Sociology Ch12 Family

Trouble in Families

Due to the mutual interdependence of family relationships, the potential for emotional, social, and physical risk is also inherent in family dynamics.

Homogamy

The tendency to choose romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership.

Propinquity

The tendency to partner with people who live close by

Income poses a problem for retirees:

2016, 9.3 percent lived below the poverty line, and some move in with others to solve this problem.The proportion of older adults living alone increases with age.Care of the elderly is no longer a primary duty of family and has been taken over by other institutions.

The Work of Family

Both paid work and unpaid work are needed to keep a family operating.Unpaid work is labor intensive and emotionally draining, but often unacknowledged and unrewarded.

Child and elder abuse

Child abuse and elder abuse are typically committed by caregivers.In addition to the types of abuse common to cases of domestic violence, children and elders may also suffer from neglect.

Postmodern Families: The New Normal

Currently, many family structures are being formed that look very different from the traditional family. These improvisational forms of family are a response to the changing needs of family.Though these nontraditional family structures have always existed, the model has only recently entered the mainstream.

Pattern maintenance

Families produce and socialize the future workers and members of society.Instrumental and emotional support. Family provides spouses, parents, and siblings for emotional support.

Symbolic Interactionism

Family relations are defined by interactions and not by how families are structured. Family is a fluid, adaptable set of concepts and practices that people use to construct social bonds. Family members create and fulfill their roles through interactions with each other.

Feminist and queer theory

Feminist and queer theory focus specifically on the interplay between gender and sexuality in family and society. Both theories challenge "traditional" views on the family that privilege males and demonstrate that diverse and egalitarian family structures are possible.

Gender, sexuality, and family labor

Gender inequality is common within families, with women often doing a "second shift" of unpaid labor.

Polygamy

Having more than one spouse

What Is the Family?

Modern ideas of the family are historically, culturally, and situationally constructed. The U.S. Census Bureau defines family as two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption living in the same household.

Child support

Money paid by the noncustodial parent in order to defray the expenses of raising a child.

Structural functionalism

Society's survival requires institutions that can serve its essential functions: Economic production, the socialization of children, instrumental and emotional support, and sexual control. Ex: Emile Durkheim "Suicide", Parsons "Pattern Maintenance" societal patterns passed on that help societies run smoothly.

The pre-Industrial Revolution definition of family

Tended to mean extended family... Along the way family moved from a more public social institution to a private one.

Unmarried life

The average American spends the majority of their life as unmarried. Many people are choosing never to marry. Marriage is no longer the prerequisite for childbearing. Single and solo parenting Some people become single parents after a divorce or the other parent's death; others choose to raise children on their own.Black children are much more likely to be raised by a single parent.

Family and the Life Course

The family molds everyone and its influences continue throughout the life course.Parents have a direct influence on their children, but other children also may exert types of influence.

Economic production

The nuclear family frees individuals from obligations to extended family, so they can devote more time and effort to production.

Conflict theory

The nuclear family is the primary economic unit in capitalist societies and contributes to the oppression of capitalism.Family members compete for resources: time, energy, and the leisure to pursue more interesting recreational activities.Considering men to be "heads of household" and not (fairly) compensating women for their contributions to the family perpetuates gender inequality. Age and ability may also be bases for inequality.

Aging in the family

The number of Americans sixty-five or older is growing twice as fast as the population as a whole.This is due to the Baby Boom generation moving into middle age and beyond, concurrent with advances in medical technology.

Breaking Up

The percentage of married people who have divorced have increased greatly since 1950. The divorce rate has actually decreased by 18 percent from 2006 to 2018. More previously married men remarry (64 percent) than previously married women (52 percent). Remarriage rates are significantly lower among younger Americans due, in part, to increase in cohabitation. Custody, visitation, and child support

Blended families

There are no traditional norms or models for stepfamilies. It is often difficult to quantify and define the relationships within stepfamilies.The majority of blended families are heterosexual, but some are of "mixed orientation."

Childfree living

While a stigma still pervades about child-free living, more women are choosing to not have children.Having a baby can be more devastating to parents than a divorce, unemployment, or even the death of their partner. Child-free couples are happier in their relationships and more satisfied with their partners than couples with children.

Cycle of violence

a common behavior pattern in abusive relationships; the cycle begins happily, then the relationship grows tense, and the tension explodes in abuse, followed by a period of contrition that allows the cycle to repeat.

Polyandry

a form of marriage in which women have more than one husband

Marriage

a formally recognized bond between two spouses, establishing contractual rights and obligations between them.

Nuclear family

a heterosexual couple, usually married, living in their own household and raising children.

Extended family

a large group of kin, or relatives, which could include grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins living in one household.

Family

a social group whose members are bound by some type of tie—legal, biological, emotional, or a combination of all three.

Polyamory

a type of multiple-person partnership in which each individual, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, is in a relationship with each of the other individuals belonging to the group.

Domestic abuse:

an umbrella term for a variety of behaviors that involve violence or abuse within a household setting. Psychological, Sexual, Financial, Verbal, Physical

Cohabitation

couples choosing to live together without marrying.

Polygyny

having more than one wife at a time

Neglect

inadequate nutrition, insufficient clothing or shelter, and unhygienic or unsafe living conditions.Abandonment is one form of neglect in which caregivers refuse to provide food, shelter, health care, or protection to an elder.Sexual abuse is another form of abuse that exploits the trust children put in their caregivers.Older adults may be financially exploited by relatives or other caregivers stealing or misusing their property or resources.

Monogamy

marriage to (or being in a relationship with) only one person at a time.

Exogamy

marriage to someone from another social group.

Endogamy

marriage to someone within one's social group.

Kin

relatives or relations, usually those related by common descent. Ex: Cousins, grandparents, uncles ,aunts etc..

Same-sex couples

tend to communicate better, share duties (including child care) more fairly, and assign chores based on personal preference rather than by gender, income, or hours worked.

Expressive tasks

the emotional work necessary to support family members; they achieve emotional and relationship goals. Most unpaid work has both instrumental and expressive elements.

Adoption

the legal process of acquiring parental responsibilities for a child other than one's biological offspring. In today's society, family arrangements are so varied and diverse that it makes no sense to limit the concept of kinship.

Custody

the physical and legal responsibility for the everyday life and routines of children.Courts award visitation to noncustodial parents to protect parent-child relationships.Women experience, on average, a 25 percent decline in economic well-being after a divorce.

Instrumental tasks

the practical physical tasks necessary to maintain family life; they achieve tangible goals.

Antimiscegenation

the prohibition of marriage, cohabitation, or sexual interaction between racial groups; the last of these laws was declared unconstitutional in 1967.

Second shift

the unpaid housework and child care often expected of women after they finish their day's paid labor. Hochschild and Machung's 1989 study found that women employ numerous strategies to manage and balance the workloads of their paid and unpaid labor.

Supermoms

women who accept their dual workloads without help to avoid conflicts with spouses and children; often feel unhappy and emotionally numb.Their concept of the "Supermom" has applied to working-class mothers all along.