Family

Question 1

A marital union in which a third party selects the bride and groom. Arranged marriage was common in certain cultures and areas throughout history and remains so in South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and parts of East Asia

Answer 1

Arranged marriage

Question 2

The state of a heterosexual or homosexual couple living together and having a sexual relationship without being legally married

Answer 2

Cohabitation

Question 3

A marriage based on the satisfaction of the couple, the family as a whole, and the different roles each person plays in the family. Companionate marriages include a clear division of labour between the breadwinner (usually the husband) and the homemaker (usually the wife). Husbands and wives are seen as friends and confidants who need and rely on one another to perform the roles that each cannot.

Answer 3

Companionate marriage

Question 4

The term used by Cherlin to describe the weakening of social norms concerning marriage and people’s resulting doubt of their actions, and those of others, within this institution.

Answer 4

Deinstitutionalization of marriage

Question 5

A term that moves beyond the nuclear, or immediate, family and consists of more than two generations living in the same household.

Answer 5

Extended family

Question 6

A group of people who are related by birth, affinity, or cohabitation.

Answer 6

Family

Question 7

A group of people who share a relationship by blood, marriage, or legal adoption living together.

Answer 7

Family household

Question 8

A measure of the average number of children per woman over her lifetime.

Answer 8

Fertility rate

Question 9

A marriage in which the focus is on each spouse’s satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment.

Answer 9

Individualized marriage

Question 10

A type of marriage with a collective focus, such as binding ties between families or communities.

Answer 10

Institutional marriage

Question 11

A term that defines a family as consisting of two adults living with one or more children.

Answer 11

Nuclear family

Question 12

A policy enacted in China in 1979 to reduce population growth by restricting part of the population to having only one child. Exemptions include families with twins, rural couples, ethnic minorities, and couples who were both only children.

Answer 12

One-child policy

Question 13

There are five main ways marriage is becoming deinstitutionalized:

Answer 13

1. Fewer people are getting married.
2. The role individuals in couples play in modern society are increasingly questioned.
3. Norms surrounding children are changing.
4. Divorce rates in society are rising.
5. Diversity in forms of marriage are rising.

Question 14

• Cohabitation involves an unmarried couple living together
• Cohabitate refers to same-sex or opposite-sex couples living together without being married.

Answer 14

Deinstitutionalization of Marriage 1. Fewer people are getting married, choosing instead to remain single or cohabitate.

Question 15

o Over the past 40 years, rates of first marriages have fallen to an all-time low

o Most people are delaying rather than rejecting marriage

o Cohabitation: To see if the couple is suitable, to cut living expenses, or as an alternative to marriage

o Cohabitation becomes a common law partnership after 3 years (of after 1 year if there is a child), a relationship Canadian law treats like a marriage.

Answer 15

Cohabitation – Canada: Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 16

• We no longer assume men are the breadwinners and women stay at home. * The traditional gender roles in marriage are increasingly coming under scrutiny.

Answer 16

2. The role individuals in couples play in modern society are increasingly questioned. Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 17

• In the past having children in a marriage was the only acceptable route to parenting.
• Today, many people are single parents, and many unmarried couples have children.

Answer 17

3. Norms surrounding children are changing. Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 18

• Divorce is the formal legal dissolution of a marriage.
• Individuals are choosing to leave bad marriages, if necessary, especially since there is less stigma surrounding divorce in modern society.
• Religion has also lost some of its influence in society, contributing to the deinstitutionalization of marriage.

Answer 18

4. Divorce rates in society are rising. Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 19

o Divorce rate * The divorce rate appears to be in decline

• Might be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which created barriers to the divorce process for several years

o There are gendered differences in divorce outcomes

• Men have more short-term consequences and greater decline in well-being * Women have longer term consequences including poverty and single parenthood

Answer 19

Divorce in Canada Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 20

• There has been a rise in marriage between couples of different ethnic, class, and religious backgrounds.
• The legalization of gay marriage has further increased the diversity in forms of marriage in modern society.

Answer 20

5. Diversity in forms of marriage are rising. Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Question 21

o The number of children per family has dropped below the “replacement rate.”

o The age of first marriage is rising.

o More women are having children in their thirties.

o There is nearly as many couples without children as with.

o Children are leaving home at a later age.

o There are more lone-parent families.

o There are more people living alone.

Answer 21

Changes in the Canadian Family

Question 22

o For the last 100 years, Canadians have chosen to have smaller families

o There are a number of reasons for this:
* Having children results in a decline in marital satisfaction, at least for a time
* Economic demands have made it difficult to afford large families
* Contraceptive technology makes limiting family size easier

Answer 22

Decline in Parenting Changes in the Canadian Family: Parenting

Question 23

o Increased divorce results in an increase in single parent families

o Single or lone parent families involve one parent and their dependent children

o 20% of Canadian children live with a lone parent

o Typically, the custodial parent provides the majority of childcare and support

o These families experience higher levels of economic problems

• Especially female-headed lone parent households
• This is part of the feminization of poverty

Answer 23

Single or lone parent Changes in the Canadian Family: Parenting

Question 24

o combine adults and their children from previous relationships

o Increased divorce also increases the number of blended families

o 11.7% of Canadian children live in a blended family

Answer 24

blended families Changes in the Canadian Family: Parenting

Question 25

Changes in marriage and family are tied to larger societal changes.

