Marriages and Families:
Changes, Choices, and Constraints
Seventh Edition
Nijole V. Benokraitis
Chapter One
The Changing Family
What Is a Family?
Families are more fluid than they were
in the past.
Many changes in the family reflect
adaptations to larger societal
transformations.
As a country, we continue to cling to a
number of myths about the families of
past generations.
What Is a Family?
The meaning of family changes over
time and contexts and cultures.
There is no standard universal definition
of a family; it exists in many forms and
arrangements are often complex.
What Is a Family?
For the purposes of this class, a family
is an intimate group of two or more
people who
– Live together in a committed relationship.
– Care for one another and any children.
– Share activities and close emotional ties.
What Happens
in the Future?
Definitions of the family may become even
more complex in the future. For some,
family includes fictive kin who are
accepted as part of the family group but
have no blood ties.
Because of the recent rise in single
parenthood, fictive kin have become more
important in our overall view of the family.
Family Functions
No matter the culture, family provides
certain functions for society and for its
own members.
Family forms vary across cultures and
even within cultures.
Globally, family provides five very basic
and important functions.
Five Functions of the Family
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Regulation of sexual activity
Procreation and socialization
Economic security
Emotional support
Social class placement
Regulation of Sexual Activity
The family provides norms for sexual activity
including the incest taboo.
The incest taboo forbids people who are too
closely related by blood from having
sexual activity and producing children—
children from these unions can have an
increased risk of birth defects.
Families also prevent doubts about the
legitimacy of children and property rights
in some cultures.
Procreation and Socialization
Procreation is an essential function of
the family because it ensures that
society will continue.
Through socialization, children learn
the rules and customs of their culture
and the first place they are socialized
is in the family.
Economic Security
The family is an important economic unit that
provides financial security and stability.
Families provide for their own physical
survival.
There are several family forms where one or
both parents work outside the home, but
more and more in our society it is becoming
imperative that both parents work at fulltime jobs to support their family.
Emotional Support
Emotional support is probably one of the most
important aspects of family. Charles Horton
Cooley proposed the concept of primary
groups and said that family is the main
primary group in every society.
Our families are our emotional steadfast and
enduring anchor throughout our lives.
Social Class Placement
A social class is a category of people who
have a similar standing or rank in society.
We are all born into a specific social class
based on things like our parents’ income,
education, job, attitudes, and values.
Social class affects many aspects of family
life.
What Is Marriage?
Marriage is a socially approved mating
relationship that people expect to be
stable and enduring. Some form of
marriage is practiced in every society,
although there are many forms.
What Is Marriage?
Ceremonial marriage is one in
which the couple follows
procedures specified by the state
or other jurisdiction. It is like a
legal contract.
What Is Marriage?
Common-law marriages are ones in
which people establish a relationship
and consider themselves husband
and wife, however, they have never
performed a ceremony to solidify their
commitment.
–Generally there are three requirements for common-law
marriages:
•They must live together.
•They must present themselves as husband and
wife.
•They can have no future plans to marry—they
consider themselves married already.
Endogamy and Exogamy
Endogamy requires people to marry or have
sexual relations within a certain group.
These might include racial or ethnic groups
or clans or tribes.
Exogamy permits marriage outside of one’s
own group. For example in the United
States, 24 states prohibit marriage between
first cousins.
Even when there are no “laws” regarding who
we can marry, societal norms and traditions
often guide who we marry.
Nuclear and Extended
Families
Western societies tend to have nuclear
families that are made up of married
parents and their biological or adopted
children.
In much of the rest of the world, however,
extended families are much more
common, where parents and children and
other kin such as aunts, uncles, and
cousins all live under the same roof.
Nuclear and Extended
Families
Extended families, however, are becoming
more common in industrialized countries
as single-parent families become more
common and need more support.
Because the rates of unmarried people who
are living together are high, nuclear
families comprise only 23% of all U.S.
families, down from 40% in 1970.
Where Do Families Live?
In a patrilocal residential pattern, the
newly married couple lives with the
husband’s family.
In a matrilocal residential pattern, the
couple lives with the wife’s family.
In a neolocal residential pattern, the
couple sets up its own household.
– Often residential patterns reflect who
has authority in the family.
Monogamy and Polygamy
In monogamy, one person is
married exclusively to one other
person.
In the United States, because
divorce and remarriage rates are
high, serial monogamy is
practiced. We are married to only
one person at a time, but in at
least half of marriages, we are
married to more than one person
over our lifetime.
Monogamy and Polygamy
Polygamy is when a man or a
woman has two or more spouses.
Over 1,000 cultures worldwide allow
some form of polygamy.
Polygyny
Polyandry
The Family and Society
Families are largely influenced by the
society they live in and the societal
changes going on around them.
