Families

Question 1

Nuclear Family

Answer 1

Comprises two married, opposite-sex parents and their biological children who share the same residence

Question 2

Traditional Nuclear Family

Answer 2

A nuclear family in which the husband works outside the home for money and the wife works without pay in the home

Question 3

Verticalization of Family Structure

Answer 3

Refers to the increased number of living generations in a family, accompanied by fewer members within each generation as the birth rate drops

Question 4

Families - Functionalist theory

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Functionalism - ideal structure in families

Answer 5

Nuclear family - to meet the challenges of modernity

Question 6

Polygamy / Polyandry

Answer 6

Expands the nuclear family horizontally by adding one or more spouses (usually women) to the household

Question 7

Extended Family

Answer 7

Expands the nuclear family vertically by adding another generation—one or more of the spouses’ parents—to the household

Question 8

What is the nuclear family based on?

Answer 8

Marriage

Question 9

Marriage

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Marriage in the 20th Century

Answer 10

Nuclear family as the norm
▪️ Decrease in MARRIAGE RATE
▪ Slow rise in DIVORCE RATE
▪ Decline in total FERTILITY RATE

Question 11

Families: Conflict theory

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Families: Conflict Theory Solution

Answer 12

The elimination of private property
• no reason to pass on private property to their offspring

Question 13

Families: Flaws with Conflict Theory Solution

Answer 13

Gender inequality exists in non-capitalist societies.
● Patriarchy is deeply rooted in the economic, military, and cultural history of humankind.

Question 14

The Gender Division of Labour - main factors that shrink it

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is the Traditional View of families?

Answer 15

Men are the breadwinners and women stay home

Question 16

What is the New Reality of
Families?

Answer 16

• 70% of women with children under 16 are working for pay
• Women still do 70% of household work (Double day/ second shift)

Question 17

What are the Social Forces that largely determine who people fall in love with?

Answer 17

1. Potential spouses bring RESOURCES to the “marriage market.”
2. Others often INTERVENE to PREVENT marriages between people from different groups.
3. DEMOGRAPHIC variables.

Question 18

Cohabitation

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Cohabitation for young adults

Answer 19

• Cohabitation rates on the RISE
• New SOCIAL NORM for young adults
• Trial period before marriage

Question 20

Friends with Benefits (FWB)

Answer 20

Involves occasional sexual relations with a friend, without commitment or romantic feelings for one another

Question 21

Hookups

Answer 21

Spontaneous, one-time sexual encounters between strangers or acquaintances

Question 22

Living Apart Together (LAT)

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Same-sex Marriage

Answer 23

• Growing in social acceptance
• Growing number of countries where it is legal

Question 24

Divorce is..

Answer 24

Increasingly easy to acquire

Question 25

Divorce Prior to 1968

Answer 25

Only in the case of adultery

Question 26

1968 Divorce Act

Answer 26

Physical or mental cruelty and 3 year separation added

Question 27

1985 Amendment - divorce

Answer 27

No fault divorce

Question 28

Predictors of Divorce

Answer 28

1. INTERPERSONAL Factors
   • Unhappiness with one’s spouse
   • Conflict, including violence
   • One or both partners struggling with substance abuse or mental health problems
   • Infidelity
2. 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
3. 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

Question 29

Results of Divorce

Answer 29

• 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)

Question 30

How were the early studies of divorce flawed?

Answer 30

1. Children in the study were all known to be struggling with divorce.
2. Did not include a control group.
3. Did not allow researchers to evaluate whether some of the problems existed prior to divorce.

Question 31

Stress Theory and Divorce

Answer 31

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

Question 32

When is divorce less stressful according to stress theory?

Answer 32

• 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.

Question 33

When is adjustment to divorce more difficult according to stress theory?

Answer 33

• 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.

Question 34

Economic Hardship in Divorce

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Child Support

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

It is not the amount of contact with a non-residential parent that makes a difference, but..

Answer 36

the degree of COOPERATION and COMMITMENT to shared parenting that determine whether such contact helps or hinders a child’s adjustment to parental divorce.

Question 37

Divorce: Children being in step-families, reduced contact with non-residential parent

Answer 37

▪ 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.

Question 38

Reproductive Choice

Answer 38

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

Question 39

How can women exercise Reproductive Choice?

Answer 39

Contraception and Abortion

Question 40

Attitudes about Abortion

Answer 40

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.

Question 41

Reproductive technologies

Answer 41

1. Artificial insemination
2. Surrogate motherhood
3. In vitro fertilization
4. Various screening techniques

Question 42

Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues with Reproduction

Answer 42

1. Discrimination
2. Terms “mother” and “father” rendered obsolete or vague

Question 43

Zero-Child Families

Answer 43

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

Question 44

Reasons for Zero-Child Families

Answer 44

• Infertility
• the rising cost of raising a child
• the growth of attractive alternatives

Question 45

Step-Parent Families

Answer 45

● 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

Question 46

Complex Step-Family

Answer 46

Both partners have children from previous relationships