The Changing Family
Chapter 10
The Nature of Families
• Definitions
• Kinship unit is a group whose members are
related to one another on the basis of blood ties,
adoption or marriage
• Nuclear family - basic family unit consisting of a
father, mother and children
• Extended family - parents, children,
grandparents, and other relatives who live in close
proximity to one another
The Nature of Families
• Definitions
• Modified extended family – individual nuclear
families with extended family ties and
relationships
• All societies tend to be organized around a system
of modified extended kinship
• Industrialization has made the family smaller and
more geographically and economically mobile
Adequate Family Functioning
• Families go through a number of stages:
» Early marriage
» Child rearing
» Empty nest
» Retirement
• Failure to adjust to the stages or to function
adequately often stems from external and internal
crises that impact the group
Adequate Family Functioning
• External crises are outside determinants that affect
the structure and function of the family
• Economic recession and the loss of
jobs
• War
• Internal crises arise within the family due to the
problems with a family member
• Physical
• Emotional
Adequate Family Functioning
• Sources of family stress and interpersonal
problems may reduce the family to an empty shell
• Empty shell marriages lack a sense of emotional
vitality
• Several factors contribute to the continuation of
empty shell marriages
» Habit
» Economic constraints
» Outside pressures to stay together
Effects of Women’s Employment
• Today over 71 percent of American women with
children under the age of 18 work
• With children under the age of 6, over sixty-four
percent work
• Social forces behind the increases in the number
of working women have been
» Women’s movement and increased
opportunities
» Need for income to maintain a middleclass lifestyle
Effects of Women’s Employment
• Attitudes about working mothers have not
changed as fast as employment trends
• Choice in working outside the home is related to
marital happiness
• Working wives often find themselves having to do
a “second shift”
» Job for eight hours a day
» Housework
Effects of Women’s Employment
• Husbands and men have adjusted by:
» Contributing more to household roles
» Taking on the house husband role
» Becoming autonomous - males
choosing a single life over lasting
relationships
Effects of Women’s Employment
• Juggling Work and Family Responsibilities
• There has been an increase in the hours that men
and women are putting in at work
» It is common to put in 50 hours a
week
» Work a number of jobs
• Stress from juggling family and work is related to
marital unhappiness
The Black Family
• The decline in in African American husband-andwife families is in part a function of
» Declining economic opportunities in
the central city
» Poverty
» Underground economy
The Black Family
• Single-parent households have increased.
» In 2006, 35 percent of African
American children were living with
both parents in comparison to 66
percent of Hispanic children and 74
percent of White children
• Major force affecting African American families is
the loss of jobs in cities
Divorce
• Divorce rate - measure of marriages that end in divorce in
society
• Divorce peaked in the 1980s and began to level off
• Highest rate of divorce occurs within the first three years
of marriage
• Strains of family early on
• Divorce is related to the effects of modernization
• Recent analyses of divorce rates reveal a “divorce divide” a widening gap between divorce rates among people with
high levels of education and those with less education
Divorce
• Explanations of Trends in Divorce Rates
• 1. No-fault divorce laws
2. Changing functions of the family
3. More geographic mobility
5. Reduced stigma attached to divorce
Divorce
• The Impact of Divorce
• Economic impact
» Divorced mothers are often forced
into poverty
• Children often experience divorce as the end of
life as they know it
• Children often feel:
» Fear, anger, depression, and confusion
Divorce
• The Impact of Divorce
• Single-parents often feel the strain of divorce in
three ways
• 1. Responsibility overload
• 2. Task overload
• 3. Emotional overload
Stepfamilies
• Nearly fifty percent of families in the United
States are stepfamilies
• Adjusting to new and blended family roles
» Authority conflicts between
stepchildren and step parents
» Adjusting to stepsiblings
» Adjusting to new household rules and
routines
Cohabiting Couples
• Cohabitation is most common among those under
age 25 and those over the age of 65
• Rate of cohabitation is increasing by
approximately 15 percent per year
