Families Flashcards
Nuclear Family
Comprises two married, opposite-sex parents and their biological children who share the same residence
Traditional Nuclear Family
A nuclear family in which the husband works outside the home for money and the wife works without pay in the home
Verticalization of Family Structure
Refers to the increased number of living generations in a family, accompanied by fewer members within each generation as the birth rate drops
Families - Functionalist theory
For any society to survive, its members must cooperate economically. They must have babies. And they must raise offspring in an emotionally supportive environment so the offspring can learn the ways of the group and eventually operate as productive adults
Functionalism - ideal structure in families
Nuclear family - to meet the challenges of modernity
Polygamy / Polyandry
Expands the nuclear family horizontally by adding one or more spouses (usually women) to the household
Extended Family
Expands the nuclear family vertically by adding another generation—one or more of the spouses’ parents—to the household
What is the nuclear family based on?
Marriage
Marriage
A socially approved, presumably long-term sexual and economic union between a man and a woman.
It involves reciprocal rights and obligations between spouses and between parents and children
Marriage in the 20th Century
Nuclear family as the norm
▪️ Decrease in MARRIAGE RATE
▪ Slow rise in DIVORCE RATE
▪ Decline in total FERTILITY RATE
Families: Conflict theory
The TRADITIONAL NUCLEAR FAMILY emerged along with INEQUALITIES of WEALTH (Friedrich Engels)
● Controlling women sexually and economically ensured that a man’s property would be transmitted only to his offspring
Families: Conflict Theory Solution
The elimination of private property
• no reason to pass on private property to their offspring
Families: Flaws with Conflict Theory Solution
Gender inequality exists in non-capitalist societies.
● Patriarchy is deeply rooted in the economic, military, and cultural history of humankind.
The Gender Division of Labour - main factors that shrink it
Two main factors shrink the gender gap in domestic chores:
1. WAGES are closer to EQUAL
2. Social attitudes of the people are more EGALITARIAN
• The more agreement that there should be equality in the household division of labour, the more equality there is
What is the Traditional View of families?
Men are the breadwinners and women stay home
What is the New Reality of
Families?
• 70% of women with children under 16 are working for pay
• Women still do 70% of household work (Double day/ second shift)
What are the Social Forces that largely determine who people fall in love with?
- Potential spouses bring RESOURCES to the “marriage market.”
- Others often INTERVENE to PREVENT marriages between people from different groups.
- DEMOGRAPHIC variables.
Cohabitation
Sexual relations and common residence.
▪ Typically starts without fanfare.
▪ Cohabiting couples must
create their own “scripts.”
▪ Rights to property upon dissolution are less clearly specified.
Cohabitation for young adults
• Cohabitation rates on the RISE
• New SOCIAL NORM for young adults
• Trial period before marriage
Friends with Benefits (FWB)
Involves occasional sexual relations with a friend, without commitment or romantic feelings for one another
Hookups
Spontaneous, one-time sexual encounters between strangers or acquaintances
Living Apart Together (LAT)
A living arrangement in which each person maintains his or her own separate residence, but both people consider themselves to be in a committed intimate relationship
Same-sex Marriage
• Growing in social acceptance
• Growing number of countries where it is legal
Divorce is..
Increasingly easy to acquire
Divorce Prior to 1968
Only in the case of adultery
1968 Divorce Act
Physical or mental cruelty and 3 year separation added
1985 Amendment - divorce
No fault divorce
Predictors of Divorce
- INTERPERSONAL Factors
• Unhappiness with one’s spouse
• Conflict, including violence
• One or both partners struggling with substance abuse or mental health problems
• Infidelity - DEMOGRAPHIC Factors
• WOMEN are more likely than men are to initiate divorce.
• Divorce is more likely to occur in the EARLIER YEARS of marriage.
• Couples who are religious are less likely to divorce, particularly when they belong to the same religion - SOCIALFactors
• Living in poverty
• Having less education
• Cohabiting with one’s spouse before marriage
• Having a premarital birth or a previous marriage
• Having grown up in a household without two continuously married parents
Results of Divorce
• Flawed early studies
● Children’s coping based on how divorce is presented
● Stress of loss of contact with the non-resident parent (worse for boys)
How were the early studies of divorce flawed?
- Children in the study were all known to be struggling with divorce.
- Did not include a control group.
- Did not allow researchers to evaluate whether some of the problems existed prior to divorce.
Stress Theory and Divorce
Is the perspective most researchers study divorce from
• Stress theory suggests that experiences such as divorce require ADJUSTMENT to NEW circumstances, but do not necessarily threaten well-being
When is divorce less stressful according to stress theory?
• when parents continue to provide their children with REASSURANCE and AFFIRMATION,
• when there are relatively FEW CHANGES to children’s daily routines,
• and when children are ENCOURAGED TO TALK about their FEELINGS.
When is adjustment to divorce more difficult according to stress theory?
• when parents are TOO OVERWHELMED to be effective caregivers,
• when divorce forces children to MOVE OUT of their neighbourhoods and away from peers and positive adult role models,
• and when children are encouraged to take the side of ONE PARENT over another.
Economic Hardship in Divorce
Women’s income usually DECLINES, while men’s income changes little:
1. Husbands tend to earn MORE than wives.
2. Children typically LIVE with MOTHERS after divorce
Child Support
Involves money paid by the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent for the purpose of supporting the children of a separated marital, cohabiting, or sexual relationship.
• Child support payments are often inadequate.
It is not the amount of contact with a non-residential parent that makes a difference, but..
the degree of COOPERATION and COMMITMENT to shared parenting that determine whether such contact helps or hinders a child’s adjustment to parental divorce.
Divorce: Children being in step-families, reduced contact with non-residential parent
▪ Up to one-half of divorced parents subsequently remarry or cohabit.
▪ However, many children living in STEP-PARENT households derive LITTLE BENEFIT from the additional income and supervision that a step- parent brings to the household.
Reproductive Choice
Women now have more say over whether they will have children and, if so, when they will have them and how many they will have
How can women exercise Reproductive Choice?
Contraception and Abortion
Attitudes about Abortion
Attitudes about abortion vary by age, education, and religious beliefs, and are influenced by circumstances that lead to abortion.
Canadians remain divided on abortion issues.
• Concern remains that if abortion is criminalized, poor women and their unwanted children would suffer most.
Reproductive technologies
- Artificial insemination
- Surrogate motherhood
- In vitro fertilization
- Various screening techniques
Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues with Reproduction
- Discrimination
- Terms “mother” and “father” rendered obsolete or vague
Zero-Child Families
About one-fifth of North American women between 40–45 have never given birth
• tend to be more satisfied with their marriage than those families with a child
Reasons for Zero-Child Families
• Infertility
• the rising cost of raising a child
• the growth of attractive alternatives
Step-Parent Families
● About one in ten children under the age of 14 lives in a step-parent family.
● Now there are more COMPLEX step families than simple ones
Complex Step-Family
Both partners have children from previous relationships
