Ch. 10: Family

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Ch. 10 Family

• Global perspective
• Family difficult to define
• Western view
• Polygyny- husband has more than one wife
• Polyandry- wife has more than one husband
• Trobriand Islanders

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• Family 2 or more people who consider themselves
  related by blood, marriage, or adoption
• Household people who occupy the same housing
  unit or living quarters
• Nuclear family
• Extended family
• Family of orientation
• Family of procreation
• Marriage a groups approved mating arrangements,
  marked by a ritual

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• Mate selection- norms of who marries whom
• Endogamy
• Exogamy
• Incest taboo
• Descent- how related to relatives
• System of descent
• Bilateral system
• Patrilineal system
• Matrilineal system

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• Inheritance- rights of inheritance follow lines
  of descent
• Authority
• Patriarchy- authority vested in males
• U.S. patterns becoming more egalitarian
• Naming patterns reflect patriarchy

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Functionalism

• Family is universal b/c it fulfills basic needs
• Economic production
• Socialization of children
• Care of the sick and aged
• Recreation
• Sexual control
• Reproduction

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• Functions of the incest taboo
• Avoid role confusion
• Exogamy
• Extends social networks of bride and groom
• Dysfunctions
• Isolation of nuclear family
• Emotional overload

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Conflict theory

• Gender and power
• Power struggle over housework
• Arlie Hochschild- the second shift
• Affects marital relationship and wifes
  self-concept
• Men engage in strategies of resistance
• Waiting it out
• Playing dumb
• Needs reduction
• Substitute offerings

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Symbolic interactionism

• Gender and meanings of marriage
• Closer husband and wifes earnings, more likely
  share housework
• Husband earns less than wife, does least amt. of
  housework

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The family life cycle

• Love and courtship in global perspective
• Romantic love- 88 of societies
• Role of love differs from one society to another
• Sexual attraction and labels
• Love and arranged marriage in India

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• Marriage
• Love is socially channeled
• Homogamy- tendency of people w/ similar
  characteristics to marry one another
• Propinquity (spatial nearness)
• 94 of Americans marry someone from same racial
  background

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• Childbirth
• Education and income relationship
• Marital satisfaction
• Social class affects how couples adjust to
  arrival of children
• Working class vs. middle class

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• Child rearing
• 3 of 5 U.S. mothers work for wages
• Married vs. single mothers similar child care
  arrangements
• Day care
• Nannies
• Social class- parents socialize their children
  into the norms of their work worlds
• Birth order- tendencies
• First vs. second or later born

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Family in later life

• The Empty Nest
• Married couples domestic situation after the
  last child has left the home
• Difficult time of adjustment for women?
• Rubin found that womens satisfaction generally
  increases when last child leaves the home

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• The not-so-empty nest
• Prolonged education
• Household costs
• 42 of all U.S. 24-29 year olds live w/ their
  parents (boomerang children)
• Widowhood
• Women more likely than men
• Deal w/ who am I again

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Diversity in U.S. families

• Social class is primary distinction
• African American families
• Upper vs. middle class
• Poverty- men unemployed, have few skills, women
  likely single mothers
• 45 of families headed by women
• Fictive kin- stretching of kinship
• Marriage squeeze- imbalance in sex ratio

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• Latino families
• Social class and country of origin significant
• Cubans more likely headed by married couple than
  Puerto Rican families
• Culture- language, religion, and family
  orientation
• Machismo- emphasis on male strength and dominance

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• Asian American families
• Structure almost identical to white families
• 80 married couples, 13 female-headed
• 20 countries and cultures
• Nuclear family w/ Confucian values
• More permissive than Anglos in child rearing
• Native American families
• Conflict- traditional values or assimilate
• Permissive parenting
• Elders play active role in family life

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• One-parent families
• 1970- 85 lived w/ both parents
• 2000- 69 lived w/ both parents
• High divorce rate and increase in births to
  unmarried women
• Strain and poverty- most one parent families
  headed by women
• Kids more likely drop out of school, get
  arrested, have emotional problems
• Cycle of poverty

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• Families w/out children
• About 20 of married women do not give birth
• Education
• Race-ethnicity
• Why remain childless by choice?
• Not by choice- adoption, surrogate mothers, high
  tech reproduction

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• Blended families
• Members were once part of other families
• Gay and lesbian families
• 1989- Denmark first to legalize same sex marriage
• 2000- Vermont first legalized gay unions
• Uneven distribution in U.S.
• 1/5th previously married to heterosexuals
• Have children?
• 22 lesbian couples, 5 gay couples

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Trends in U.S. families

• Postponing marriage
• Cohabitation
• Adults living together in a sexual relationship
  w/out being married
• Change in views on sexual morality
• High divorce rate marriage is fragile
• 8 X more common today than 30 yrs ago
• Essential difference?
• Substitute for, step towards, trial,
  coresidential dating

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• Unmarried mothers
• Industrialized nations experienced sharp
  increases in births to single women
• Customs/values play large role
• Grandparents raising grandkids
• Skipped generation families
• Parents are ill, homeless, incarcerated, addicted
  to drugs
• Sandwich generation and elder care
• Responsible for own kids and aging parents

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• Divorce
• Problems in measurement
• ½ as many divorces are given each year as
  marriages performed
• When look at entire pool, divorce rate is 2
• Varies by where you live and race-ethnicity
• Symbolic interactionism and the misuse of
  statistics
• Self-fulfilling prophecy

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• Children of divorce
• More hostility, anxiety, dont do as well in
  school (accurate study?)
• Conflict ridden intact families vs. kids of
  divorce
• Live w/ same sex parent better adjustment
• As adults, less likely marry, more likely divorce

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• The Absent Father/ Serial Fatherhood
• Divorced father maintains high contact 1st year
  or two after divorce-gt meets new wife
• Only 1/6 of kids who live apart from dad see him
  every week
• Most divorced fathers stop seeing their kids
  altogether

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• The Ex-Spouses
• Spouse who initiates divorce gets over it sooner
• Cost of living increases
• Remarriage
• Most who divorce remarry, likely remarry other
  divorced people
• Men more likely than women to remarry
• Bring kids into new marriage, more likely to
  divorce again

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Two sides of family life

• Battering (spouse abuse)
• Husbands and wives equally likely attack one
  another
• Wives more often seek medical attention
• Why stay in abusive relationship?
• Child abuse
• Each year about 3 million U.S. kids are reported
  as victims of abuse/neglect

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• Marital rape (intimacy rape)
• 14 of married women report that their husbands
  have raped them
• Most commonly occur during a separation or break
  up of a marriage
• 3 types- nonbattering rape, battering rape,
  perverted rape
• Incest
• Sexual relations between certain relatives
• More common when socially isolated
• Most common offenders?

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• Successful marriages
• 2/3 married Americans report they are very
  happy w/ their marriages
• Long term marriages- 15 years
• 351 couples interviewed
• 300 happy, 51 unhappy
• Why stay together?
• What makes a happy marriage?
• Spend time together, express appreciation,
  committed to promoting one anothers welfare,
  religious, deal w/ crisis in positive manner

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