Chapter 14 slides

1.  What constitutes a family nowadays?

2. Introduction to Marriage and Family
 Between 2006 and 2010, nearly half of
heterosexual women (48%) ages 15-44 said they
were not married to their spouse or partner when
they first lived with them.
 That is up from 43% in 2002, and 34% in 1995.
 The number of unmarried couples has grown from
fewer than 1 million in the 1970s to 8.1 million in
2011.
 Cohabitating, but unwed, couples account for 10%
of all opposite sex couples in the US.
 The traditional US family structure is becoming less
common.

3. WHAT IS MARRIAGE? WHAT IS
FAMILY?
 Marriage is a legally recognized social contract
between 2 people, traditionally based on a sexual
relationship and implying permanence of the
union.
 Sociologists are interested in the relationship
between the institution of marriage and the
institution of family because, historically, marriages
are what create a family, and families are the most
basic social unit upon which society is built.
 Both marriage and family create status roles that are
sanctioned by society.

4.  Family – is a socially recognized group
(usually joined by blood, marriage,
cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an
emotional connection and serves as an
economic unit of society.
 Traditionally, a family was a husband, wife, and
2 children.
 What constitutes a family is a prime area of
debate in family sociology today.

5.  Different types of families:
 A family of orientation refers to the family
into which a person is born.
 A family of procreation describes one that
is formed through marriage.
 Families are groups in which people come
together to form a strong primary group
connection and maintain emotional ties to
one another over a long period of time.

6.  The functionalist perspective views families
as groups that perform vital roles for society
 Both internally (for the family itself)
 And externally (for society as a whole)
 Symbolic interactionism helps us to
understand the subjective experience of
belonging to a “family.”

7. Challenges Families Face
 One study stated that 99.8% of participants
agreed that a husband, wife, and children
constitute a family.
 92% stated that a husband and a wife without
children are a family.
 83% stated that unmarried couples with children
 39.6% stated that unmarried couples without
children
 64% stated that gay male couples with children
 33% stated that gay male couples without
children

8.  60% of responders in this study agreed that
if you consider yourself a family, then you
are one.
 The US Census Bureau (the national
government) defines a family as a group of 2
people or more (one of whom is the
householder) related by birth, marriage, or
adoption residing together.

9.  In a 2010 survey, 76% adults stated that
family is “the most important” element of
their life.
 Only 1% said it was “not important.”
 45% stated that their family is at least as
close or closer (40%) than the family with
which they grew up.

10.  Many religions believe that marriage can
only exist between a man and a woman.
 Social liberals and progressives believe that
marriage can exist between 2 consenting
adults—be they man or woman, or a woman
and a woman—and that it would be
discriminatory to deny such a couple the
civil, social, and economic benefits of
marriage.

11. Marriage Patterns
 Cohabitation is when a couple shares a
residence but not a marriage.
 Single parenting and cohabitation are
becoming more acceptable, and people may
be less motivated to get married.
 39% answered “yes” when asked if marriages is
becoming obsolete.

12.  Monogamy: when someone is married to
only 1 person at a time.
 Polygamy: being married to more than 1
person at a time.
 Accepted in 78% of cultures around the world
 North Africa and East Asia have the most
 Polygyny: a man being married to more
than one woman at the same time.
 Polyandry: when a woman is marrid to
more than 1 man at the same time.
 Only occurs in about 1% of the world’s cultures.

13.  While the majority of societies accept
polygyny, fewer than 10% (and no more
than 25-35%) of men in polygamous
cultures have more than one wife.
 These husbands are often older, wealthy, high-
status men.
 The average plural marriage involves no
more than 3 wives.

14.  In the US, polygamy is considered by most
to be socially unacceptable and it is illegal.
 The act of entering into marriage while still
married to another person is referred to as
bigamy and is considered a felony in most
states.
 It is estimated that there are about 37,5000
fundamentalist Mormons involved in
polygamy in the US, Canada, and Mexico,
and the number is decreasing.

15.  US Muslims are an emerging group with an
estimated 20,000 practicing polygamy.
 It only occurs in approximately 1% of the
population though.

16.  Joseph Smith, Jr.,
the founder of
Mormonism, is
said to have
practiced
polygamy.

17. Residency and Lines of Descent
 When considering one’s lineage, most people in
the United States look to both their father’s and
mother’s sides.
 Kinship is defined as one’s traceable ancestry
and can be based on blood or marriage or
adoption.
 The pattern of tracing kinship is called bilateral
descent.
 Practiced through 60% of societies.
 Unilateral descent is the tracing of kinship
through one parent only.
 It is practiced in 40% of the world’s societies.

