Chapter 5 Social Roles

Instrumental ("male" qualities)

Page 135 identifies "typical" male gender roles/qualities (also known as instrumental traits or qualities, including active, adventurous, aggressive, autocratic, courageous, daring, dominant, forceful, progressive, rude, strong, unemotional, etc.)

Caregiving statistics and trends

Per page 151, over a fourth of middle aged adults report that their mothers and fathers are still living, but only 10 percent report that both parents are in good health. As a result, over 21 million families in America provide care for an elderly relative.

Communal ("female" qualities)

"Typical" female gender roles/qualities (also known as communal traits or qualities, including affectionate, attractive, dependent, dreamy, emotional, fearful, sensitive, superstitious, etc).

Living alone

Living alone becomes the life style of many older women (40 percent of those over 65 compared to 20 percent of the men). Though the reason for living alone, widowhood, is involuntary, the choice to live alone is made by the older adult. We will explore issues of widowhood in greater depth in a future chapter. Only when health declines become significant will older adults look for alternative living arrangements. This is not true in all cultures. Page 154 notes that living alone is rare in Japan, and is less common among African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American elders.

Marriage stats

Students should know that the current median age of first marriage is 26.9 for men and 25.0 for women (statistics from U.S. Census). The median age of first marriage has been slowly increasing since the 1950s.

Boomerang generation

The "boomerang" concept defines young people who leave the parental home and then return to the parental home for some period of time. The number of boomerang adults has doubled in the last few decades. In the U.S., about half of all young people who move out of the parental home for at least 4 months will return again.

Childless couples

The textbook also makes brief mention of couples who do not have children, again noting that the rates have been increasing. About 19 percent of women over 44 never had children; this is about double the 1970s and 1980 statistic. Today, remaining childless is viewed as a valid choice in the minds of many people, and these couples may be envied by friends. Childless women are more likely to work throughout their adult lives and to have higher level jobs, and to earn more money. The role of primary caregiver for an aging parent is more likely to fall to a childless adult. Despite what people might think, "happiness or life satisfaction, loneliness, or self- esteem" is not related to the amount of contact the adult has with children or grandchildren. At retirement age, childless adults appear to be as happy as those with extended families...though this is more true for those who are childless by choice than by circumstance (i.e., unable to conceive." It is also more true for the childless woman compared to the childless man. Bottomline, "the picture is not one of persisting sadness or regret," according to the textbook.

Becoming a parent stats: marital status

The textbook also notes that an increased percentage of births are to unmarried mothers (about 35 percent today compared with 5 percent in 1965, and 11 percent in 1970). The changes in both the age at which women have their first child and the change in martial status have significant implications. Never married and divorced mothers face many challenges, including likelihood of lower income and fewer job options. Also, delaying the age of childbearing impacts of the timing of subsequent life events.

Trends in lifelong singles

The textbook takes a very brief look at never-married/lifelong singles. As noted on page 156, singlehood is increasing in the United States. In the older adult group, however, only about 4 percent fall in the never married category, though many European countries have much higher rates. The lifelong single person runs a "close second" to married people in regard to levels of well-being. They have better health and fewer disabilities than divorced, separated, or widowed people. However, this is MORE true for lifelong single women than it is for lifelong single men. The lifelong single person is more satisfied with being single, compared to the divorced, separated, or widowed single. The lifelong single person has a "kin confidant" (person in the family he/she can really share private feelings with), and this serves as a protective factor for good physical and mental health. Lifelong singles have better financial resources, physical well-being, and psychological well-being than the other single categories (divorce, separated, or widowed).

Caregiving: Culture

African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans are all more likely to be involved with family caregiving, compared to Caucasians, and studies suggest that these groups (but especially the African Americans) feel less stress and burden in the caregiving role, compare to Caucasians.

