capter 13
What groups within the queer community do scholars feel deserve special focus?
1. those who reject the idea of the nuclear family2. people of color3. those in the working class
In the United States, what is usually seen as the biggest priority when deciding to marry?
A love relationship
Theoretically, the term family is applicable to which of the following?
A married couple with unmarried children living at home A man and the several women to whom he is married A single parent with married children living at home A woman and the several men to whom she is married
Following divorce, how does the percentage of custodial mothers living in poverty compare with the percentage of custodial fathers living in economic hardship?
About twice as many custodial mothers live in poverty.
Which of the following are associated with the pattern of child rearing in a family? (Select all that apply.)
Adoption Single-parent families Parenthood
Which of the following statements concerning stepfamilies is true?
Children raised by stepmothers are likely to have less health care, education, and money spent on their food than children raised by biological mothers.
Which societal norm requires mate selection outside certain groups, usually one's own family or certain kinfolk?
Exogamy
______ is the form of mate selection that requires marriage to someone outside of certain groups (usually one's own family or specified kinfolk).
Exogamy
Which of the following statements are true about extended families in comparison with nuclear families?
Extended families have the advantage of forming a larger economic unit for a family farm or business. Extended families are better able to provide support to family members in times of crisis.
True or false: Marriage today is the presumed route from adolescence to adulthood.
False
Which of the following perspectives most heavily focuses on the effects of gender on the dynamics of marriage and the family as a social institution?
Feminist
If Mary is from the United States, we would expect her to list which of the following as part of her kinship network?
Her in-laws Her uncle Her cousin
Which three factors are most likely to might cause adult children to return to live with their parents?
Inability to find a job Divorce Inability to afford housing
Which term defines the prohibition of sexual relations between certain culturally specified relatives?
Incest taboo
Between 1980 and the 2018, how has the number of childless women changed?
It has doubled.
What are the major differences between family and kin?
Kin may come together only on special occasions. Families generally interact on a daily basis.
What is the basic principle of homogamy?
Like marries like.
According to Alice Rossi, what are four factors that complicate the transition to parenthood?
Little "training" for parenthood Limited learning during pregnancy A short transition time from pregnancy to parenthood Lack of clear and helpful guidelines for successful parenthood
Over the past 50 years, which of the following household types has steadily decreased as a percentage of all households in the United States?
Married couple
Which of the following is not an example of homogamy?
Matching people with those who are different from them
Which of the following describes a marriage consisting of only two partners?
Monogamy
What are some of the reasons that the marriage rate has declined since the 1960s?
More and more couples are deciding to form partnerships without marriage. Marriage has lost some of its social significance as a rite of passage. People are postponing marriage until later in life.
What are some of the factors that have contributed to the social acceptance of divorce?
Most states have adopted more liberal divorce laws, such as no-fault divorce. It is no longer considered necessary to endure an unhappy marriage. Wives are becoming less dependent on their husbands for income.
Which of the following is a new factor in modern courtship?
Online dating services
What is true of most cultures that practice polygyny?
Only high-status men have more than one wife.
What are the two basic types of polygamy?
Polygyny and polyandry
Which of the following statements about trends in mate selection in the United States are true?
The process seems to be taking longer today than in the past. Personal concerns about financial security have contributed to delay in the age of marriage.
What factors complicate the availability of accurate statistics on lesbian and gay divorce?
There have been wide differences in state laws about lesbian and gay marriage. Lesbian and gay marriage has only been legal nationwide since 2015. There is a lack of credible research.
What are some of the reasons that couples choose to remain childless in their marriages?
They do not believe that reproduction is a duty. They do not want to take on the expense of raising children.
In Andrew J. Cherlin's study of stepfamilies, how did the levels of wellbeing of stepchildren compare to those of single-parent households?
They were no higher.
Which of the following are likely reasons why persons may choose to remain single?
To be free from limiting oneself to one lifetime partner To remain independent
True or false: Sociologists in the United States study the variations in social class, race, and ethnicity to gain an understanding of family styles.
True
What is the status of women in most polyandrous cultures?
Women are socially devalued.
Why are women less likely to remarry than men are?
Women usually retain custody of the children.
What has been the result of an increasing liberalization in divorce laws in the United States?
a growing social acceptance of divorce
The process of transferring the legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges of parenthood to a new legal parent or parents is called
adoption
According to the functionalist view, the family performs six important functions, including
affection and companionship. protection. socialization. regulation of sexual behavior.
If Mary lives with her grandmother, parents, aunt, cousins, and siblings, she is a member of ______ family.
an extended
Functionalist William F. Ogburn argued that many of the original functions of the family
are now handled by other social institutions.
When media sources report that one out of two marriages ends in divorce, why is the statistic misleading?
because it compares all divorces with only new marriages
What term is used to describe adult children who return to their parents' home for economic or emotional reasons?
boomerang kids
Which sociological perspective stresses the impact of social class on the process of childhood socialization?
c
Donna, a 33-year-old divorcee with two sons, and Mark, a 50-year-old divorcee with two daughters, become engaged and live together. Although they are strongly committed to one another, they never actually go ahead with the marriage. This is an example of
cohabitation.
If John and Ana decide to move in together but do not yet want to get married, their arrangement is an example of
cohabitation.
According to ______ theorists, the family is the basis for transferring power, property, and privilege from one generation to the next.
conflict
Which sociological perspective would be likely to suggest that family decision making reflects the inequality of traditional gender stratification, in which men have held a dominant position over women?
conflict perspective
The impact of lower income has especially affected the family lives of people living in
desolate, rural areas. reservations. inner cities.
Family patterns
differ between cultures.