18.  3 types of unilateral descent:
 Patrilineal – follows the father’s line only
 In rural China and India only males carry on the
family surname.
 In the US, most children take their father’s last
name
 Matrilineal –follows the mother’s side only
 Common in Native American societies (especially
Crow and Cherokee)
 Ambilineal- follows either the father’s only or
the mother’s side only, depending on the
situation.
 Common in Southeast Asian countries

19. In many cultures, newly married couples move
in with, or near to, family members.
 Patrilocal residence – the wife lives with or
near her husband’s family of orientation.
 Thought to be disadvantageous to women
because it makes them outsiders in the home
and community & keeps them disconnected from
their own families.
 Matrilocal residence – the husband lives
with his wife’s blood relatives.
 The husband can feel disconnected and be
labeled as an outsider.
 West Sumtra in Indonesia gives men little power in
issues regarding the home or family.

20. STAGES OF FAMILY LIFE
 The set of predictable steps and patterns
families experience over time is referred to
as the family life cycle.
 Paul Glick asserted that most people will grow
up, establish families, rear and launch their
children, experience an “empty nest” period, and
come to the end of their lives.
 Evelyn Duvall elaborated on the family life cycle
by developing these classis stages of family.

21. STAGE THEORY
STAG
E
FAMILY TYPE CHILDREN
1 MARRIAGE FAMILY CHILDRLESS
2 PROCREATION FAMILY CHILDREN AGES 0-2.5
3 PRESCHOOLER FAMILY CHILDREN AGES 2.5-6
4 SCHOOL-AGE FAMILY CHILDREN AGES 6-13
5 TEENAGE FAMILY CHILDREN AGES 13-20
6 LAUNCHING FAMILY CHILDREN BEGIN TO
LEAVE HOME
EMPTY NEST FAMILY EMPTY NEST; ADULT

22.  Sociologists view each stage as having its
own structure with different challenges,
achievements, and accomplishments that
transition the family from one stage to the
next.
 As early stage theories have been criticized
for generalizing family life and not
accounting for differences in gender,
ethnicity, culture, and lifestyle, less rigid
models of the family life cycle have been
developed.

23.  One example is the family life course,
which recognizes the events that occur in
the lives of families but views them as
parting terms of a fluid course rather than in
consecutive stages.
 This type of model accounts for changes in
family development and sheds lights on other
shifts in the way family life is practiced.

24. VARIATIONS IN FAMILY LIFE
 A nuclear family refers to married parents
and children as the nucleus, or core, of the
group.
 In 2010 Census, only 66% of children under
17 years old live in a household with two
married parents.
 This is a decrease from 77% in the 1980
Census.
 3% of children live with 2 cohabitating
parents (not married).

25.  More than one
quarter of U.S.
children live in a
single-parent
household.

26. Single Parents
 Single parent households are on the rise.
 In 2010, 27% of children lived with a single
parent only, up from 25% in 2008.
 Of that 27%, 23% live with their mother, and 3%
live with their father.
 10% of children living with their single mother
and 20% of children living with their single father
also live with the cohabitating partner of their
parent.

27.  Step-parents are an additional family
element in two-parent homes.
 Among children living in 2-parent households,
9% live with a biological or adoptive parent and
a stepparent.
 70% of those children live with their biological
mother and a stepfather.
 Older children (15-17) are less likely to live with
2 parents than adolescent children (6-14) or
young children (0-5).

28.  In 2010, 3 million children (4%) of all
children lived with a guardian who was
neither their biological or adoptive parent
and a stepparent.
 Of these, 54% live with grandparents.
 21% live with other relatives.
 24% live with nonrelatives.

29.  This family structure is referred to as the
extended family, and may include aunts,
uncles, and cousins living in the same
home.
 Foster parents account for about ¼ of
nonrelatives.
 9% of all children live with a grandparent, and
the grandparent maintains primary responsibility
for the child.
 Usually due to parental drug use, incarceration, or
abandonment.

30.  Children living in homes with both parents
grow up with more financial and educational
advantages than those raised in single-
parent homes.
 Parental marital status seems to be a
significant indicator in the advancement in a
child’s life.
 Children living with a divorced parent typically
have more advantages than children living with a
parent who never married.