Cohabitation stats

As defined on page 141, this term references young adults who live together in an unmarried relationship. Left unstated in this definition is, the two young adults are sharing an intimate, sexual relationship (thus, two people who are non-intimate roommates are NOT cohabitating). As noted on page 141 "Today a young adult's first living arrangement with a romantic partner is more apt to be a cohabiting relationship than a marriage.) There are 11 million Americans living in cohabiting relationships. A majority of women who marry today have been living with their husbands before the wedding. Page 141 also provides data that informs us that many cohabiting relationship do NOT result in marriage (about 42 percent do not because the couples either break up, 39 percent, or continue cohabiting without marriage, 3 percent). It is interesting to note, per table 5.4, that rates of cohabiting in the United States fall behind Sweden and France, but are far above rates in Japan, Italy, and Poland.

Impact of marriage on health

As described on page 142, a wide variety of studies, from a wide variety of cultures around the world, document that married people have better health status and longer lives...sort of. The "sort of" is due to longitudinal studies that make it clear that marital quality and happiness matters. The physical and emotional benefits of marriage only accrue for those who have happy, satisfying marriages. Even when illness befalls one of the people in a happy marriage (textbook examples of Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's disease), the ill person has fewer physical symptoms of the disease.

Statistics on living at home

As noted on page 138, 55 percent of men and 46 percent of women ages 18 to 24 currently live with their parents. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the median age at which individuals left the parental home was over 20. The age dropped to 19 during the World War II era, and dropped even lower into the 1980s, before beginning its climb to current levels. When grown children do leave the parental home, the reasons today are vastly different from the reasons of 40+ years ago. Review the information on page 139, including the impact of living at home on life satisfaction, as we return to this theme in a Discussion Board question.

Becoming a parent stats: age

As noted on page 144, roughly 85 percent of adults in the United States will eventually become parents. While the percentage of births to 15 to 19 years olds has undergone significant decrease since a peak in the 1950s, the percentage of women having their first child after age 25 has increased significantly. More simply put: we are delaying that age at which women have their children. Per page 144, "the average age at which women gave birth for the first time has increased 3.5 years over the past three decades" in the U.S, but "the delayed pattern...is more apt to be true of non-Hispanic white women and Asian and Pacific Islander women..."

Grandparent statistics

As noted on page 149, 75 percent (three-fourths) of adults become grandparents before 65; over half of all women are younger than 54. Grandparents are "younger, healthier, and more affluent...they also have busy, complex lives with multiples roles." Further, "considering the myriad changes in the lives of middle-aged adults in the last two generations," most individuals will NOT be able to use their own grandparents as models for today's grandparenting role. Studies also tell us that 80 percent of grandparents have seen at least one grandchild in the last month, and 70 percent have shared a meal and bought a gift for the grandchild. While 44 percent of grandparents see at least one grandchild every week, 12 percent have little or no contact. Though this information is not reported in this textbook section, students should be aware of it for test purposes.

Gender Roles in parenting (parental imperative)

As the last paragraph on page 145 notes, "because human children are so vulnerable, parents must meet both the emotional and physical needs of the child, and it is very difficult for one person." Thus, gender roles between a couple become less egalitarian (less equal) after the birth of the first child. This is a so called "parental imperative." Anthropologist David Gutmann argues that the gender role pattern is "wired in, or genetically programmed," based upon his cross-cultural work with many varied cultures.

Trends and Stats in Divorce and Remarrying

At this point, the author merely notes that about one-third of today's young adults, who will eventually divorce within 10 years, will also remarry (usually in about 3 year's time). Unfortunately, divorce rates the "second time around" remain high: "more than half will divorce a second time....about a third of these will remarry once again." Divorce and remarriage often result in an extension/increase in the child rearing years, especially for men. Second marriages for men usually involve a younger woman, and starting a second family. The odds of remarriage are higher if the person is younger at the time of divorce and has fewer children, and higher if the person is a Caucasian male. There are large economic effects of divorce, especially for women. As noted in the textbook, most will see a decline of 40 to 50 percent in their household income. Often, "remarriage is the only sure route back to economic parity." There are many new roles with remarriage, such as the stepparent and the step- grandparent role, but there are few standards or traditions to define some of these roles. This can lead to role conflict and role strain.

