1. Social Institutions

2. Social institutions are established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political institutions.

3. Functions of Institutions
Simplify social behavior
Provide social relationships and roles
Act as agencies of coordination and stability for total culture
Control behavior
Example – Government

4. Global Trends – Age at marraiage

5. Total Fertility rate - global

6. Fertility rate – US

7. Age at marriage- US

8. How have these changes affected marriage and family?

9. Traditional idea of marriage Is idea of marriage changing?
A permanent relationship
A legal and social contract
Reproduction
Is idea of marriage changing?
Common law marriage
Polygamy
Gay couples
Marriage is a key social institution in all societies because marriages create families

10. Sociologist define family as…
Socially organized group (joined by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an emotional connection
Basic economic unit of the society
Provides security

11. Two basic forms of family
1. A family of orientation – determined by birth
2. Family of procreation – formed through marriage

12. What constitutes a family?
The American view
2010 Survey found
98% - traditional family
83% Unmarried couples with children
40% unmarried couple without children
64% gay couples with children
33% gay couples without children

13. Symbolic interactionist view
If you consider yourself as a family, you are a family (social construction of reality)
Census definition
“ A group of two people or more, related by birth marriage or adoption and residing together”

14. What constitutes marriage

15. Changing norms about marriage
2010 Survey
39% agreed that marriage is becoming obsolete
Why??
Cohabitation is on a rise

16. Marriage partners – Cultural norms
Monogamy – most common form (78% cultures)
Polygamy – parts of Africa and Asia and middle east
Polygyny – although sanctioned by culture – not common
Polyandry – very rare

17. Polygamy is felony in most US states

18. Residency and line of descent
Unilateral or bilateral?
Unilaetral
Partilineal – Partilocal residence
Matrilineal – Martilocal residence
Ambilinieal
Why is this important?? - Inheritance

19. A snapshot of changing family in media

20. Variation in family life
Ideal family (Census 2010)
99.8% believe in traditional family
However
66% live in household with two parents
3% children live with cohabitating parents
27% single parent families

21. The American Family today: Pew research center

22. Race and Family

23. Single parents Census data (2010)
27% children live in single parent households
23% live with mother (10% - cohabitating boyfriends)
4% live with fathers (20% cohabitating girlfriends)
Living with stepfather/ mother
4% (3 million children) live with guardians – 54% are guardians are grandparents)
Why is this relevant ?

24. Cohabitation

25. Cohabitation Estimated 7.5 million people in 2011 Changing perceptions
Only 38% think cohabitation negatively society (2010)
Who are those cohabitating
Majority non-Hispanic with no high school diploma and grew up in a single-parent households (census 2010)

26. Same-sex couples Since 2000, 50% increase in same sex marriages
Better reporting
Greater acceptance
1% US household are same-sex
Variation by sate

27. Staying Single 25-29 age group - never married (2010)
62% women (11% of total population of this age group)
48% men (19% of total population of this age group)
More acceptance for men than women
Labels for women – “Old maid”
Racial differences

28. Impact of cohabitation
Motivation
Save money
Trial run for marriage
Outcome
85% marry
Little effect on success of marriage
Delay in getting married

29. Family size is declining

30. Birth among unmarried women

31. Births outside marriage

32. Challenges family face
Divorce and remarriage
Steady increase in divorce, peaked in 1980
Greater acceptance
Trend towards decline
Increase in age at marriage
Increased education levels for those who marry

33. Intersection of Race and Class
Southern states have higher marriage and divorce rate
Highest among Native Americans and Alaskan natives, followed by African Americans and Whites
Highest among lower education level and those who marry young

34. Reasons for Divorce Financial stress
Births of children – financial and emotional stress (having twins)
Decline in marital satisfaction
Impact on children
They are more like to divorce

35. Remarriage 19% have second marriages
91% after divorce, 9% after death of spouse
Most marry within 5 years of marriage
Who remarry – more men or more women?

36. How family life has changed

37. How family life has changed

38. Problems within marriage and family
Domestic violence – Intimate partner violence
More women are victimized
1 in 4 women have experienced some IPV in lifetime
IPV often starts are emotional abuse and leads to other forms of abuse
Structural Functionalism cannot explain such events

39. Profile of IPV victims Who are they? IPV is grossly underreported Race
Income (unemployment)
High rates of depression
Where it happens? - mostly home
Often involves substance abuse
IPV is grossly underreported

40. 2010- 3.3 million reported cases of child abuse (5.9 million children)
Forms of Abuse
Neglect (78%)
Physical abuse (11%)
Sexual abuse (8%)
Psychological maltreatment(7%)
Medical neglect (2%)
Most neglected are infants – high dependency- shaken baby syndrome
81% perpetrators are parents

41. Causes Age of parents Financial stress Drug and alcohol use
Social isolation
Depression
Low parental education
History of child abuse

42. Effects
Effects on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing – injury, poor health and mental instability
80% will display depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation by age 21
25% will suffer from poor academic performace, teen pregnancy and other risky behaviours

43. U.S. High School Graduation Rate Hits New Record High
The nation's high school graduation rate hit 82 percent in , the highest level since states adopted a new uniform way of calculating graduation rates five years ago.

44. The achievement gap changes

45. College graduates- retention
About 59 percent of students who began seeking a bachelor's degree at a 4-year institution in fall 2007 completed that degree within 6 years. The graduation rate for females (62 percent) was higher than the rate for males (56 percent).

46. Race and education

47. Institution type and graduation

48. Graduation rate in 2 year colleges
At 2-year institutions overall, as well as at public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit 2-year institutions, the completion rate was higher for females than for males. At private nonprofit 2-year institutions, for example, 58 percent of females versus 46 percent of males completed a certificate or associate's degree within 150 percent of the normal time required.

49. Poverty and graduation rate

50. Cost of education
Sharp increase in the cost of college degrees since mid-1980s
No matching increase in Pell Grants
Student loans – 2013 the average was $29,000
Only 27% had jobs related to their major

51. Yet, education is important
Graduates earn more
Students gain “cultural capital” – college experience grooms students to learn values of professionalism
Informal education is also important for “cultural transmission”

52. Functions of education
Social placement
Education provides a means of upward social mobility
Places people with education in important positions

53. How education perpetuates inequality

54. How education perpetuates inequality
Class – parents expectation from children
Class – what parents can afford?
The home environment – what support do they have?
What “cultural capital” they have?
How “tracking” (gifted and talented programs) help some – “self-fulfilling prophecies”
Disparity in schools

55. Issues in education
Historically, providing equal education to all has been contested
Examples - Brown Vs Board
1957 racial segregation in schools
Today –
Education gap within public schools
Divide between public and private schools

56. School reforms
Coleman report – pre-school deficit and ‘Head Start Program’
Busing – Vanguard program
No child left behind Act – testing and accountability – funding requirement
Unintended consequence- teaching to test

57. Issues in Education Bilingual education
Controversy – English for integration
Common Core – issues with assessment
Issues with what is measured in standardized test
Charter schools