family commitments : making choices in changing society Family and Kinship Quaid-E-Azam Univesity Islamabad

1. Asad Ali
Family Commitments: Making
Choices in a Changing Society

2. Chapter Outline
– Defining Family
– Three Societal Trends that Impact Families
– The Freedom and the Pressure of Choosing
– Making Choices
– A Family of Individuals
– Marriages and Families: Four Themes

3. Defining Family
– Traditionally, both law and social science have specified that the family consists
of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
– The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as “a group of two or more persons
related by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing together in a household.”

4. Defining Family
– The authors of this textbook define family as: A
family is any sexually expressive, parent–child, or
other kin relationship in which people—usually
related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption—(1)
form an economic and/or otherwise practical unit
and care for any children or other dependents, (2)
consider their identity to be significantly attached
to the group, and (3) commit to maintaining that
group over time.

5. Issues for Thought: Which of
these is a Family?
– A husband and wife and their offspring.
– A single woman and her three young children.
– An eighty-four-year-old widow and her dog, Fido.
– A man and all of his ancestors back to Adam and Eve.
– The 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates (theme song: “We Are Family”).

6. Family Functions
Social scientists usually list three major functions filled by today’s families:
– Raising children responsibly
– Providing members with economic and other practical support
– Offering emotional security

7. Family Structure
Refers to the form a family takes, and varies according to the society in which it is
embedded:
– Extended Family
– Nuclear Family
– Postmodern Family

8. Extended Family
In preindustrial or traditional societies, the family structure involved whole kinship
groups.
The extended family of parents, children, grandparents, and other relatives
performed most societal functions, including economic production (e.g., the
family farm), protection of family members, vocational training, and
maintaining social order.

9. Nuclear Family
In industrial or modern societies, the typical family structure often became the
nuclear family (husband, wife, children).
Until about fifty years ago, social attitudes, religious beliefs, and law converged
into a fairly common expectation about what form the American family
should take: breadwinner husband, homemaker wife, and children living
together in an independent household—the nuclear family model.

10. Postmodern Family
Today, family members are not necessarily bound to one another by legal marriage,
blood, or adoption.
The term family can identify relationships beyond spouses, parents, children, and
extended kin. Individuals fashion and experience intimate relationships and
families in many forms.
As social scientists take into account this structural variability, it is not uncommon to
find them referring to the family as postmodern (Stacey 1990).
The term postmodern family came into use in order to acknowledge the fact that
families today exhibit a multiplicity of forms and that new or altered family
forms continue to emerge and develop.

11. Typical Families
– Today, only 7% of families fit the 1950s nuclear family ideal of married couple
and children.
– Dual-career families are common, and there are reversed-role families (working
wife, househusband).
– There are many different family forms: single-parent families, stepfamilies,
cohabiting heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian families, and three-generation
families.

12. American Households

13. Types of Families
– Today there are more single-
parent families, gay partners
and parents, remarried
families, and families in which
adult children care for their
aging parents.

14. Facts About Families: American
Families Today
Fertility has declined. After a high of 3.6 in 1957, the total fertility rate— the average
number of births that a woman will have during her lifetime— has been at about 2
over the past twenty years (Dye 2008; U.S. Census Bureau 2010b, Table 83).
Parenthood is often postponed. About 19 percent of women reach their forties
without bearing a child (Dye 2008).
The nonmarital birth rate has risen over the past sixty years. Compared to 4 percent
in 1950, more than one- third (38 percent) of all U.S. births today are to unmarried
mothers (U.S. Census Bureau 2010b, Tables 80, 85).

15. Facts About Families: American
Families Today
Same-sex couples—some of them legally married—are increasingly visible. About
565,000 same-sex couple households existed in 2008 (Gates 2009b). It’s estimated
that about one-fifth of male same-sex partner households and one-third of female
same-sex households include children (Rosenfeld and Byung-Soo 2005).
The remarriage rate is has declined in recent decades but remains significant.
Among the divorced, about 52 percent of men and 44 percent of women remarry.
In 2004, 12 per- cent of all adult men and 13 percent of women had been married
twice. Three percent of men and of women had married three or more times
(Edwards 2007).

16. Relaxed Institutional Control
over Relationship Choices
Family is understood to be a social institution.
Social institutions are patterned and largely predictable ways of thinking and
behaving that are organized around vital aspects of group life and serve
essential social functions.

17. Relaxed Institutional Control
over Relationship Choices
Choices in regard to family have become less predictable, and individuals have
differing ideas about one’s obligations to family and society.
We are witnessing an ongoing social trend that involves increasingly relaxed
institutional control over relationship choices.

18. Relaxed Institutional Control
over Relationship Choices
How we view this change can be understood via two different perspectives:
– Family Decline Perspective
– Family Change Perspective

19. Family Decline Perspective
Critics have described the relaxation of institutional control over relationships and
families as “family decline” or “breakdown.”
Claims that cultural change toward excessive individualism and self-indulgence has
led to high divorce rates and could undermine responsible parenting.
Additionally, fewer family households contain children, thus reducing the child-
centeredness of society, and overall, weakening the institution of marriage.

20. Family Change Perspective
Others agree that changes have occurred with family, but argue that change
represents the historical evolution of family as a social construct.
Advocates argue that we need to view the family from an historical standpoint.
Families in the past experienced similar challenges in regards to the consequences
of illness, death, social class, and race/ethnicity upon the ability to meet the
functions of a family.

21. Family Change Perspective
Today’s family forms need to be seen as historically expected adjustments to
changing conditions in the wider society, including the decline in
manufacturing jobs, the need for more education, the entry of women into the
labor force, and the increased insecurity of middle- and even upper-class jobs.
Economic trends as well as cultural change accounts for subsequent changes in the
family.
Family is an “adaptable institution” and, as such, changes in response to larger social
change.