Reasons for leaving home

Back in the "old days" (30 to 50-ish years ago) adolescents and young adults left the parental home for reasons of joining the military OR to get married. Today, the primary reasons/motivations when leaving the parental home are to go to college, a desire for personal independence, OR to enter (and I quote the textbook) "nontraditional family arrangements such as cohabitation or single parenthood."

Gender roles middle age (cross over vs expansion)

Based on cross-cultural work, anthropologist David Gutmann identified that in virtually all cultures, middle-aged men become more "communal" in their gender traits and women become more "instrumental" Gutmann called this a gender role "crossover." Psychologists acknowledge that gender behaviors do undergo some revision at mid-life, but feel that the reason is an expansion of gender roles, not a complete crossover. Thus, men continue to display some instrumental traits, while also adding some communal traits to their profile. Women do the opposite, adding instrumental traits to their communal profile. This seems to be especially positive for women, as studies suggest this helps explain why depressive symptoms do NOT increase with menopause.

Learning Schema Theory

Children are taught to view the world and themselves through gender-polarized lenses that make artificial or exaggerated distinctions between what is masculine and what is feminine.

Surrogate parenting

Due to a variety of factors (ranging from teenage childbearing, to drug abuse, illness, and criminal activities), there has been a substantial increase in the number of grandparents who take over the parenting role with their grandchildren. This role is very stressful. As described on page 150 and 151, there are often continuing problems with the biological parent, and with getting financial support to help the child. As well, a higher percentage of these grandchildren have learning disabilities that create additional stresses for the grandparent, both at home and at school. Legal issues are often quite uncertain for the grandparent who ends up as the surrogate parent.

Financial Impact on Caregiver

Family members do not receive financial reimbursement for their caregiving. However, one study (not reported in the textbook) suggests that if family members were paid even a minimum wage for their work, the cost would exceed $196 billion. Students should be aware of this for test purposes.

Gender roles in parenting: Blue and white collar differences

Fathers of today ARE more involved with child rearing than ever before, mothers still provide more of the childcare and household work, per page 146 and 147. Though not reported in this section of the textbook, this appears to be true in all ethnic groups, though (interestingly) African American males and Hispanic males spend MORE time helping with household labor than do Caucasian males. Whether the "parental imperative" (females doing more childcare and household work) is satisfying to a couple depends, in a large measure, on their attitudes and socioeconomic class. Page 146 and 147 indicates that working class (sometimes called blue collar) families have the least amount of marital conflict when gender roles are "traditional" (i.e., the parental imperative), while dual-earner, middle-class (sometimes called white collar) families experience conflict when the wife perceives the husband is not doing his equal share of the work.

Social Role Theory

For exam purposes you should recognize this as the perspective that focuses on division of labor...and what occurs in most cultures around the world is a division of labor whereby women take care of "communal" roles (e.g., cooking and child care) and men take care of "instrumental" roles (e.g., provider and protector). Though the linkage is not made in the textbook, I think this really fits well with the learning schema perspective. By observing the division of labor around us, we are, in fact, being taught about gender roles of the culture.

Gender Roles

Gender roles describe, "what men and women ACTUALLY do in a given culture during a given historical era."

Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes refer to "sets of shared beliefs or generalizations about what men and women in society have in common, often extending to what members of each gender ought to do and how they should behave." These are often INACCURATE and inflexible beliefs about what ALL men and ALL women have in common, what they ought to do and how they should behave according to their genders. Concepts and expectations related to gender shape the general social roles individuals may have.

Grandparenting: gender influences

Grandmothers, especially those on the maternal family side, tend to have broader and more intimate roles than grandfathers. The grandmothers have more contact and show more affection, especially toward their granddaughters. Regardless of gender, a grandparent who perceives him/herself as being skilled at the grandparent role is more involved.

Marital satisfaction and parenting gender differences

However, nothing is psychology is every "simple." In the last two paragraphs on page 147, the textbook author reviews a study by Gottman. Gottman found that while 67 percent of couples fit the U- shaped pattern, 33 percent do not. More specifically, Gottman found two important influencing factors. First, males show little (if any) changes in satisfaction after parenting (per page 147), "husbands who became fathers showed no difference from husbands who remained childless." Second, for women who did NOT experience decreased marital satisfaction, the key reason seemed to be a husband who (early in the relationship) expressed fondness and admiration for his wife and an awareness of his wife and their relationship; Gottman called this the "marital friendship" factor (per page 148). The friendship factor appears to provide a "buffer" to the stresses of parenting. An additional factor of interest from the Gottman study is the finding that wives who became mothers began the marriage with higher levels of marital satisfaction than wives who remained childless during the course of the study.