31.  This is particularly true of children who live with
divorced fathers.
 6 in 10 children living with only their mother live
near or below the poverty level.
 Of those being raised by single mothers, 69%
live in or near poverty compared to 45% for
divorced mothers.
 Never-married parents are:
 Typically younger
 Have fewer years of schooling
 Have lower incomes

32. Percentage of Children in Single-Parent
Families by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2008

33. Same-Sex couples
 The number of same-sex couples has grown
significantly in the past decade.
 There are an estimated 594,000 same-sex
couple households in the US, a 50%
increase from 2000.
 The increase is due to:
 More coupling
 The growing acceptance of homosexuality
 Subsequent increase in willingness to report it

34.  Same sex couples have an average age of
52, and an average household income of
$91,558.
 Opposite sex couple households have an
average age of 59, and an average
household income of $95,075.
 31% of same-sex couples are raising children.
 73% of these children are biological children of only 1
of the parents.
 21% are adopted only.
 6% are a combination of biological and adoption.
 43% of opposite couples are raising children.

35.  Research reports that same-sex parents are
as effective as opposite-sex parents.
 In one study, sociologists found no data to
support the notion that opposite-sex
parenting is any better than same-sex
parenting.
 Children of lesbian couples, however, were
shown to have slightly lower rates of
behavioral problems and higher rates of self-
esteem.

36. Staying Single
 A new option in the US is simply to stay
single.
 In 2010, there were 99.6 million unmarried
individuals over age 18 in the US, accounting for
44% of the total adult population.
 In 2010, never-married individuals in the 25-29
age bracket accounted for 62% of women and
48% of men, up from 11% and 19% in 1970.
 Larger cities like New York have the highest population
of never-married individuals.

37.  Women are under greater social pressure to
marry than men.
 Single women are portrayed as unhappy
“spinsters” or “old maids” who cannot find a man
to marry them.
 Single men are portrayed as life-time bachelors
who “haven’t found the right girl.”
 Women over 35 report feeling happy and
secure and feel more independent and more
prepared to live a large portion of their adult
lives without a spouse or domestic partner
than they did in the 1960s.

38.  Asian individuals are the most likely to
marry.
 African Americans are the least likely to
marry.
 Religious people are more likely to marry
than non-religious people.
 By the age of 40, being single is not a
rejection of marriage. It is a lifestyle that
does not include marriage.
 20% of women and 14% of men will have never
married by that age.

39.  A study from Radford University indicated that
bartenders are among the professions with the highest
divorce rates (38.4 percent). Other traditionally low-
wage industries (like restaurant service, custodial
employment, and factory work) are also associated with
higher divorce rates.

40. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
 Functionalists uphold the notion that families
are an important social institution and they
play a key role in stabilizing society.
 Family members take on status roles in a
marriage or family.
 The family and its members perform certain
functions that facilitate the prosperity and
development of society.

41.  George Murdock determined that there are 4
universal residual functions of the family:
 Sexual
 The family offers a socially legitimate sexual outlet for
adults.
 Reproductive
 A necessary part of ensuring the survival of society
 Educational
 The family trains the children for adult life by teaching
them how to think and behave and follow social and
cultural norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes.

42.  Economic
 Gender roles and a division of labor leads to
expressive and instrumental roles.
 Men tend to assume the instrumental roles in the
family (work and financial support).
 Women tend to assume the expressive roles (physical
care and emotional support of children).
 According to functionalists, the differentiation of the
roles on the basis of sex ensures that families are well
balanced and coordinated.
 When family members move outside of these roles, the family
is thrown out of balance and must recalibrate in order to
function properly.

43.  Conflict theorists point out that US families
have been defined as private entities, the
consequence of which has been to leave
family matters to only those within the family.
 They highlight the role of power in family life
and contends that the family is often not a
haven but rather an arena where power
struggles can occur.

44.  Researchers found that the person with
most access to value resources held the
most power.
 As money is the most valuable resource, men
who worked in paid labor outside of the home
held more power than women who worked
inside the home.
 Conflict theorists find disputes over the
division of household labor to be a common
source of marital discord.

45.  Household labor offers no wages, therefore, no power.
 Studies indicate that when men do more housework,
women experience more satisfaction in their
marriages, reducing the incidence of conflict.
 Conflict theorists tend to study areas of marriage
and life that involve inequalities or discrepancies
in power and authority, as they are reflective of
the larger social structure.