• There are more than 3.5 million cohabitating
couples in the United States
• Many see cohabitation as a trial marriage
• Only 10 percent of cohabitating couples are
together after six years
Postponement of Marriage
•
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Americans are getting married later in life
Median age for women is 25.8 years
Median age for men is 27.1 years
Many are postponing marriage for:
» Educational goals
» Career goals
Postponement of Marriage
• Postponement of marriage has a number of
implications for the family:
» Fewer children
» Grandparenting at later ages
• Marriage squeeze - the later women wait to marry
the fewer eligible mates there are to choose from
Changing Norms of Parenthood
• Births to Unmarried Mothers
• Stigma attached to out-of-wedlock births has
declined in society
• Fewer children born out of wedlock are being
given up for adoption
• Stricter child support laws have emerged to assist
single mothers
• Weakening of marital norms is seen as having a
negative effect on the institution of marriage
Teenage Pregnancy
• Teenage fertility and childbearing rates have fallen
in the United States
• A persistent issue in the U.S. is if young woman
who become pregnant should be allowed to have
an abortion
• One study reported that if a teenage girl elects to
keep her baby, she is more likely to drop out of
school in comparison with those who have an
abortion or give their child up for adoption
Gay and Lesbian Families
• Gay and lesbian couples often face a number of
obstacles
• One of these issues is the legal status of gay
marriages and the rights it accords to married
couples
• Obstacles to adopting and rearing children
Homeless Families
• The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
estimates that about 750,000 people are homeless
on any given night in the United States
• Homeless is related to a number of crises
» Divorce
» Loss of Job
» Health of the breadwinner
» Poverty
» Family problems and violence
Homeless Families
• Shelter Poverty and Homelessness
• When families must pay more than 30 percent
of their monthly income for rent or other housing,
social scientists refer to them as “shelter poor.”
Family Violence
• Child Abuse
• Child abuse has reached epidemic proportions in
society
• Over 750,000 children are physically abused each
year
• Child abuse has become a more recognized
problem with the help of children’s rights and
advocacy groups
Family Violence
• Child Abuse
• Child abuse in a family is related to:
» A one-parent family
» Low socioeconomic status and low
parental education
» Authoritarian parenting
» Four or more children in a family and
receipt of some form of public
assistance
» The family changes its place of
residence frequently
Family Violence
• The higher rate of reported abuse among the poor
is related in part to their contact with official
agencies identifying abuse that often goes hidden
among other social classes
• Child abuse is also related to parents who are
extremely demanding and have unrealistic
expectations of what a child can do
Family Violence
• Spouse Abuse
• Spouse abuse is related to power and control
• Spouse abuse is a function of gender inequality
and patriarchy
• The cycle of abuse often involves
» Tension
» Belittlement
» Violence
» Remorse
» Reconciliation
Social Policy
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Divorce Law
No-fault divorce law
California in 1970 and then the rest of the states
The Ongoing Debate Over Divorce Law
Making divorce more difficult
Louisiana and Covenant Marriage Laws and
family values
Social Policy
• Divorce Law
• Alimony - the amount of money paid by one
partner to the other has been tied to fault in the
divorce
• Child Support
• Most states have instituted tougher collection
policies
• Stepped up efforts to collect child support
Social Policy
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Efforts to Reduce Teenage Pregnancies
Sex education and access to birth control
Child Care and Family Support
Policies to assist low-income families with
children
» Child care
» Health
• Family Leave Act
Social Policy
• Abstinence Only, Abstinence Not
• Congress is preparing to cut the funding for
so-called abstinence only programs.
• Despite the substantial social-scientific
evidence, it is unlikely that there will be Federal
support for increased access to birth control or sex
education directed toward teenagers.
Social Policy
• Child Care and Family Support
• The plea continues from social scientists for a
coherent public policy to assist low-income
families with children.
• Future Prospects
• One of the brightest areas of change is the
Family Leave Act