1. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Family
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

2. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Basic Concepts
Family
A social institution found in all societies that unites people into cooperative groups to oversee the bearing and raising of children
Kinship
A social bond, based on blood, marriage, or adoption
Family Unit
A social group of two or more people, related by blood, marriage, or adoption, who usually live together
Families of orientation
The family you are born into
Families of procreation
The family you form in order to have or adopt children
Families of affinity
People with or without blood ties who feel that they belong together and want to define themselves as a family
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

3. Families: Global Variations
Extended family
Family unit that includes parents and children as well as other kin
Also called “consanguine families”
Nuclear family
Also called “conjugal family”
Composed of one or two parents and their children
The predominant family form
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

4. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Marriage Patterns
Marriage
Legally sanctioned relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, as well as sexual activity and childbearing, that people expect to be enduring
Illegitimacy: out of wedlock children
Matrimony: the “condition of motherhood”
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

5. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Marriage Patterns
Endogamy
Marriage between people of the same social category
Limited opportunities for marriage
Exogamy
Marriage between people of different social categories can help form alliances
Marriage partners
Monogamy: marring one other person
Serial monogamy: monogamy + divorce & remarriage
Polygamy: marrying three or more people
Polygyny: marrying more than one female
Polyandry: marrying more than one male
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

6. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Residential Patterns
PATRILOCALITY
With or near the husband’s family
MATRILOCALITY
With or near the wife’s family
NEOLOCALITY
Setting up house apart from both families
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

7. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DESCENT
How members of a society trace kinship over generations
Importance includes passing on property and recognition as a family member
Three types:
Patrilineal descent –tracing kinship through men
Matrilineal descent – tracing kinship through women
Bilateral descent – tracing kinship through both men and women
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

8. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Global Map (p. 474) Marital Form in Global Perspective Monogamy is the only legal form of marriage throughout the Western Hemisphere and in much of the rest of the world. In most African nations and in Southern Asia, however, polygamy is permitted by law. In many cases, this practice reflects the historic influence of Islam, a religion that allows a man to have up to four wives. Even so, most marriages in these countries are monogamous, primarily for financial reasons. Source: Peters Atlas of the World (1990).
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

9. Structural-Functional Analysis of the Family
The family serves basic functions
Socialization – creating well-integrated members of society
Regulation of sexual activity – maintenance of kinship order and property rights, incest taboos
Social placement - births to married couples are preferred in societies
Material and emotional security – home can be a haven for people
Critical evaluation
Glosses over great diversity of family life, how other institutions are taking over its roles & negative aspects like patriarchy and family violence
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

10. Social-Conflict Analysis of the Family
The family perpetuates social inequality:
Property and inheritance – concentrates wealth and reproduces class structure
Patriarchy – to know their heirs men must control women who still bear the brunt of child rearing and housework duties
Racial & ethnic inequality – endogamous marriage shores up racial hierarchies
Critical evaluation
Ignores that families carry out functions not easily accomplished by other means
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

11. Micro-Level Analysis of the Family
Symbolic-Interaction:
Opportunities for sharing activities helps build emotional bonds
Social-Exchange:
Courtship & marriage as a negotiation to make the “best deal” on their partner
Critical evaluation
Misses the bigger picture, family life is similar for people in similar social backgrounds and varies in predictable ways
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

12. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
STAGES OF FAMILY LIFE
Courtship
Arranged marriages versus romantic love
Homogamy: marriage between people with same social traits
Settling in
Ideal vs. Real marriage
Childrearing
Industrialization transformed children from assets to liabilities
Later life
Empty nest
Sandwich generation – spends as many years caring for their children as for their aging parents
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

13. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Applying Sociology (p. 481) Who’s Minding the Kids? Working mothers report that a majority of their young children receive care in the home.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

14. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
POWER, GENDER, AND MENTAL HEALTH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DEPRESSION IN MARRIAGES CAN BE IDENTIFIED IN VARIOUS MARRIAGE TYPES
Conventional
Husband employed while wife stays home
Low to moderate depression for both partners
Strained conventional
Wife joins husband in labor force out of necessity, and does housework at home
Moderate depression for wife, but high depression for husband who feels like a failure
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

15. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
U.S. Families:
Social Class
Ethnicity and Race
American Indian Families
Latino Families
African American Families
Ethnically and Racially Mixed Marriages
Gender
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

16. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Figure (p. 485) Divorce Rate for the United States, Over the long term, the U.S. divorce rate has gone up. Since about 1980, however, the trend has been downward. Source: Munson & Sutton (2005).
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

17. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DIVORCE
In the U.S. nine out of ten persons will marry. Four out of these marriages will end in divorce. Factors include:
Individualism on the rise
Romantic love often subsides
Women are less dependent upon men
Many of today’s marriages are stressful
Divorce is socially acceptable
Legally, a divorce is easier to get
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

18. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
REMARRIAGE
Four out of five people who divorce remarry, most within five years.
Remarriage often creates blended families, composed of children and some combination of biological parents and stepparents.
Although blended families require that members adjust to their new circumstances, they offer both young and old the change to relax rigid family roles.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

19. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Violence Family
Against women
Of 791,000 reported accounts of abuse between intimate partners, 85% are against women
32 percent of all women murdered are the victims of their partners, or ex-partners
All states have marital rape laws, half have “stalking laws” on the books
Against children
3 million children a year are abused, 1 million of these involve serious harm including 1,100 deaths
Abusers are as likely to be women as men with no simple stereotype
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

20. Alternative Family Forms
One-parent families
28 percent of U.S. Families with children under 18 have only one parent in the household
75 percent of these families are headed by women
Cohabitation
10 percent of all couples, or 5.6 million, only 50% decide to marry
Gay and lesbian couples
Although some European countries accept same-sex marriage the U.S. Congress has banned it
Singlehood
In % of U.S. Women aged were single, by 2003 the number had risen to 75%
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

21. New Reproductive Technologies
1978, “test-tube baby.
In vitro fertilization, is where doctors unite a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm “in glass” rather than in a woman’s body.
The ethics of new reproductive technologies.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition

22. FAMILIES AND PREDICTIONS
Divorce rates remain high
More equality between sexes
Family life will be variable
All kinds of units will be called families
Men will continue to play a limited role in child rearing
Many dads will remain absent from household scenes
Economic changes will impact families and reform marriage
Less quality time as work demands more from parents
New reproductive technologies
Ethical concerns about what can and what should be done
Sociology, Eleventh Edition