Williams and Best

Looked at gender themes in 25 different countries, including both industrialized and "third" world (i.e., less developed) nations. In 23 of the 25, the researchers found strong agreement for typical male "qualities" (active, adventurous, daring, independent, etc.) and typical female "qualities" (affectionate, dependent, emotional, etc.). Such cross cultural findings suggest that there must be more than just social learning directing gender roles.

Health Impact on Caregiver

Many family caregivers experience negative impacts on their own physical and mental health, a phenomenon called caregiver burden (page 153). This often occurs as the middle-aged individual tries to manage competing roles and activities: work, caregiving, own spouse, own children, and own grandchildren (the generational squeeze concept presented on page 153). Caregivers are less likely to exercise, follow a nutritious diet, get adequate rest, and remember to take their own medications. Stress increases dramatically if the parent and the caregiving adult child did NOT have a close relationship prior to the beginning of the caregiving experience.

Caregiver burden

Many of the adult children who are caregivers also increase their level of burden because they perceive they are not doing an adequate job. Some seem to operate under a false impression that they are doing less than their parents did in terms of caring for aging parents. We will return to this theme in a Discussion Board question. Caregiver burden is reduced when the adult child receives help. This may be in the form of social support from other family and friends, or instrumental support from paid helpers and community services. Having a rewarding job also helps reduce caregiver burden, though that might sound odd, given that the work role is simply one more demand on the individual's time.

Demographic density

Page 137 refers to young adulthood as the time of demographic density. This concept means that young adulthood is the time when there are the most changes taking place in social roles. Young adulthood as the "peak" time for completing school, marriage, fertility/child bearing, and geographic mobility. The author of the textbook chooses to focus on only three specific changes in this chapter: leaving the parental home, cohabitation and/or marriage, and parenting.

Marital satisfaction and parenting

Page 147 begins to present information on marital satisfaction by describing the "curvilinear relationship" between marital satisfaction and children. In essence, marital satisfaction is highest when a couple first comes together. Marital satisfaction declines with the birth of the first child and satisfaction stays low UNTIL all the children have left the parental home! (This "curvilinear relationship" has also been referred to as a U-shaped curve).

Relationship initiators

Researchers have found that men do more than their share to foster the relationship in early stages (having the role of relationship initiators)

Boomerang rationale

There are many factors influencing the boomerang trend. One is that parents today have greater affluence (wealth) than the young adult, so the parents have a larger home to offer...and as family size has gotten smaller, there are fewer total adult children for the parents to contend with, so it is "easier" to "invite" the young adult to return home. Boomerang also occurs because of recent declines in the economy (harder to get and keep a job that may support the life style desired by the young adult). Increased divorce rates also play a role (harder to manage a job and child care when you are on your own.) It is interesting to note, that moving back to the parental home has a positive impact for the middle aged fathers; their life satisfaction increases. But, it has a negative impact on affection felt by the young adult toward the parents" "adult children who live a home report less affection for their parents than those who life independently.

Impact of marriage on mortality rates

There is also an important gender influence at work when we examine martial status and health status. Page 144 describes, there is a 250 percent mortality differential between married men and unmarried men (with married men living longer), and a 50 percent mortality differential between married women and unmarried women (with married women living longer)...sort of

Evolutionary psychology

This as the theory which holds that "gender roles are dispositional traits within the individual and reflect actual behaviors that are PROGRAMMED IN THE GENES of the human species." These gender traits/behaviors have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. In essence, females act nurturant because they inherit "nurturant" genes and men are competitive because they inherit "competition" genes.

