1. Chapter 11
Family

2. Chapter Outline Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
The U.S. Family Over the Life Course
Roles and Relationships in Marriage
Contemporary Family Choices
Problems in the American Family
Where This Leaves Us

3. Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
Universal Aspects
Replacing population through reproduction.
Regulating sexual behavior.
Caring for dependents – children, elderly, disabled.
Socializing the young.
Providing intimacy, belongingness, emotional support

4. Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
Family: A group of persons linked together by blood, adoption, marriage or quasi-marital commitment. Marriage: An institutionalized social structure that provides an enduring framework for regulating sexual behavior and childbearing.

5. Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
Cross-Cultural Variations
The importance of regulating sexual behavior, caring for dependents, socializing young, and providing emotional and financial security varies across societies and through time.
The variation depends societal needs.
◦ Ex: economic support more important in societies without government social services
◦ Ex: regulating sexual behavior more important in societies without contraception.

6. Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
Family Patterns
Extended family – a couple and their children live with other relatives.
Nuclear family – a couple and their children form an independent household living apart from other relatives.
Blended family – a couple with children born to one parent as well as children born to both parents.

7. Marriage and Family: Basic Institutions of Society
Marriage Patterns
Monogamy – marriage between one wife and one husband.
Polygamy - any form of marriage where one person has more than one spouse at a time.

8. Family Diversity - Polygamy
Some modern American families, like these fundamentalist Mormons, live a polygamous life despite legal and social opposition from most of their fellow citizens and from most other Mormons.

9. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Childhood
norms call for children to be sheltered but about 1 in 5 children are raised in poverty and suffer abuse.
28% U.S. children are born to single mothers.
Increasing numbers of pre-school children attend day care.

10. Percentage of All Births to Unmarried Women, 1980-2005: A comparative view
Pick up revised graph (Fig 11.1) : same graph as before, but new data and dates

11. Childhood - Daycare
As increasing numbers of U.S. women, including those with infants younger than age 1, enter the labor force, day-care centers become more important aspects of early childhood socialization.

12. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Adolescence
Contemporary society has little need for the contributions of you – encourage preoccupation with trivial matters (iPods, Cell Phone texting).
Adolescents are under constant pressure about the future.
Transition time filled with mixed messages ex: Be interested in opposite sex – but only engage in asexual behavior…Have fun in the present but worry about your future.

13. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Transition to Adulthood
Rites of Passage – some societies have formal rituals that signal the end of one status and the beginning of another in the life course.
In the U.S. adulthood usually means that a person has a job, lives independently and has enough money to support his/her family.
Recent changes: ◦ Economic crisis – 17% of 25 – 29 yr olds live with parents (2008); unemployment and high cost of living. ◦ Changing attitudes – extend schooling; delay marriage

14. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Early Adulthood
A key issue is deciding whom to marry.
Seeking Sexual and Romantic Relationships ◦ expectation of early marriage has decreased ◦ by the late 20s – 40% women and 30% men have never married. Ambivalent about marriage; but most looking for at least a temporary partner
◦ Propinquity (spatial nearness) is a big factor – frequent interaction, sign of social similarities

15. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Early Adulthood
Sorting through the Marriage Market
Homogamy – choosing a mate similar in status to oneself.
Endogamy – choosing a mate from within one’s own racial, ethnic, or religious group.
Heterogamy – choosing a mate who is different from oneself.
Exogamy – choosing a mate from outside one’s racial, ethnic, or religious group.

16. Connections: Personal Application
Your college education is likely to affect whom you marry.
Many people find a spouse in college classrooms or activities.
If you attend a college linked to your religion, race, or ethnic group, you are more likely to marry within your group.
If college throws you into contact with many others whose backgrounds are different from your own, you will be more likely to marry someone from a different background.

17. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Early Adulthood
Responding to Narrow Marriage Markets
A shortage of males employed in good jobs with adequate earnings sharply reduces the likelihood that a woman will marry or even live with a man outside of marriage
Differences in the availability of marriageable men account for at least 40% of the racial difference in overall marriage rates.

