1. Chapter 15
Families and Intimate Relationships

2. Chapter Outline Families in Global Perspective
Theoretical Perspectives on Family
Developing Intimate Relationships and Establishing Families
Child-Related Family Issues and Parenting
Transitions and Problems in Families
Family Issues in the Future

3. Families in Global Perspective
The Census Bureau defines a family as consisting of two or more people who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption, and residing in the same housing unit.
Families are relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.

4. Kinship refers to a social network of people based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.
The family of orientation is the family into which a person is born and in which early socialization usually takes place.
The family of procreation is the family that a person forms by having or adopting children.

5. An extended family is a family unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who live in the same household.
A nuclear family is a family composed of one or two parents and their dependent children, all of whom live apart from other relatives.

6. Marriage is a legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual activity.
Monogamy is a marriage between two partners, usually a woman and a man.
Polygamy is the concurrent marriage of a person of one sex with two or more members of the opposite sex.
Polygyny is the concurrent marriage of one man with two or more women.
Polyandry is the concurrent marriage of one woman with two or more men.

7. Patrilineal descent is a system of tracing descent through the father’s side of the family.
Matrilineal descent is a system of tracing descent through the mother’s side of the family.
Bilateral descent is a system of tracing descent through both the mother’s and father’s sides of the family.

8. A patriarchal family is a family structure in which authority is held by the eldest male (usually the father).
A matriarchal family is a family structure in which authority is held by the eldest female (usually the mother).
An egalitarian family is a family structure in which both partners share power and authority equally.

9. Patrilocal residence refers to the custom of a married couple living in the same household (or community) as the husband’s parents.
Matrilocal residence is the custom of a married couple living in the same household (or community) as the wife’s parents.
A neolocal residence is the custom of a married couple living in their own residence apart from both the husband’s and the wife’s parents.

10. Endogamy is the practice of marrying within one’s own group.
Exogamy is the practice of marrying outside one’s own group.

11. Theoretical Perspectives on Family
Functionalist Perspectives
Functionalists emphasize the importance of the family in maintaining the stability of society and the well-being of individuals.
Families serve four key functions:
sexual regulation
socialization
economic and psychological support
provision of social status
The sociology of family is the subdiscipline of sociology that attempts to describe and explain patterns of family life and variations in family structure.

12. Conflict and Feminist Perspectives
Conflict theorists see families as sources of social inequality and conflict over values, goals, and access to resources and power.
Feminists emphasize inequality in families based on patriarchy rather than class.

13. Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives
Symbolic interactionists focus on what people think and say and do within relationships.
Postmodernist Perspectives
According to postmodern theories, we have experienced a significant decline in the influence of the family and other social institutions.

14. Developing Intimate Relationships and Establishing Families
Love and Intimacy
Work and home as separate spheres
Cohabitation and Domestic Partnerships
Cohabitation refers to two people who live together, and think of themselves as a couple, without being legally married.
Domestic partnerships are household partnerships in which an unmarried couple lives together in a committed, sexually intimate relationship and is granted some of the same rights and benefits as those accorded to married heterosexual couples.

15. Marriage Same-Sex Marriages
Homogamy refers to the pattern of individuals marrying those who have similar characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, religious background, age, education, or social class.
Same-Sex Marriages
Legal marriage
DOMA
Overall support

16. Housework and Child-Care Responsibilities
Dual-earner marriages are marriages in which both spouses are in the labor force.
The second shift refers to the domestic work that employed women perform at home after they complete their workday on the job.

17. Child-Related Family Issues and Parenting
Decisions to have children
Ideal family size
Reproductive technologies
Child-free and infertility
Adoption
Legal process
Step families
Teenage Childbearing
High rates, but declining
Consequences

18. Discussion
How could we decrease teen pregnancy rates?

19. Single-Parent Households
Increase
Consequences
Two-Parent Households
Decline
Shared parenting
Remaining Single
Single by choice

20. Discussion
Are children better off in two-parent families?

21. Living Arrangements of Children Under 18
Figure 15.1

22. Transitions and Problems in Families
Domestic violence refers to any intentional act or series of acts—whether physical, emotional, or sexual—by one or both partners in an intimate relationship that causes injury to either person.
Foster care refers to institutional settings or residences where adults other than a child’s own parents or biological relatives serve as caregivers.
Divorce is the legal process of dissolving a marriage that allows former spouses to remarry if they so choose.
Blended families are families which consist of a husband and wife, children from previous marriages, and children (if any) from the new marriage.

23. Family Issues in the Future
“Traditional” families
Economy
Changing structure

24. Quick Quiz

25. The concurrent marriage of one man with two or more women is:
polygamy
polyandry
polygyny
all of the choices
Answer: c
The concurrent marriage of one man with two or more women is polygyny.

26. A family structure in which the authority is held by the eldest female is:
a matriarchical family
a patriarchical family
a patrilocal family
a matrilocal family
Answer: a
A family structure in which the authority is held by the eldest female is a matriarchical family.

27. Families that consist of a husband, wife, and children from previous marriages and (if any) children from the new is called a:
boomerang family
reconstituted family
sandwich families
blended family
Answer: d
Families that consist of a husband, wife, and children from previous marriages and (if any) children from the new is called a blended family.

28. The family one is born into and which early socialization takes place is:
the family of orientation
the family of adoption
the family of procreation
the family of origin
Answer: a
The family one is born into and which early socialization takes place is the family of orientation.

29. According to functionalists, all of the following are key functions of families except the:
provision of social status
economic and psychological support
maintenance of workers so that they can function effectively in the workplace
sexual regulation and socialization of children
Answers: c
According to functionalists, maintenance of workers so that they can function effectively in the workplace is not a key functions of families.