Marriage and Family Flashcards

Marriage and Family

Introduction

• Stephanie Coontz's book, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, provides an overview of family life in the United States, particularly concerning the perceived “crisis of the family.”

  • Americans tend to have an idealized sense of the family, but history reveals a different reality of what the family was and did.

  • Family structure and roles have been fluid throughout history, and current changes are an extension of this fluid nature.

Defining Family and Marriage

• Family: Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption.

  • The concept of family exists in all societies.

  • A couple without children can still be considered a family.

• Marriage: The formal union of two people, typically recognized by law.

Forms of Marriage and Family

• Nuclear Family: A household consisting of a husband, wife, and children.

• Extended Family: A household consisting of a nuclear family plus additional relatives (e.g., grandparents, aunts, uncles).

• Monogamy: The practice of being married to one person at a time.

• Polygamy: The practice of having more than one spouse at a time. Illegal in the United States.

  • Polygyny: A man marrying two or more women. Illegal in most developed countries.

  • Polyandry: A woman marrying two or more men. This form of marriage limits the number of births.

Trends of the American Family

• Median age at first marriage:

  • 1900: Men - 25.9, Women - 21.9

  • 1950s: Men - 22.8, Women - 20.3

  • 2009: Men - 28.1, Women - 25.9 (an all-time high)

• Reasons for recent trends:

  • More couples live together without marriage.

  • More cohabitating couples have children.

  • Estimated that 40% of children will spend time in a cohabitating couple before they turn 16.

New Forms of Families

• Remarriage and stepfamilies are becoming more common.

• Blended Families: Families composed of children and some combination of biological parents.

• The birthrate for single-parent families has increased in the last 35 years.

• Single-parent families result from cohabitation, divorce, or women having children outside of marriage.

  • Society has become more accepting of unmarried women raising children.

  • Almost half of children today are expected to live in single-parent homes at some time before they are 21.

Myths About the Family (Stephanie Coontz)

• The Universal Nuclear Family: Families vary in organization, membership, life cycle, social networks, and function. The