5.1: Familial Issues

Family Forms and Norms around the World

Family: a kinship system of all relatives living together or recognized as a social unit, including adopted members
  * Shaped by social and cultural context
  * Monogamy: marriage between two partners
    * Serial monogamy: a succession of marriages in which a person has more than one spouse over a lifetime but is legally married to only one person at a time
  * Polygamy: marriage that allows for multiple spouses
    * Outlawed in the US in the late 1800s
    * Bigamy: the criminal offense in the United States of marrying one person while still legally married to another
    * Polyandry: the concurrent marriage of one woman to two or more men
    * Polygyny: the concurrent marriage of one man to two or more women
  * Arranged marriage: the selection of spouses by family members
    * Increased education, urbanization, and exposure to Western cultural norms and values are responsible for declines in arranged marriage
  * Arranged marriages are different than forced marriages
    * Forced marriage: marriage that takes place without the consent of one or both of the people involved
Patriarchy: male power dominated system and decision making
  * Women in less developed countries:
    * Have 4 to 5 children on average
    * 50% marry before age 18
  * Rates of birth to unmarried mothers are high in different regions of the globe including Central and South America, and in Northern and Western Europe, although children do not necessarily live in single-parent homes.
Same-sex marriage was first legalized in the Netherlands in 2001 and is legal in 29 countries (Feb 2023).
* The United States legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

Contemporary American Families

Changing relationships
  * There has been an increase in interracial and same-sex couples.
  * Women and men are staying single longer and marrying later in life.
  * Marriage has decreased, but cohabitation rates have increased.
  * Divorce rates have decreased.
    * Cohabitating couples often do not undergo divorce proceedings.
    * People are getting married older and enjoy protective factors including higher education and greater financial stability.
Gray divorces are increasing
* Gray divorce: a divorce which takes place later in life
* Married people age 50 and older are twice as likely to get divorced today than they were in 1990.
Changing lives of children
  * Women are delaying childbearing or remaining child free.
    * Enables women to pursue education and professional careers.
    * In 2018, the U.S. fertility rate dropped to an all-time low.
  * The United States has the highest percentage of children living in single-parent homes.
  * 69.9% of married mothers and 73.2% of unmarried mothers are employed.
    * Mothers are somewhat less likely to work full-time than fathers, especially when children are of preschool ages.
    * Childcare is a problem for women who work nontraditional hours.
Blended families
  * Blended family: a non-nuclear family
  * About 16% children live in a blended family.
  * 40% of all married couples with children are stepfamilies.
  * Stepparents and stepchildren do not have the same legal rights and responsibilities as biological/adopted children and biological/adoptive parents
  * 6% of children will experience at least one foster care placement.
    * About half of the children who exit the foster care system are reunified with their biological families.
    * 1 in 10 children live with grandparent(s) → grandfamily
  * About one-in-five children are living with a single mom
Homogamy: relationships between two people with the same sociodemographic characteristics, such as race, religion, education, etc.

Sociological Theories of Familial Issues

Structural-Functionalist Perspective

Family is a social institution and therefore meets societal functions.
  * Produce and socialize new society members
  * Regulate sexual activity and procreation
  * Provide physical and emotional care for family members
Traditional gender roles contribute to family functioning.
  * The expressive role is taken on by women.
    * Expressive role: manage household tasks, provide emotional care, and nurture family members
  * The instrumental role is taken on by men.
    * Instrumental role: earn income and make key decisions
Marital decline perspective: the view that divorce and single-parenthood have contributed to a variety of social problems

Conflict Perspective

Focus on how capitalism, social class, and power influence families.
* Feminist theory is critical of traditional patriarchal male domination.
* Wives taking their husband’s last name and children taking their father’s name implies that wives and children are their property.
Gendered distribution of labor: the assumption that certain types of jobs and activities will be completed by men and others by women
The wealthy and powerful shape family programs and policies.
The interests of companies are often at odds with the needs of families.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Seeks to understand how meaning of marriage and family has changed.
Marital resiliency perspective: the view that marriage continues to be valued and is a symbol of a successful personal life rather than for the tangible resources it provides
* Divorce occurs because individuals refuse to settle for a bad marriage.
Interactions with family members have a significant impact on our self-concepts such as self-esteem.

Strategies for Action

Expand definition of family
* Include unmarried couples and children to access benefits and protections
Reduce unplanned non-marital childbearing
  * Sex education programs in public schools
    * Comprehensive sex education: educational programs that include information about sexuality, sexual consent, reproduction, contraception, and STD prevention
  * Increase access to contraception for low-income women
Workplace and economic supports
* Maximize employment and earnings
* Offer job training, employment assistance, and flexible workplace policies
Strategies to strengthen families during and after divorce
  * Increase in divorce education and mediation programs
  * Increase child support payments programs
  * Increase child support payments programs
Domestic violence and abuse prevention strategies
  * Reduce violence-provoking stress by reducing poverty and unemployment
  * Increase adequate housing, childcare programs and facilities, nutrition medical care, and educational opportunities
  * Increase public education and media campaigns to reduce domestic violence
  * Ban corporal punishment
    * Corporal punishment is banned in 60 countries and 28 more countries are currently committed to banning
Help for victims of abuse
* Increase financial resources for local domestic violence programs to offer emergency shelter, transitional housing, legal services, counseling, assistance with employment, transportation, food, medical care, and childcare
Legal action against abusers
* Many states require the arrest of perpetrator even when victim does not press charges.
* Abusers can be required by courts to receive treatment which typically includes counseling and conflict resolution, but success rates for these interventions are low.