Because much of the world’s population
lives in developing countries, many of
the world’s children live in extended
families.
By contrast, in the U.S. (by 2007) one in
four children lives in a mother-only
home.
The Family and Society
Many people are concerned about the
demise of the nuclear family.
However, many social scientists
contend that seeing the nuclear family
as the only “natural” kind of family
ignores other types of families, such
as gay and lesbian families.
Diversity of Family Life
Clearly, there are many family forms
throughout the world and we cannot
measure any one type against another
type.
We sometimes think of “idealized”
families as what we would call
“nuclear families” but these
expectations are changing as well.
Myths about Families
Myths about families can be
functional and dysfunctional.
Myths are dysfunctional when they
have negative consequences that
disrupt a family.
Myths can be perpetuated by the
mass media and we can try to live
up to these “idealized” standards of
family behavior and function.
Myths Abound
There are several types of myths about
families in our society:
– Myths about what is natural—for
instance is it “natural” to grow up and
get married and have a family?
– Myths about the self sufficient
family—most families need some
support at one time or another
during their lifetime.
Myths Abound
–Myths about the family as a loving
refuge—of course one of the main
functions of families is to provide
emotional support, but family also
tends to be the most violent social
system in our society.
–Myths about the perfect marriage or
the perfect family—often our
expectations about marriage and the
reality we face when we get married
clash.
Three Opposing Views
The family is deteriorating:
This view of the family says that
divorce, economic decline, and the
decline of two-parent intact families
have hurt the institution of family.
Three Opposing Views
The family is changing:
This view looks at the changes in
family life as just that, changes.
Proponents of this view say that
families are indeed changing, but
adapting, to a new economic
environment in which it is necessary
for both parents to work outside the
home.
Three Opposing Views
The family is stronger than ever:
This views the family as much more
loving than it was in the past.
Because people are living longer,
more generations are getting to
know one another and becoming
stronger family units.
Trends in Changing Families
The family is changing due to
demographic transformations. The
racial and ethnic composition of
families and economic transformations
all play a role in these changes.
Demographic Changes
U.S. birthrates have declined in recent
years.
The average age of the population has
risen from 17 in the mid-1800s to 37 in
2007!
Both of these phenomenon have
changed society and the way families
live.
Other Changes
Other changes that have impacted families in
the last 50 years are:
– Changes in family and non-family households
(see following slide)
– Singles and cohabiting couples (see next slide)
– Marriage-Divorce-Remarriage (see next slide)
– Employed mothers (see next slide)
– One-parent families (see next slide)
– Older people (see next slide)
Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Ethnic families are booming. America’s
multicultural umbrella includes about 150
distinct ethnic or racial groups. By 2025,
only 58% of the population will be white.
Because of huge waves of immigrations, one
in five people are either foreign born or firstgeneration U.S. citizens.
Ethnic families speak many languages, thus
making the U.S. more multilingual.
Why Are Families Changing?
Micro-level influences on the family:
– There are many influences on the family
at the micro-level. Decisions family
members make affect everyone in the
family unit, however, we must not blame
all change on personal choice. There
are many macro-level influences over
which the family or the individual has no
control.
Macro-Level Influences
Economic Forces
In the later part of the 20th century,
many manufacturers moved their
factories overseas to save money,
thus unemployment rates went up,
especially for low-skilled jobs.
Macro-Level Influences
Technological Innovations
We live longer. Medical technology
allows us to live full lives, however,
poverty becomes an issue for many
elderly.
–Other technological changes like
email, the Internet, instant messaging,
texting, and cell phones have helped
and hurt our families and their ties to
each other and to outside resources.
Other Macro-Level
Influences
The mass media, including television and
video games, have had a huge impact on
our overall culture. Popular culture which
includes television, the Internet, pop music,
magazines, radio, advertising, sports,
hobbies, fads, fashion, etc., is especially
influential in informing and misinforming us
about family and culture.
Other Macro-Level
Influences
Social Movements
– Over the years, a number of social
movements have changed family life,
including the civil rights movement,
the gay rights movement, and most
recently a marriage movement.
– All of these social movements have
had a huge impact on our families
and our larger society.
A Global Family Perspective
Understanding other cultures is essential to
understanding ourselves and our place in
the world. It is important to know and to
understand the plights of underdeveloped
countries and how these affect our own
country, and how our country and its
policies affect other countries.
Understanding other cultures gives us a less
ethnocentric view of the world and
challenges us to put ourselves in someone
else’s shoes.
Families Are Transforming
Whether we want to believe it or not,
families are transforming, not
destroying themselves.
In the end, people create families that
met their needs for love and
security.
Now more than ever there are expanded
choices about family and family forms!