Challenges faced by lower-class families include
disproportionate numbers of single-parent households. struggling to pay the bills. surviving the crises often associated with a life of poverty.
In some studies of the impacts of divorce on children, the findings show that
divorce can benefit children by reducing their exposure to conflict. divorce can be harder for children to take than living with an unhappy marriage.
The existence of families in which the spouses live separately for work-related reasons shows acceptance of the ______ family type.
egalitarian
An example of endogamy is
encouraging people to marry within their own racial, ethnic, or religious group.
The form of mate selection that requires that marriage occur between people belonging to the same group but prohibiting unions between people from different groups is called
endogamy.
In the United States, variations in family lifestyles are associated with social class, race, and
ethnicity.
A married couple, their children, and other relatives—such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles—living together in the same household constitute a(n)
extended family.
Polygamy, polygyny, and polyandry are all forms of serial monogamy.
false
The transition to parenthood is gradual.
false
In all cultures, which of the following assumes the ultimate responsibility for the protection and upbringing of children?
families
The term _______ is the substantive definition of a set of people related by blood, adoption, marriage, or some other agreed-upon relationship who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society.
family
According to the ______ perspective, the government has an interest in encouraging adoption.
functionalist
Which sociological perspective notes the ways in which the family gratifies the needs of its members and contributes to the stability of society?
functionalist perspective
If a person selects a mate who has a similar personal characteristics and similar cultural interests, that person is engaging in
homogamy.
If a brother and sister married in the United States they would be guilty of
incest.
The ______ perspective focuses on the family at the micro level, looking at things such as the role parents might play in their children's school performance.
interactionist
Which sociological perspective(s) would most likely focus attention on the personal relationships between stepparents and their stepchildren and the family dynamics involved in such relationships?
interactionist perspective
Black and Native American families draw on large ______ networks to help in times of hardship.
kinship
The state of being related to others, known as ______, is culturally learned and not totally determined by marital or biological ties.
kinship
Studies suggest that children raised in families with stepmothers are more likely to have
less health care.
Cohabitation can best be defined as living together without a legal
marriage.
When doing genealogy, if Mary only focuses on her mother's side as important in identifying kin, she is looking at ______ descent.
matrilineal
A kinship system that favors the relatives of the mother is based on
matrilineal descent.
The main difference between families and kin groups is that a family is a daily household unit, whereas kin groups
may only come together once in a while for major events.
Interactionists focus on the ______ level of family and other intimate relationships.
micro
What percentage of American men and women get married at least once?
more than 95%
The way to produce healthy, well-adjusted offspring is
not clearly defined.
Most people in the United States regard the ______ family as the preferred type of family arrangement.
nuclear
A nuclear family can be described as the ______, or core, on which larger family groups are built.
nucleus
More and more couples are becoming dual-income families because
of economic need. both partners wish to pursue careers.
In the U.S., endogamous rules stressed by many groups include marriage within
one's own racial, ethnic, and religious group.
By 2016, about ______ of U.S. households consisted of a nuclear family.
one-third
What are the most important factors in most arranged marriages?
parental approval economic advantage religious permission
In a(n) ______, the eldest male wields the greatest power.
patriarchy
A variation of polygamy in which a woman has more than one husband at the same time is called
polyandry.
In some societies, a man will marry a woman and her sisters. This is a form of
polygyny.
When a man is married to more than one woman at the same time, he is practicing
polygyny.
Marriage of a man to more than one woman at the same time is ______, and marriage of a woman to more than one man at the same time is ______.
polygyny; polyandry
A form of marriage in which a person is married to several spouses over a lifetime but to only one spouse at a time is called
serial monogamy.
Steve and Mary are married and then get a divorce. Steve then marries Rachel, and they get a divorce, too. Steve remarries Mary and lives with her until she dies. After Mary's death, Steve marries Beth and lives with her until his death. These relationships of Steve's life are an example of
serial monogamy.
After his divorce from Wanda, Willy has custody of his two young children. Fortunately, his job allows him to work from home on his computer, and he is able to earn a living to support his family and to spend as much time as necessary supervising and caring for his children. This is an example of a(n)
single-parent family.
Feminist theorists contribute to research on
single-parent households. revising the thinking that families with no adult male are dysfunctional. households in which the wife earns more than the husband.
What three factors most influence romantic attraction and mate selection in the United States?
societal conventions personal preferences cultural norms
Interactionist researchers found that, in both Black and white two-parent households, when fathers are more involved with their children
the children have fewer behavior problems, get along better with others, and are more responsible.
Divorce began to decline in many countries in the 1980s because of
the decline in the proportion of people of marriageable age. the aging of the baby boomer population.
Conflict theorists view the family not as a contributor to social stability but as a reflection of
the inequality of wealth and power that is found in the larger society.
The term incest taboo refers to
the prohibition of sexual relationships between certain culturally specified relatives.
According to the interactionist perspective, low-income teenage girls might want to have children because
they suffer from low self-esteem and believe they have nothing to lose. having a baby provides purpose and a sense of motivation.
Family patterns differ from one culture to another and even within the same culture.
true
Interactionist theorists emphasize the relationships among family members.
true
Most states have adopted more liberal divorce laws in the past decades.
true
The family as an institution exists in all cultures.
true
The most consistent aspect of family life in this country has been the high rate of marriage.
true
The term we use for the "like marries like" rule is homogamy.
true
True or False: Sociologists refer to the family as universal because it is found in every culture.
true
Sociological research shows that in recent decades, differences in family life among social classes have become less pronounced because more families from all social classes
turned to the same books, magazines, and television shows for advice on child rearing.
Caring for children is
varied across cultures. a universal function. varied within cultures.
In terms of total numbers, the majority of unmarried teenage mothers in the United States are
white.
