The Changing Family
Chapter 11
Marriage and Family Defined
• Family - a group of people related by marriage,
blood, or adoption.
– social institution that unites individuals in cooperative
groups that care for members, regulate sexual
relationships, and oversee the bearing and raising of
children
• Functionalist perspective
• Most important social institution – Enduring features of
social life
• Stresses how family is related to other parts of society
and how it contributes to the well-being of society
The Problem in Sociological Perspective
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the family
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Men left home
Children became an economic liability
Formal education
A lower birthrate
From rural to urban
Loss of functions
Changes in women’s roles
The Scope of the Problem
• Modernity
 Social and cultural factors relating to recent times or the present
 So powerful, family isn’t going to be able to adjust
• Divorce
 Increased steadily since 1970
• Is divorce a sign of weakness or strength?
 Can interpret divorce statistics in many ways
• The children of divorce
 Involves other things that cannot be quantified
 Cohabitation
Family Types
• Nuclear family – wife, father, and children
• Extended family – nuclear family plus other
relatives – like grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles,
etc.
• Marriage - a legal union based on mutual rights and
obligations
– Marriage = wedding - culture
Mate Selection
• Romantic Love – idea of people being sexually
attracted to one another and idealizing the other
– Ex. Soul mate
– 2 components:
1) Emotional – feeling of sexual attraction
2) Cognitive – feeling we describe as being “in love”
• Homogamy –the tendency to marry someone
similar to oneself based on personal preference.
• Heterogamy – partners are dissimilar with respect
to some important social characteristics.
– Interracial marriage
New Family Forms
• Marriage rate – the number of marriages per year for every
one thousand members of a population.
– The U.S. marriage rate has fluctuated since 1940.
Median Age at First Marriage
FIGURE 11.1
SLIDE 3 – INSERT FIGURE 11.1 ON PAGE 340 OF TEXT
Cohabitation
• Cohabitation – living with someone in a marriagelike arrangement without the legal obligations and
responsibilities of formal marriage.
– While cohabitation is more common among people with
less education, it is increasing at higher educational
levels.
– Cohabitation is on the rise. In 2009, cohabitation
increased by 13 percent, twice the average annual
increase of the preceding few years.
– Cohabitation has almost doubled since 1990.
Single-Parent Families
• have been on the rise since 1970; 23 million children
now live in single-parent families (32 percent of all
children); 6 times higher than 1940, 3 times higher
than 1970, and about double what it was in 1980
• 95% of children in single-parent families are in singlemother families
• Children in single-parent families are without the
same economic resources available in two-parent
families.
• Most research indicates that growing up with a single
parent negatively affects a child’s well-being.
Single-Parent Families – Economic
Outcomes
• Children in single-parent homes:
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exhibit more behavioral problems,
have higher teenage pregnancy rates,
perform lower academically,
score lower on tests of psychological well-being,
are less able to adapt in social settings than children
living with their biological parents
Childless Marriages
• In the past, there was a stigma attached to marriages
without children.
• In 2008, one in five American women ages 40–44 was
childless, up 80 percent since 1970
– Highest rates among White women, highly educated
women.
• Reasons to remain childless:
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less stigma
importance of careers
Independence
do not enjoy children
too much delay
physical or mental limitations.
Same-Sex Domestic Partners
• Due to the stigma surrounding homosexuality, it is difficult to
know exactly what proportion of the American population is
gay.
• Americans have differing views of legalizing same-sex
marriage:
– 48% of Americans oppose legalizing gay marriage; 42%
favor it.
• Same-sex partners living together with children—are also
increasing in number, although their number is small
compared with heterosexual marriages.
Adult Children Returning Home
• “Boomerang kids” –
– young adults (18-34) have a much higher probability of living in
their parents’ home than they did 30 years ago.
• Contributing factors:
– Young adults are marrying later.
– More young adults are continuing their education, and live at
home while doing so.
– Due to the high cost of living, young adults return home after
completing their education.
– High divorce rate also increases the proportion of young adults
living at home.
Adult Children Returning Home:
Consequences
• An added financial burden for older parents.