Answer 25

o The rise in women’s rights
o Declining level of religiosity
o Increasing individualism

Question 26

o The rise in women’s rights has greatly impacted marriage as it has led to rising rates of university enrolment, graduation and participation in the labour market.

o These changes are, in turn, related to lower levels of marriage, later age at first child, and a higher divorce rates.

Answer 26

The rise in women’s rights Family and Larger Social Changes

Question 27

o A major change that has affected the family in Canada is the declining level
of religiosity in the country.

o Religions are generally strong supporters of a traditional view of marriage and childrearing.

o As religion’s influence in Canada declined, the country experienced higher rates of cohabitation without marriage, more children raised by unmarried parents, and a rise in divorce rates.

Answer 27

Declining level of religiosity Family and Larger Social Changes

Question 28

o Society is experiencing increasing individualism where people pick their own spouses and jobs.

o Society is more concerned with individual happiness and fulfillment than it has been in the past.

o The spread of individualism in Canada has coincided with a decline in religiosity.

Answer 28

Increasing individualism Family and Larger Social Changes

Question 29

o Affinal relationships are chosen relationships between spouses.

o Romantic love is not central to union formation in all cultures. Such cultures view marriage as a practical arrangement that will supply financial stability and children to the family and kin group. Ideals of romantic love are central to union formation in North America.

o From this exchange perspective, marriage is viewed as a give-and-take-relationship.

o Expressive exchanges involve emotional services.
Love, affection, friendship, companionship.

o Instrumental exchanges involve practical or technical services.
Housework, paying bills, looking after dependents.

Answer 29

Mating and Union formation

Question 30

o Every society has rules about who can and can’t marry
* Incest is sexual activity between closely related member of the kin group that is generally prohibited.

o Some societies have specific rules about marriage choices.
Marrying within or outside one’s social group.

Answer 30

Mating and Union formation - Mate Selection

Question 31

o Endogamy: refers to marrying someone of the same ethnic, religious, or cultural and social group as oneself.

o Exogamy: marrying outside one’s cultural and social group

There is a strong tradition among some ethnic groups to practice endogamy. Canadians are becoming increasingly more comfortable with inter-ethnic marriages.

There is a history in Canada of the federal government creating policies designed to deprive racialized minorities of family.
oExpensive head tax levied on immigrants from China and South Asia (19th and 20th century)
oControlling Indigenous Families.

Answer 31

Marrying “In” and Marrying “Out” Mating and Union formation - Mate Selection

Question 32

o During the early 20th century, Indian Agents withheld food rations to enforce monogamy.

o Residential schools: created to keep Indigenous children away from the influence of their parents and communities

Children endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hand of school officials.

o Indigenous peoples, especially women, were subject to forced sterilization.
Under the Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1928–1972), the province sterilized 2,832 people, most of them women. 25% of whom were First Nations and Métis.

Answer 32

monogamy. Mating and Union formation - Mate Selection

Question 33

the tendency for people to marry someone who is similar to themselves Age, education, class, religion, ethnicity, and appearance/attractiveness

o People in our social networks tend to be like us

o We feel comfortable around people who are similar

o People who are similar bring similar qualities and resources to marriages

Answer 33

Homogamy Mating and Union formation - Mate Selection

Question 34

o The individual’s kin group controls marriage choice

o More common in societies with extended families

o Spouses are chosen because the union will be economically advantageous or because of kinship obligations

Answer 34

Arranged Marriages

Question 35

o Arranged Marriages does not involve the coercion of either party

Forced marriage involves a marriage that lacks free consent of the parties in the marital union.

Answer 35

o Forced marriage is different

Question 36

Types of Marriages

Answer 36

o Institutional marriages

o Companionate marriages

o Individualized marriages

Question 37

• A way to bind larger families and communities.
• These marriages have a collective focus, meaning they are meant to solidify ties between families and communities.

Answer 37

Institutional marriages

Question 38

• Based on bonds of sentiment, friendship, and sexual ties.
• Clear division of labour in terms of breadwinner and homemaker.
• Couples are friends and confidants the satisfaction of the couple, the family as a whole, and the roles each plays in the marriage.

Answer 38

Companionate marriages

Question 39

• Each spouse’s satisfaction is the focus, as is each spouse’s sense of self, happiness, and fulfillment.
• Tend to be more flexible because their goal is to meet the needs of each spouse.

Answer 39

Individualized marriages

Question 40

• Marriages in which the couple relates with one another exclusively.

Answer 40

Monogamous marriages.

Question 41

• Having one or more spouse at a time.

Answer 41

Polygamous marriages

Question 42

focuses on how the family functions to create stability and order in society. The family performs a wide variety of roles. Roles fall into four main categories:

1.reproduction
2.socialization
3.support
4.regulation

Answer 42

Structural Functionalism Theorizing the Family

Question 43

o Families maintain the population through reproduction and care for a child’s physical and emotional needs.