46.  Symbolic interactionists view the world in
terms of symbols and the meanings
assigned to them.
 The family itself is a symbol.
 SI believe that the family is a social construct
that is subject to the ebb and flow of social
norms and ever-changing meanings.
 They also recognize how the family status roles
of each member are socially constructed,
playing an important part in how people perceive
and interpret social behavior.

47. They also view the family as a group of
role players or “actors” that come together
to act out their parts in an effort to
construct a family.
These roles are up for interpretation.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a
“good father” was one who worked hard to
provide financial security for his children.
Today, a “good father” is one who takes the
time outside of work to promote his children’s
emotional well-being, social skills, and
intellectual growth.

48. CHALLENGES FAMILIES FACE
DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
 In 1960, only 9.1 out of every 1,000 persons
was divorced.
 In 1975, that number was 20.3.
 The number of divorced person peaked in
1980 at 22.6 out of 1,000.
 Currently, the number is similar to the 1975
number.

49.  The decrease in divorce rates can be
attributed to 2 probable factors:
 An increase in the age at which people get
married
 An increased level of education among those
who marry
 Both of which have been found to promote greater
marital stability

50. Divorce and Marriage Rates: 1940-
2009

51.  Some segments of the US population are
more likely to divorce than others.
 Men and women in the Northeast have the
lowest divorce rates at 7.2 and 7.5 per 1,000
people.
 The marriage rate is lower and first marriages tend to
be delayed.
 The South has the highest rate of divorce at 10.2
for men and 11.1 for women.
 Because marriage rates are higher and marriage
occurs at younger-than-average ages in this region.

52. Median Age at First Marriage

53.  Divorce also varies by race.
 American Indian and Alaskan Natives report the
highest percentages of currently divorced
individuals (12.6%).
 Blacks have an average of 11.5%
 Whites average 10.8%
 Pacific Islanders average 8%
 Latinos average 7.8%
 Asians average is 4.9%
 In general, those who marry at a later age,
have a college education have lower rates of
divorce.

54.  What causes divorce?
 Stress—especially financial stress
 Couples who enter marriage without a strong asset
base (home, savings, retirement plan) are 70% more
likely to be divorced after 3 years than are couples with
at least $10,000 in assets.
 The addition of children
 Marriages enter their most stressful phase upon the
birth of the first child.
 Married couples with twins or triplets are 17% more
likely to divorce than single births.

55.  There is a general decline in marital
satisfaction over time.
 As people get older, they find that their values
and life goals no longer match up with those
of their spouse.
 Children of divorced parents are 40% more
likely to divorce than children of married
parents.

56.  When these divorced parents remarry, the
likelihood of their own divorce rises to 91%.
 This might result from being socialized to a
mindset that broken marriage can be replaced
rather than repaired.
 That sentiment is also reflected in the finding
that when both partners of a married couple
have been previously divorced, their
marriage is 90% more likely to end in
divorce.

57.  People in a second marriage account for
19.3% of all married persons.
 Those who have been married three or more
times account for 5.2% .
 91% of remarriages occur after divorce; only 9%
occur after death of a spouse.

58.  Most men and women remarry within 5
years of a divorce.
 The median length for men is 3 years and 4.4
years for women.
 The majority of those who remarry are between
the ages of 25-44.
 Whites are more likely to remarry than black
Americans.

59.  In a survey households formed by
remarriage, 8% included only biological
children of the remarried couple.
 Of the 49% of homes that include children
 24% included only the woman’s biological
children.
 3% included only the man’s biological children.
 9% included a combination of both spouse’s
children.

60. Children of divorce and remarriage
 Research suggests that while marital conflict
does not provide an ideal childrearing
environment, going through a divorce can be
damaging.
 Children are often confused and frightened by
the threat to their family security.
 They often feel responsible for the divorce and
attempt to bring their parents back together.

61.  Only in high-conflict homes to children benefit
from divorce.
 Studies also suggest that stress levels for
children are not improved when a child acquired
a stepfamily through marriage.
 Stepfamilies typically have a high level of interpersonal
conflict.

62.  Children’s ability to deal with a divorce may
depend on their age.
 Most difficult for school-aged children
 Older teenagers are more likely to recognize the
conflict that led to the divorce but may still feel
fear, loneliness, guilt, and pressure to choose
sides.
 Infants and preschool-age children may suffer
the heaviest impact from the loss of routine that
the marriage offered.

