Chapter 12: Life at Home Families and Relationships

1. Chapter 12: Life at Home Families and Relationships

2. What Is the Family? • The U.S. Census Bureau defines family as two or more individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption living in the same household. • According to sociologists, a family is defined as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a combination of all three.

3. What Is the Family? (cont’d.) • An extended family is a large group of relatives, usually including at least three generations living either in one household or in close proximity. • Kin is defined as relatives or relations, usually those related by common descent.

4. What Is the Family? (cont’d.) • A nuclear family is a heterosexual couple with one or more children living in a single household.

5. Diversity in Families • Endogamy refers to marriage to someone within one’ssocial group (such as race, ethnicity, class, education, religion, region, or nationality). • Exogamy refers to marriage to someone from a different social group.

6. Diversity in Families (cont’d.) • From the time of slavery through the 1960s, many states had antimiscegenation laws (the prohibition of interracial marriage, cohabitation, or sexual interaction).

7. Diversity in Families (cont’d.) • Monogamy, the practice of marrying (or being in a relationship with) one person at a time, is still considered the only legal form of marriage in modern western culture. • Polygamy, a system of marriage that allows people to have more than one spouse at a time, is practiced among some subcultures around the world, but is not widely acknowledged as a legitimate form of marriage.

8. Diversity in Families (cont’d.) • The more common form of polygamy is polygyny, which is a system of marriage that allows men to have multiple wives. • Polyandry, a system of marriage that allows women to have multiple husbands, is a more rare form of polygamy.

9. Sociological Perspectives on the Family • Structural functionalism views the family as one of the basic institutions that keeps society running smoothly by providing functions such as producing and socializing children, economic production, instrumental and emotional support, and sexual control.

10. Sociological Perspectives on the Family • Conflict theorists believe that society revolves around conflict over scarce resources, and that conflict within the family is also about the competition for resources: time, energy, and the leisure to pursue recreational activities.

11. Sociological Perspectives on the Family • Symbolic interactionists examine the types of social dynamics and interactions that create and sustain families, emphasizing the ways that our experiences of family bonds are socially created rather than naturally existing.

13. Forming Relationships, Selecting Mates • The process of selecting mates is largely determined by society, and two concepts (homogamy and propinquity) tell us a lot about how this process works.

14. Forming Relationships, Selecting Mates (cont’d.) • Homogamy means “like marries like,” and is demonstrated by the fact that we tend to choose mates who are similar to us in class, race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, and even levels of attractiveness. • Propinquity is the tendency to marry or have relationships with people in close geographic proximity.

15. Doing the Work of Family Many types of work (both paid and unpaid) are necessary to keep a family operating. These tasks can be either instrumental or expressive.

16. Doing the Work of Family (cont’d.)

17. Doing the Work of Family (cont’d.) • Men and women have always performed different roles to ensure the survival of their families, but these roles were not considered unequal until after the Industrial Revolution.

18. Doing the Work of Family (cont’d.) • Women nowadays have two jobs: paid labor outside the home and unpaid labor inside the home. • Second shift — unpaid labor inside the home that is often expected of women after they get home from working at paid labor outside the home

19. Family and the Life Course Children’sexperiences are shaped by family size, birth order, presence or absence of parents, socioeconomic status, and other sociological variables. In turn, the presence of children affects the lives of parents. 19

20. Family and the Life Course (cont’d.) • Life expectancy is increasing. What is happening to the elderly population? • About 10 percent of the elderly live below the poverty line. • Care of the elderly is no longer a primary function of family: over 40 percent of senior citizens will spend time in a nursing home.

21. Trouble in Families • Domestic violence is by far the most common form of family violence. It includes behaviors abusers use to gain and maintain power over their victims. Abuse can be: • Physical • Verbal • Financial • Sexual • Psychological

22. Cycle of Violence in Abusive Relationships • Stage one: Relationship seems normal. • Stage two: The victim “walks on eggshells” to avoid arguments. • Stage three: Acute battering and violence occur, lasting for seconds, hours, or even days. The abuser blames the victim. • Stage four: The abuser apologizes profusely and promises that it will never happen again.

23. Trouble in Families (cont’d.) • Rates of domestic violence are about equal across racial and ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and religious groups. • People are more likely to be killed or attacked by family members than anyone else.

24. Trouble in Families (cont’d.) • Children and the elderly also suffer at the hands of abusive family members. Child and elder abuse are likely to be underreported, due in part to the relative powerlessness of the victims and the private settings of the abuse.

25. Trouble in Families (cont’d.) • Another kind of abuse children may experience is neglect(a form of child abuse in which the caregiver fails to provide adequate nutrition, sufficient clothing or shelter, or hygienic and safe living conditions).

26. Trouble in Families (cont’d.) • Another form of child abuse is incest (proscribed sexual contact between family members; this is a form of child abuse when it occurs between a child and a caregiver). • Elder abuse can include violence and abuse, as well as financial exploitation, theft, neglect, and abandonment.

27. Divorce and Breakups • As of March 2002, the U.S. Census reported that more than 123 million persons were married while about 21 million were divorced. Research indicates that about 50 percent of all first marriages now end in divorce and most who divorce remarry.

28. U.S. Divorce Rate, 1920-2011

29. Divorce and Breakups (cont’d.) • Mothers still disproportionately receive custody (physical and legal responsibility for children, assigned by a court), but there is now a trend toward joint custody. • Women are more likely to suffer downward economic mobility after divorce, especially if they retain custody of their children.

30. Trends in American Families • About 5 percent of all households are occupied by couples who are cohabitating (living together as a romantically involved, unmarried couple).

31. Trends in American Families (cont’d.) • Increases have occurred in the numbers of: • Single people • People who are cohabitating • Single parents • People who are living in intentional communities

33. The Postmodern Family • Families adapting to the challenges of a postmodern society may create family structures that look very different from the “traditional” family and can include ex-spouses, new partners and children, other kin, and even nonkin such as friends and coworkers.

34. Chapter 12: Participation Questions • In addition to your immediate family, do you also live with members of your extended family in your household? • yes • no

35. Chapter 12: Participation Questions • Have you ever dated someone whom you met online, without meeting in person first? • yes • no

36. Chapter 12: Participation Questions • Do you know anyone who has been the victim of domestic violence? • yes • no

37. Chapter 12: Participation Questions • Are your parents still in a relationship? • yes • no

38. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 12