Answer 43

Reproduction Structural Functionalism

Question 44

o Families socialize children, teaching them about the larger culture and its norms and rules.

Answer 44

Socialization Structural Functionalism

Question 45

o Families share resources and look after each other.

Answer 45

Support Structural Functionalism

Question 46

o Families work to regulate behaviour as well.

Traditionally families have regulated sexual behaviour. This function might be declining as more people engage in sexual activity before and outside marriage.

Answer 46

Regulation Structural Functionalism

Question 47

o Structures of the nuclear family free individuals from the obligations of an extended family.

o It gives individuals in family units mobility within industrial society, as nuclear families are easy to move.

o Differentiation between the expressive roles of women and the instrumental roles of men.

Answer 47

Talcott Parsons: Structural Functionalism

Question 48

offers a different lens to see the family with. At its root, this approach is concerned with the unequal distribution of resources. Does not see the family as a harmonious institution.

Answer 48

Conflict Theory

Question 49

ignoring family diversity

Answer 49

• Monolithic bias Biases in the study of families Conflict Theory

Question 50

ignoring family problems like violence

Answer 50

• Conservative bias

Question 51

ignoring the very young and the elderly in family analysis

Answer 51

• Ageist bias

Question 52

ignoring gendered inequalities in families

Answer 52

• Sexist bias

Question 53

ignoring same-sex families

Answer 53

• Heterosexist bias

Question 54

ignoring family forms that differ from the dominant culture

Answer 54

• Racist bias

Question 55

Families work to socialize people. Socialization is problematic because it reproduces inequalities, particularly class inequalities. A dire consequence of this conflict is family violence.

Answer 55

Conflict Theory

Question 56

sees the family as a source of a wide variety of conflicts.
o Men and women possess different levels of power within a marriage.

o Age-based conflict is prevalent in families as well due to power differentials between parents and children.

Answer 56

Conflict Theory

Question 57

o Conflicts within families are related to power within the family, who has it, and how it is used.
Result is discord between parents and children, between siblings, and between spouses.

Result is discord between parents and children, between siblings, and between spouses.

Answer 57

Conflict Theory

Question 58

see the family as an arena for gender-based conflict.

• Conflict could be based on questions over who does the housework or the family finances.

Answer 58

Feminist-Conflict Theorists

Question 59

o Often treated as a “private” matter

o Until recently, it was believed

o That parents had a right to use physical force to discipline their children

o That husbands couldn’t rape their wives because they were entitled to sexual access

o Both men and women experience family violence

o Women report higher levels of serious violence (like assault or being threatened with a weapon)

o Women report higher levels of serious violence (like assault or being threatened with a weapon)

o Men report higher levels of less serious violence (like being slapped or bitten)

Answer 59

Family violence

Question 60

o Conjugal (or marital) roles are the distinctive roles of the husband and wife that result from the division of labour within the family

Answer 60

Conjugal roles:

Question 61

• Segregated: tasks, interests, and activities are clearly different
• Joint: many tasks, interests, and activities are shared

Answer 61

Bott hypothesis: Elizabeth Bott (1957) characterized conjugal roles as

Question 62

o The increasing cost of living has led to an increase in dual-earner families

o Most families cannot afford to have a full-time stay-at-home parent

Answer 62

Work-Family Balance

Question 63

o At the same time, government cutbacks to support services has resulted in an increase in caregiving needs falling on the family

o Women carry a higher burden of domestic labour and child and elder care

o Women in heterosexual couples with egalitarian task-sharing report higher marital satisfaction and well-being

Answer 63

Care Work Changes in Conjugal Roles

Question 64

examined the apportionment of household and child-care tasks as perceived by couples in various socio-demographic groups. For both kinds of tasks (Segregated and Joint tasks), the estimated percentage mostly done by women was significantly higher than that mostly done by men, except in “gardening” and “outside work (repairs)”. The household tasks in which it was estimated that the highest percentages were done equally by both sexes were doing the dishes, grocery shopping, and gardening

Answer 64

Frank and Frenette

Question 65

argues we moved from complementary to companionate relationships

• Complementary roles (Bott’s segregated roles) cast men primarily as earners or breadwinners and women involved primarily in the unpaid work of childcare and housework
• Companionate roles (Bott’s joint roles) breadwinning and caretaking roles overlap

Answer 65

Beaujot Changes in Conjugal Roles

Question 66

• Women choose occupations that have greatest flexibility in terms of childcare-related work interruptions (e.g. care for a sick child, care for a newborn child)

Answer 66

Childcare responsibilities encourage occupational segregation:

Question 67

oMarried women, especially those with young children, still do more unpaid work at home than married men

oThis has created an imbalance in conjugal roles, where women take on what some sociologists have called a “double burden” or “second shift” The double ghetto describes the marginalization of working women experience inside and outside the home

Answer 67

However, the move to companionate relationships is not complete