers, counselors, policymakers, or caseworkers) to be a part of the solution to reduce, and help victims cope with, gun violence in racial/ethnic minority communities.

The stories of Black male victims of gun violence and their bereaved families and communities are rarely uplifted in the national discourse about gun reform. Even in the context of school shootings, where “Black students make up 16.6% of the student population, but they experience school shootings at twice the rate”, Black male experiences of trauma and victimization are marginalized.