18. Intermarriage and Dating
Intermarriage and dating have become far more common and socially accepted over time. Native Americans and Asian Americans are most likely to marry outside their group.

19. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Middle Age
Between 45 – 60 is a quieter time – expectation of empty nest (children leave home)
Many families do not experience empty nest:
◦ economic crisis – many adult children live in parents home…and many middle aged parents have moved in with their adult children.
◦ extended families are increasing with cultural preferences of immigrant families and the effects of an aging population - care for aging parents.

20. The U.S. Family over the Life Course
Age 65 and beyond
If you live to age 65, you can expect to live an average of 18.7 more years – mostly healthy.
Men have shorter life span and tend to marry younger women – marriage is not equally available to aging women.
78% men aged are still married; 57% women of same age are still married.
Grandparent role important for satisfaction; also in provision of childcare

21. Roles and Relationships in Marriage
Gender roles in marriage
Men considered primary providers for their families, but in 25% of dual earner families, the wife out earns the husband.
Women do about 66% of housework; chances of happiness for both husband and wife greatest when housework evenly split.
Paid domestic labor reinforces gender, race and social class divisions  most employers are white middle class women…most labor are minority working class women

22. Roles and Relationships in Marriage
The Parental Role: A leap of Faith
Parenting - biggest risk most people will take.
Children are expensive, time-consuming, and stressful. There are uncertain returns.
Presence of children in home reduces marital happiness.
Most people desire and have children to accomplish a sense of family and love.

23. Roles and Relationships in Marriage
The Parental Role: A leap of Faith
Mothering v.s. Fathering…
Mothers are most likely to drop out of the labor force to care for infants and young children.
They are the ones most likely to care for sick children and to go to school conferences.
Fathers are most likely to carry the major burden of providing for their families.
About 80% of mothers are employed  has exerted pressure for fathers to increase their role in child care.

24. Mothers 80% of mothers work.
Fathers now take more responsibility for child care and household tasks than they did in previous generations.
Mothers still bear far more of household and childcare burdens, leaving many mothers overworked and feeling underappreciated.

25. Roles and Relationships in Marriage
The Parental Role: A leap of Faith
Stepparenting…
About 1/3 children will live with a stepparent before they are 18—most often with a mother and a stepfather.
Often stepparents are unsure what role they should take in their stepchildren’s lives; often their spouses and stepchildren are equally ambivalent.

26. Contemporary Family Choices
Marriage or Cohabitation
Cohabitation means living with a romantic/sexual partner before marriage
During the last 30 years, the chances that an individual will cohabit has increased more than 400% for men and 1,200% for women.
Approximately half of all recently married couples lived together beforehand.
Evidence suggests that cohabitation is an alternative to marriage that may erode the social need for marriage.
Deinstitutionalization of marriage – the gradual disintegration of social norms that undergird the need, the meaning, and role expectations of marriage

27. Contemporary Family Choices
Having Children…or Not
Nonmarital Births…
40% of all U.S. births are non-marital. Most of these are to women 20yrs of age and older.
Many women are electing to be single parents.
Many women having nonmarital births cohabit with the fathers.
Teen childbearing declined considerably between 1991 – 2005, but has risen slightly since. Teen mothers are more likely to be poor.

28. Connections: Historical Note
Today, more pregnant teenagers keep their babies without getting married.
Prior to the 1970s, girls who found themselves pregnant had three choices:
1. getting an abortion (usually illegal and sometimes life-threatening)
2. having a “shotgun” wedding
3. giving up their babies for adoption.
Those who chose the last option usually left their home towns so they could hide their pregnancy.

29. Contemporary Family Choices
Having Children…or Not
Delayed Childbearing…
Many women are electing to delay having children 5 – 10 years after marriage.
28% women 30 – 34 and 19% women 40 – 44 are childless.
Choosing Childlessness…
While many women will eventually want children, increasing numbers have decided that they are uninterested in having children.