General role themes in middle adulthood

This section begins on page 148 with notations that "during the middle years, existing roles are redefined and renegotiated. This time of life brings better physical health and increases in self-reported quality of life." The textbook author examines four factors that contribute to these general themes: empty nest experience, gender role changes, grandparenthood, and parent caregiving

Grandparenting: Culture/Race

Though not reported in this section of the textbook, studies find that African American and Hispanic grandparents have closer and more frequent contact with their grandchildren, compared to Caucasians. Students should be aware of this information for test purposes.

Caregiving: Gender

Though the "front line" caregiver is usually the spouse of the elder person, if the spouse is not able or present, the adult children step in, with emphasis on daughters and daughters-in-law. Daughters are two to four times as likely as sons to provide care, though sons will provide more assistant if the elder in need is their father. The tendency for children to provide relatively more help to the same-sex parent means that women end up with a much higher probability of providing such care, simply because women(mothers) living longer than men and are thus more likely to require help.

Empty nest: age trends

Today, women are in their early 50s when the last child leaves the parental home; the average male is 55 to 56 years of age. Though one never truly stops being a parent, when the now-adult children leave the home, the parental role becomes far less demanding and time consuming.

Becoming a care recipient

Very few people WANT to become frail and in need of help and assistance from others. Page 155 describes many of the negative effects of becoming a care recipient: elder abuse, family hostility, unwelcome advice, over involvement by family, depression, and erosion of feelings of control and confidence. In fact, when frail elders receive MORE help than they actually need, the impact is negative (increased pain and inactivity). Mentioned only briefly, on page 155, are some of the potential positive aspects of becoming a care recipient: ability to maintain some home independence longer, less financial outlays for care, and opportunity to become closer to family members.

Egalitarian role concept

Whether married or cohabiting, page 142 describes how most relationships begin with egalitarian roles (or equal role divisions). However, home tasks tend to be divided along traditional gender lines and "even in the relatively egalitarian early period of marriage, wives still perform more total hours of household work than do their husbands, even when both are employed."

Empty nest: marital satisfaction

While the now-adult children frequently assume that the transition will be dramatic and traumatic for their parents, studies show quite the opposite. Per the second paragraph on page 149, "marriages are happier than they have been since before the children were born." Parents do go throuhh an evaluative time when the children leave. A study by Ryff found that parents who rate their adult children as successful, and parents who believe they are somewhat responsible for the success, have better mental health and self-perceptions.

Relationship maintainers

Women do more once they have settled into routines (having the role of relationship maintainers

Impact of marriage on health continued...

Women tend to be promoters of good health practices. They are more apt than men to eat regular, nutritious means, exercise regularly, have regular checkups, and avoid unhealthy practices...when men take on the role of husband, they are apt to adopt this healthier lifestyle" and "men gain more than women in overall health from simply being in the role of husband. It gives structure to their lives and provides the impetus to adopt a more "female" style of self-health care. However, the emotional plusses and minuses of day to day relationship quality in the spouse role affects women's health more than men's. When there is companionship and equality in decision making, women's health increases, and when there is conflict at home and at work, women's health declines. Neither of these situations seems to affect the health of men".

Social Roles

page 134 - Social roles are "expected behaviors and attitudes that come with one's position in society." On page 134, the textbook author cites various roles she has played, including teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, and more. To quote the textbook author, "one way adult development is studied is by examining the succession of social roles that adults typically occupy over the years." Per page 134, this chapter examines the "typical" roles at each stage of adulthood, the expected behaviors of each role, factors contributing to "success," and the impact of not meeting role expectations at certain stages of the life span. This is very much in keeping with the "social clock" perspective set forth in Chapters 1 and 2.

Social Timing

page 159 - This phrase refers to "the roles we occupy, how long we occupy them, and the order in which we occupy them." In Roman Numeral II, we explore the eras of young, middle, and older adulthood noting the perceived "order" in which certain roles are thought to occur. Page 160 includes the theoretical perspective of McAdams that "the extent to which one's roles are on-time or off-time is hypothesized to be of prime importance to one's social development and well-being." Some believe that the stronger the correlation a person's social role sequence has with developmental norms (biological and cultural in origin), the less stress he or she will have in life.