22. Three Societal Trends that
Impact Families
1. New communication and reproductive technologies
2. Changes in America’s race/ethnic composition
3. Economic uncertainty

23. New Communication and
Reproductive Technologies
Communication technologies, such as Facebook, email, and webcams allow greater
opportunity for support and connection.
It has also been the source of concern and conflict for families, as such information
contradicts values and norms encouraged within the family group.

24. New Communication and
Reproductive Technologies
Reproductive technologies allow increased opportunity for creating families.
Medical advancements have made it possible for infertile, single, and
homosexual couples to experience biological parenthood.
Additionally, such advancements raise important family and ethical questions, as
well as point out social class inequality as it relates to the costs of such
procedures.

25. Changes in America’s
Race/Ethnic Composition
The United States is seeing greater and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.
Making up about one-third of the U.S. population today, racial and ethnic
minorities are projected to reach 50% of the population by about 2042.
As a result, there is greater variation in the structure, form, and experience of
family life.

26. Economic Uncertainty
The recession that began in 2008 has led to or may lead to various changes
in the family, including but not limited to the following:
– Delayed marriages/decrease in marriage rates
– A decline in birth rates
– Changes in educational opportunities afforded by parents
for their children
– Increased incidence of homelessness, extended families,
boomerang kids, and intergenerational households

27. Making Choices
– People make choices even when they are not aware of it.
– There are two forms of decision making:
– Choosing by default
– Choosing knowledgeably

28. Choosing by Default
– Choices people make when they are not aware of alternatives or when they
pursue the path of least resistance.
– Sometimes, college students choose their courses or even their majors by default.
– Many decisions concerning marriages and families are made by default.

30. Choosing Knowledgeably
– Two components in choosing knowledgeably:
– Recognizing as many options or alternatives as
possible
– Recognizing the social pressures that may influence
personal choices
– One aspect of making knowledgeable choices is considering the consequences
of alternatives rather than gravitating toward the one that seems most
attractive.

31. A Family of Individuals
Family values such as family togetherness, stability, and loyalty focus on the family
as a whole.
Placing family wellbeing over individual interests and preferences is termed
familism.

32. Familistic (Communal) Values
– Familistic values such as family togetherness, stability, and loyalty focus on the
family as a whole.
– They are communal values and emphasize the needs, goals, and identity of the
group.

33. Individualistic Values
– Just as family values permeate American society, so do individualistic (self-
fulfillment) values.
– These values encourage people to think in terms of personal happiness and
goals and the development of a distinct individual identity.
– An individualistic orientation gives more weight to the expression of individual
preferences and the maximization of individual talents and options.

34. Archival Family Function
– Families perform a special archival function.
– Events, rituals, and histories are created and preserved,
and, in turn, become intrinsic parts of each individual.
– These sisters are sharing memories recorded in family
photos.

35. Facts About Families: Focus on
Children
1. At any given time, a majority of children live in two-parent households.
– In 2008, 70% of children under eighteen lived with two parents—and 68%,
with two married parents.
– 26% of children lived with only one parent (23% with mother; 4% with
father).
– Another 4% did not live with either parent.

36. Facts About Families: Focus on
Children
2. Even in two-parent households, there is considerable variation in children’s
living arrangements.
– A 2001 study on the living arrangements of children in two- parent
households found 88%.

37. Facts About Families: Focus on
Children
3. Individuals experience a variety of living arrangements throughout childhood.
– A child may live in an intact two-parent family, a single-parent household,
with a cohabitating parent, and in a remarried family in sequence.
– About half of all American children are expected to live in a single-parent
household at some point in their lives, most likely in a single-mother
household.

38. Facts About Families: Focus on
Children
4. Children are more likely to live with a grandparent today than in the
recent past.
– In 1970, 3% of children lived in a household containing a grandparent,
but by 2008 that rate had more than doubled, to 9%.
– In about a quarter of the cases, grandparents had sole responsibility for
raising the child, but many households containing grandparents are
extended family households that include other relatives as well.

39. Facts About Families: Focus on
Children
5. Although most parents are employed, children are more likely than the
general population to be living in poverty.
– The poverty rate of children has stood at about 18% over the past ten years,
whereas that of the general adult population is about 12% and that of the
elderly, about 10%.
– The child poverty rate is lower now than its peak of 22.3% in 1983, but higher
than in 1970.

40. Marriage and Balance
– George and Gaynel Couran were married in 1916. “That was
the girl for me. I got the woman I wanted,” said George at the
couple’s eightieth wedding anniversary. The Courans learned
to balance individualism and familism over the course of
their marriage.

41. Marriages and Families:
Four Themes
1. Personal decisions must be made throughout the life course.
• Decision making is a trade-off; once we choose an
option, we discard alternatives.
• No one can have everything.
• The best way to make choices is knowledgeably.

42. Marriages and Families:
Four Themes
2. People are influenced by the society around them.
• Cultural beliefs and values influence our attitudes and decisions.
• Societal or structural conditions can limit or expand our options.

43. Marriages and Families:
Four Themes
3. We live in a changing society, characterized by increased ethnic, economic,
and family diversity; by increased tension between familistic and
individualistic values; by decreased marital and family permanence; and by
increased political and policy attention to the needs of children.
– This situation can make personal decision making
more difficult and more important.

44. Marriages and Families:
Four Themes
4. Personal decision making feeds into society and changes it.
– We affect our social environment every time we make a choice.
– Making family decisions can mean choosing to become politically involved in
order to effect family-related social change.
– Making family choices according to our values gives our family lives greater
integrity.