• Many parents complain that their adult children do
not share in expenses, fail to help around the house,
invade privacy, and prevent them from developing
relationships with spouses and friends.
• Adult children living at home forfeit some freedom
and are subject to some unwanted parental control.
The Sandwich Generation
• More middle-aged adults are finding mothers and fathers
living with them.
• Sandwich generation – term applied to those adults caught
between caring for their parents and caring for the family
they formed after leaving home.
– Elderly parents receive better care from those who love them and
feel responsible for them.
– Aging parents also offer emotional support and financial resources.
– Taking care of an elderly parent is not easy, physically or emotionally.
– The burden of caring for an aging parent falls much more heavily on
women.
– About 2/3 of unpaid caregivers are female.
Divorce
• Divorce rate – the number of divorces annually for every
thousand members of the population.
• The nagging dilemma of divorce
– Decision to divorce is usually painful, preceded by years of
dissatisfaction and unhappiness
• Research – people who go to college, belong to a religion,
wait to get married, and have children have a much better
chance of their marriage lasting.
• Working with co workers of opposite sex and working with
people who are recently divorced, increase one’s risk of
divorce
• Divorce and children
Family Violence
• Over 1/5 of all reported cases of aggravated assault involve
domestic violence, however many episodes go unreported.
• Domestic violence involves children, spouses, siblings, and older
people.
• As many as ½ of married women in the U.S. are victims of spousal
violence.
• At least 4 million women are battered by their husbands annually.
• 4,000 women each year are beaten to death.
• 14% of married women are sexually attacked by their husbands
every year.
• ¾ of spousal violence occurs during separation or after divorce.
Family Violence
• Alcohol and violence
– The more people drink, the more likely they are to
beat their spouse.
• The social heredity of violence
– Children learn from their parents that violence is a
way to solve problems.
Family Resiliency
• Family resiliency – refers to the family’s
capacity to emerge from crises as stronger
and more resourceful.
• Families that flourish despite distress are
resilient.
• Family friendly policy
Functionalist Theory of Families
- Stresses how family is related to other parts of
society and how it contributes to the well-being of
society
Functions of the Family
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Economic production, socialization of children, care
of sick and aged, recreation, sexual control, and
reproduction.
Conflict Theory and Family
• Draws attention to the struggles of scarce resources:
– Housework = time, energy, leisure
– “second shift”
• False consciousness
 Failure to recognize the state of one’s exploitation
• Power and the marital experience
 Today’s women are less dependent on mates.
• Conflict theorists stress that marriage and family patterns
reflect historical struggles between men and women.
• Examines women’s oppression and how the family has
been used to maintain male domination of females.
– The family perpetuates gender inequality
Symbolic Interaction and Family
• An overloaded institution
 Symbolic interactionists examine what people expect out of marriage
• The love symbol: engulfment into unrealistic expectations
– Optional emotions have now become mandatory emotions
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Changing Ideas about Divorce
Changing ideas about children
Changing expectations of parenting
Changing marital roles
 Society used to expect the husband to assume the role of breadwinner
– How each sex experiences marriage differently
• Ex. housework
• Relationships within the family are constantly being redefined.
Conservatives: Traditional Family Values
• The family as the core of a society
• Source of problems stem from a break with
traditional families
– Rising divorce and cohabitation; gay marriage
– “Me” generation
• Solution would be to go back to traditional
family values
Liberals: Many Kinds of Families
• Support variability in family form
• Poverty and domestic abuse are the biggest
problems
• Increase support to families
– Child Care
• Higher minimum wage
• Pay women as much as men
Radicals: Replace the Family
• Family is related to inequality
• Family is how property is passed on from one
generation to the next
• Family is related to perpetuating inequality
• Perpetuates inequality based on sexual
orientation
Looking Forward
• Is the nuclear family deteriorating?
– Family Decline Perspective
– Family Change Perspective
• The nuclear family remains the most popular
choice among Americans.
The Future of the Problem
• Rapid social change as normative
 Change is so rapid and extensive that parents and children live in
different worlds.
• Changes we can expect
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Age at first marriage will continue upward
Cohabitation will continue to increase
Marriage will become even more oriented around companionship
Divorce rate may decline
• The ideological struggle