Chapter 9
Parents of a typical family with two children can expect to spend how much to raise each child up to age 17?
$160,000 -$370,000
More than a third of baby-boom mothers had four children each. By 2006, only about what percentage of women turning 45 had that number of children?
12%
On average, American families have how many children?
2
What percentage of all pregnancies are identified as "unintended"?
50%
Although fewer parents are married now than in the past, why are many children involved with more than two parents?
A growing number of families include stepparents and siblings from parents' previous relationships.
How have adoption patterns in the United States shifted over the past half-century?
Adoption has become less common, but it is more open and acceptable.
In the early part of the twentieth century, it was incredibly dangerous to be a child, with almost 200 children killed in New York City streets in 1911. In 2009, only 14 children were killed in motor vehicle accidents in New York City, despite the growing population. What does this mean sociologically?
American children lost their economic value and achieved a new emotional value.
Jackson, age 10, just received his first cellular phone. What does this mean in relation to his parents?
His parents will be more likely to know what he is doing.
From the 1960s to the 1990s-a period when women's employment rates grew rapidly-the time mothers spent with their children actually did increase. How was that possible?
Mothers engaged in less of other things, like sleeping and leisure
Barbara is a 35-year-old executive at a banking firm. What is the opportunity cost of her decision to have children?
She risks halting or losing her stature within the company or industry.
The relatively high fertility rate among Latinos partly explains the growth of their population in the country as a whole. What is one of the reasons for this pattern?
The Latino population includes many young, healthy adults.
Paul spends nearly every Saturday with his two children. This is very different from his parents, who rarely spent time with Paul and his four siblings. This shift reflects which goal of modern parents?
The correct answer is: investing more in fewer children
In her book The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood, sociologist Sharon Hays describes an ideology she calls intensive motherhood, which is
a cultural pressure on women to devote more time, energy, and money to raising their kids.
Falling rates of abortion may be due in part to which trend?
attacks on abortion providers
The greatest expenses in raising children tend to come from
child care and education
The decline in international adoptions was part of a worldwide trend in which the act was
closely scrutinized for ethical and legal violations.
Children are most likely to be adopted through which method
foster care
Emily, a 25-year-old white woman, just found out she is infertile. What is one factor that may have led to her infertility?
her history of sexually transmitted infections
A number of historical events undermined the dominance of the male provider ideal, such as the
increase in women's employment
Until the 1960s, the male provider ideal was the dominant conception of what a father should be. The current dominant American ideal is the
involved father
Although Jeff has a high-paying job, he decided to take a lower-paying position so that he could spend more time with his kids, reflecting
involved father ideal
The high frequency of unintended births, especially among women or couples with less education or fewer economic resources, partly results from
lack of access to good-quality medical care.
Forty-one percent of all children born in the United States are born to parents who aren't married, up from 28 percent in 1990. This trend is closely tied to
the decline of marriage
The sociological definition of fertility focuses on
the number of children born in a society or among a particular group.
Many adults influence the life of a child. The adults who have the most direct influence are
those who live with them