30. Adoption
Birth control and abortion have reduced the number of unwanted babies, and fewer single mothers give up their babies.
International adoption is now popular among those who can afford it.
Practice raises questions about the Commodification of children – where children are treated as goods available for purchase.

31. Contemporary Family Choices
Work versus Family
69% of married women aged 25 to 34 work.
Many middle-class Americans must work early, late, and on weekends…and take work home to demonstrate that they are serious players.
Working-class Americans who have full-time jobs often must work overtime to earn enough to make ends meet. Others work more than one job.
Working-class and middle-class parents can experience a time bind at home.
But compared to 40 years ago, mothers spend as much time and fathers spend more time with their children.

32. Problems in the American Family
Violence in the Family
Each year, 1.5 million children are known to be sexually, physically, or emotionally abused by their parents or caregivers, with about 1/3 of these receiving serious physical injuries.
22% of women and 7% of men report being physically assaulted by a spouse or cohabitant of the opposite sex.
Violence almost as common among male homosexual couples as heterosexual couples.
Men more likely than women to batter their partners.
Violence among married couples has dropped by 50% over the last twenty years.

33. Problems in the American Family
Divorce
In the United States, more than 2 million adults and approximately 1 million children are affected annually by divorce.
Estimates indicate that 40 – 50% of first marriages today will end in divorce.
At the individual level, research shows six factors influence divorce:
1. Age at marriage 4. Education
2. Parental divorce 5. Race
3. Premarital childbearing 6. Religion

34. Problems in the American Family Divorce
Societal-level Factors…
Economic changes to tangible assets have made divorce less risky Ex. Middle class main assets are education and job experience. These are portable and cannot be shared. Therefore less loss in divorce.
Economic strain in lower class makes it more difficult to support family  divorce
Economic change in women’s employment make bad marriage less desirable.

35. Divorce Rates per 1,000 for Selected Countries, 1970–2006
Pick up Fig 11:4 with new data

36. Family Relationships
Despite the many social problems families face, there are also signs of health: the durability of the mother–child bond, the frequency of remarriage, the many stepfathers who willingly support other men’s biological children, and the frequency with which the elderly rely on and get help from their children.

37. Where This Leaves US…
Institution of Marriage and family meets universal needs of regulation of sexual behavior, reproduction, child care and socialization.
An array of types of families that meet social needs.
Changes to family lead to changes in childhood experiences. Many preschoolers will attend daycare.
Social change to lifecourse include delay in transition to adulthood; deferment of childbearing; empty nest unlikely
Fathers have increased involvement with housework and childcare, but Mothers still bear most burden
Cohabitation before marriage likely; maybe an alternative
Family violence is common occurrence in US homes

38. Quick Quiz

39. In most cultures, which institution has been assigned the functions of regulating sexual behavior, providing intimacy, and socializing the young?
government
religion
education
family

40. Answer: D
In most cultures, family has been assigned the functions of regulating sexual behavior, providing intimacy, and socializing the young.

41. Susan was attracted to Tim because they had so much in common in the way of religion, social class, age, and interests. What factor was in operation with Susan and Tim?
propinquity
homogamy
opposites attract
physical attractiveness

42. Answer: B
Susan was attracted to Tim because they had so much in common in the way of religion, social class, age, and interests. Homogamy was in operation with Susan and Tim.

43. A form of marriage in which there is only one husband and two or more wives is called:
serial monogamy.
monogamy.
polyandry.
polygyny.

44. Answer: D
A form of marriage in which there is only one husband and two or more wives is called polygyny.

45. According to your book, marital happiness is negatively affected by:
the presence of children.
the absence of children.
having a husband that takes an active role in childrearing.
nothing specific.

46. Answer: A
According to your book, marital happiness is negatively affected by the presence of children.