63.  Boys who live or have joint arrangements
with their fathers show less aggression than
those who are raised by their mothers only.
 Girls who live with or have joint
arrangements with their mothers tend to be
more responsible and mature than those
who are raised by their fathers only.
 Nearly ¾ of the children of parents who are
divorced live in a household headed by their
mother, leaving many boys without a father
figure residing in the home.

64. VIOLENCE AND ABUSE
 Domestic violence is a significant problem in
the US.
 It is often characterized as violence between
household or family members, specifically
spouses.
 Intimate partner violence is violence that
occurs between individuals who maintain a
romantic or sexual relationship.

65.  Women are the primary victims of intimate
partner violence.
 It is estimated that 1 in 4 women have
experienced some form of IPV in her lifetime,
compared to 1 in 7 men.
 IPV can include physical violence such as:
 Punching
 Kicking
 Threats
 Sexual abuse
 Emotional abuse

66.  57% of physical actions against women
involve physical violence.
 9% involve rate and physical violence.
 14% involved physical violence and stalking
 12% involved rape, physical violence, and
staking
 4% involved rape only.

67.  92% of physical acts against men are in the
form of physical violence.
 Less than 1% involves rape alone or in
combination.
 The rates of IPV for black women are higher
than that for white women.
 Black women 4.6 per 1,000 persons
 White women 3.1 per 1,000 persons
 Native Americans and Alaskan Native are up to
11.1 per 1,000 persons.

68.  IPV doubles for women in low-income
disadvantaged areas.
 Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk
of nonfatal abuse.
 Those who are separated report higher rates
of abuse.
 Cohabiters are more likely than those who
are married.

69.  Even when confronted by police about
abuse, 29% of victims denied that abuse
occurred.
 19% of their assailants were likely to admit to
abuse.
 Victims cite varied reasons why they are
reluctant to report abuse.

70. Reason Abuse is
Unreported
%
Females
% Males
Considered a Private Matter 22 39
Fear of Retaliation 12 5
To Protect the Abuser 14 16
Belief that Police Won’t Do
Anything
8 8

71.  Nearly ½ (42%) involves alcohol or drug
use—mainly because they lower inhibitions.
 Nearly all women who report serious
domestic problems exhibit symptoms of
major depression.
 Female victims of IPV:
 Are more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs
 Suffer from eating disorders
 Attempt suicide

72.  In 2010, there were more than 3 million
reports of child abuse involving an estimated
5.9 million children.
 Child abuse comes in several forms:
 Neglect (78.3%)
 Physical abuse (10.8%)
 Sexual abuse (7.6%)
 Psychological maltreatment (7.6%)
 Medical neglect (2.4%)

73.  81.1% of perpetrators are parents.
 6.2% are other relatives.
 Infants (under one year old) were the most
victimized population—20.6 per 1,000
infants.
 They are especially vulnerable to neglect
because they are entirely dependent on parents
for care.

74.  Physical abuse of infants often takes the
form of shaken-baby syndrome.
 A group of medical symptoms such as brain
swelling and retinal hemorrhage resulting from
forcefully shaking or impacting an infant’s head.
 Estimated at 1,400 babies die or suffer serious
injury from being shaken each year.
 Caused by:
 Stress
 Poor economy
 Unemployment
 Dissatisfaction with parental life

75.  Young parents are typically less capable of
coping with stresses.
 Teenage mothers are more likely to abuse
their children than older mothers.
 Children born to mothers who are 15 years old
or younger are twice as likely to be abused or
neglected by age 5 than children born to
mothers ages 20-21.

76.  Drug and alcohol abuse is a known
contributor to child abuse.
 Children of substance abusers have a high risk
of physical abuse 3 times greater than other
kids, and neglect is 4 times as prevalent in these
families.
 Other risk factors include:
 Social isolation
 Depression
 Low parental education
 A history of being mistreated as a child

77.  The long-term effects of child abuse impact
the physical, mental, and emotional well-
being of a child.
 Injury, poor health, and mental instability occur
at a high rate.
 80% of abused children meet the criteria of one
or more psychiatric disorders before the age of
21:
 Depression
 Anxiety
 Suicide behavior

78.  Behavioral consequences will affect almost
all of child abuse victims.
 They are 25% more likely, as adolescents, to
suffer from difficulties like poor academic
performance and teen pregnancy, or to engage
in behaviors like drug abuse and general
delinquency.
 They are also more likely to participate in risky
sexual acts (increasing chances of getting an
STD).
 Other risky behaviors include drug and alcohol
abuse