Discussion

Copyright @2012 by The McGraw-Hill Group of Companies Inc. All rights Reserved.McGraw-Hill/Irwin

DIVERSITY IN

FAMILIES

CHAPTER 2

2-2

What Is Family?

• A group united by marriage,

cohabitation, blood, and/or adoption in

order to satisfy intimacy needs and/or to

bear and socialize children.

2-3

Variations in Families

• Single parent families

• Racial and ethnic minority families

• Same-sex families

2-4

Challenges of the Single-Parent

Family

Challenges of Single Parents

Challenges of Children of Single Parents

Problems between Parents and Children

2-5

Racial and Ethnic Minority

Families

• The African-American Family

• The Hispanic Family

• The Asian-American Family

• The Native American Family

• The Interracial Family

2-6

Children Living With One Parent

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 1994:66; 2010a.

2-7

Percent of People Below

the Poverty Level: 2007

Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2010b.

2-8

Households by Race, Hispanic Origin,

and Type: 2009

Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2010a.

2-9

Marital Status of the Population,

by Race: 2008

Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2010a.

2-10

Families with Same-Sex Parents

• Same-sex couples are the heads of

nearly 754,000 households in the

United States

• Some states have passed laws

expressly forbidding same-sex

marriages.

2-11

Families with Same-Sex Parents

• Whereas some states have gone a

different direction: In 2004, the

Massachusetts Supreme Court declared

that gays have the right to nothing less

than marriage.

2-12

Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual

Parents

• A national study of gay and lesbian

parents found more similarities than

differences between them and

heterosexual parents.

2-13

Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual

Parents

• They found that gay and lesbian parents

had, in a number of areas, more

positive child-rearing practices:

compared to heterosexual parents, they

were more responsive to their children,

more child oriented, and more

egalitarian in sharing household tasks

between the partners.

2-14

Legal Rights of

Same Sex Families

• Benefits of Domestic Partnership—

employment benefits can amount to as

much as one fourth or more of an

individual’s total compensation

2-15

Legal Rights of

Same Sex Families

• In the state of Vermont, since July 2000,

gay couples may enter into a “civil

union.” A civil union gives same-sex

couples all the benefits accorded to

married heterosexual couples in the

state. However, this does not pertain to

any federal benefits.