FAMILY LIFE CYCLE
• Romantic love- attraction
and idealizing one another
(found in most societies)
– Role of love differs from one
society to another
– Western life seen as only
basis for marriage
– Two componentsemotional (feeling of
attraction), cognitive (label
we attach to those feelings,
being in love)
FAMILY LIFE CYCLE
• Marriage
– Patterns follow predictable
patterns
– Age, social class, education, race
– People with similar
characteristics in these areas
marry each other (homogamy)
– Social upheavals of 1960’s
brought down race barrier to
marriage
DIVERSITY IN U.S. FAMILIES
Trends in U.S Families
Family life in US undergoing a
fundamental shift
• Women postpone marriage and
childbirth
• One reason it has changed is
because cohabitation has
become more accepted
• Level of commitment is major
difference between marriage and
cohabitation
• Easier to end relationship
• Couples who cohabitate
before marriage more likely to
divorce
DIVERSITY IN U.S. FAMILIES
• Births to unmarried mothers has
increased
• Becoming more common for
grandparents to raise children
(skipped generation families)
• Sandwich generation- people
who care for parents and
children
• People usually between 40-55,
leaves little time for personal
interests
DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
• Divorce rate depends on where you live
• Has increased over the years
• Race and ethnicity factor in divorce
CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE LIKELY TO GET DIVORCED
• Marriage at an early age.
• A short acquaintanceship before marriage.
• Disapproval of the marriage by relatives and
friends.
• Limited economic resources
• Having a high-school education or less.
• Parents who are divorced or have unhappy
marriages.
• The presence of children at the beginning of
the marriage.
DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
Children of Divorce
• More likely to experience emotional
problems
• Lower graduation rates, more likely to
divorce themselves
• 75-80% do function well
• Children close to both parents make
best adjustment
• Effects of divorce found across
generations, grandchildren of divorce
have weaker bonds with their parents
and higher rates of marital discord with
their parents
DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
• Serial fatherhood new pattern that has emerged
• Divorced father maintains contact with children right
after divorce, sees them less as time goes on
• Women more likely than men to feel divorce gives
them a “new life’
• More likely to cause economic hardship for women,
women’s standard of living drops about a third
• Remarriage many remarry, most divorced people
marry other divorced people
– Men more likely to remarry
• If you have children, more likely to divorce because of
nature of complicated relationships
Two Sides of Family Life
Dark side
• Battering, rape, incest, child abuse
• Battering- likely to occur equally
between men and women
• Women injured more often
• Related to sexist structure of society
• Norms encourage men to use
aggression and violence to control
women
• Child Abuse
– Most is never brought to our
attention
Two Sides of Family Life
• Marital or Intimacy Rape- more common than thought
• Occurs in cohabiting couples (intimacy rape)
• Victims suffer from shock, anger, depression after incident
• Incest- sexual relations between certain relatives
• Usually occurs in families that are socially isolated
• Most common offenders cousins, fathers, brothers
Two Sides of Family Life
• Most Americans report that they have a happy marriage
(60%)
Factors that make a happy marriage:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Agree with Spouse Aims and Goals
Believe Spouse Grown More Interesting
Want Relationship to Succeed
Laugh Together
Spouse is Best Friend
Like Spouse as Person
Think Marriage is Long-Term
Believe Marriage is Sacred
Commitment
Two Sides of Family Life
Happy Families
1. Spend a Lot of Time Together
2. Are Quick to Express
Appreciation
3. Committed to Promoting
Mutual Welfare
4. Talk and Listen a Lot
5. Are Religious
6. Deal with Crises Positively
The Future of Marriage and Family
Future of marriage
1. Will continue because of its positive functions
2. Cohabitation, births to single mothers, age at first marriage
will increase
3. Women will continue to gain marital power
4. We will continue to see the “sandwich generation”’ until
bay boomers die off
5. Distorted myths of marriage will continue
(negative and positive)