Family: a set of people related by blood, marriage, or some other agreed-on relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society

One-third of people between 18 and 34 live with their parents.

More women are taking the breadwinner’s role.

“Family” is inadequate to describe some arrangements, including cohabitating partners, same-sex marriages, and single-parent households

Global View of the Family

Many variations in the family from culture to culture

Family as a social institution exists in all cultures.

Certain general principles concerning composition, kinship patterns, and authority patterns are universal.

Composition: What Is the Family 1

Nuclear family: a married couple and their unmarried children living together

By 2016, only 29 percent of U.S. family households fit this model.

Number of single-parent households has increased.

Extended family: a family in which relatives live in the same home as parents and their children

Crises put less stress on family members as more are present to provide assistance and support.

Larger economic unit than a nuclear family.

Composition: What Is the Family 2

Figure 12-1: Living Arrangements of Adults Age 18 and Over, 2017

Note: “All others” includes adults who live with a parent, roommate, sibling, foster child, or grandchild.

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Source: Bureau of the Census 2017d:Figure A D-3a

Composition: What Is the Family 3

Monogamy: describes a form of marriage in which an individual only has one partner

Serial monogamy: a person may have several spouses in a lifetime, but only one spouse at a time

Polygamy: a form of marriage where an individual has several husbands or wives simultaneously

Declined during the 20th century.

In at least five African countries, 20 percent of men still have polygamous marriages.

Composition: What Is the Family 4

There are two types of polygamy

Polygyny: refers to the marriage of a man to more than one woman at the same time

Wives are often sisters who share same values.

In these societies, relatively few men have several wives.

Polyandry: a woman may have more than one husband at the same time

Kinship Patterns: To Whom Are We Related? 1

Kinship: the state of being related to others

Culturally learned and not totally determined by biology or marital ties.

Adoption creates a legal kinship tie.

Kinship ties frequently create obligations and responsibilities.

Kinship Patterns: To Whom Are We Related? 2

Principle of descent assigns people to kinship groups according to their relationship to a mother or father

Bilateral descent: both sides of a person’s family are regarded as equally important.

Patrilineal descent: only the father’s relatives are important in terms of property, inheritance, and emotional ties.

Matrilineal descent: only the mother’s relatives are significant.

Authority Patterns: Who Rules?

Societies vary in the way power is distributed within the family

Patriarchy: males are expected to dominate in all family decision making.

Matriarchy: women have greater authority than men.

Egalitarian family: family in which spouses are regarded as equals.

Many sociologists feel the egalitarian family is replacing the patriarchal family in the United States as the social norm.

Research Today: An Extraordinary Patriarchy: The Oneida Community

Would a society based on free love tend to be long-lasting? What social forces would make it stay together or fall apart?

Was the Oneida Community a family? Why or why not?

Sociological Perspectives on the Family

Do we really need the family?

Conflict theorists argue families contribute to societal injustice.

Functionalists focus on the ways families gratify the needs of its members and contributes to social stability.

Interactionists focus on the face-to-face relationships in families.

Feminists examine the role of the mother and wife, especially when there is no adult male.

Functionalist Perspective 1

Family serves six functions for society

Reproduction.

Protection.

Socialization.

Regulation of sexual behavior.

Affection and companionship.

Provision of social status.

Functionalist Perspective 2

Families have traditionally filled other functions

Providing religious training.

Education.

Recreational outlets.

Other institutions now handle these functions.

Conflict Perspective 1

Family is seen as a reflection of the inequality in wealth and power found in the larger society.

Family has traditionally legitimized and perpetuated male dominance.

Historically, wives and children were viewed as property.

First wave of contemporary feminism challenged this status.

Male dominance over the family has not disappeared.

Number of fathers at home with their children has doubled since 19 89.

However, still an increase in the number of fathers who do not live with the family.

Conflict Perspective 2

Family is an economic unit that contributes to social injustice.

Family is the basis for transferring power, property, and privilege from one generation to the next.

Children inherit the social and economic status of their parents.

Interactionist Perspective

Focuses on micro level of family and other intimate relationships

Interested in how individuals interact with each other, whether cohabiting partners or longtime married couples

To generalize about the family or household relationships, one must consider the growing complexity of how family formation occurs.

Feminist Perspective

Strong interest in family as social institution

Close look at how women’s work outside home impacts child care and housework duties.

Urge social scientists and agencies to rethink notion that families in which no adult male is present automatically cause for concern.

Resiliency of single-mother households.

Need to study neglected topics, such as dual-income households where the wife earns more.

Tracking Sociological Perspectives

Table 12-1: Sociological Perspectives on the Family

Theoretical Perspective	Emphasis
Functionalist	The family as a contributor to social stability Roles of family members
Conflict	The family as a perpetuator of inequality Transmission of poverty or wealth across generations
Interactionist	Relationships among family members
Feminist	The family as a perpetuator of gender roles Female-headed households

Marriage and the Family

Over 95 percent of all men and women in the United States marry at least once during their lifetimes.

Indications of a miniboom in marriages of late despite high divorce rates.

Social institutions and distinctive cultural norms and values play important role in romance and mate selection.

Courtship and Mate Selection 1

In the past, most couples met through family or friends in their neighborhood or workplace.

Today, many couples meet through online dating services.

Mate selection is taking longer today than in the past.

Factors that delay marriage

Financial security.

Personal independence.

Courtship and Mate Selection 2

Figure 12-2: Median Age at First Marriage in Eight Countries

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Source: Bureau of the Census 2017e:Table M S-2. Flags: ©admin_design/Shutterstock

Our Wired World

Love is in the Air and on the Web

Have you ever gone out with a person you met online? If so, did the person resemble his or her online presentation? In what ways?

Which method of locating other singles do you think would be more useful, going to an online dating site or using an app to locate singles near you? Explain.

Aspects of Mate Selection 1

Endogamy: specifies groups within which spouse must be found and prohibits marriage with members of other groups

Intended to reinforce the cohesiveness of the group.

Interracial and interethnic marriages are still the exception in the United States.

Exogamy: requires mate selection outside certain groups, usually one’s family or certain kinfolk

Incest taboo: a social norm common to all societies prohibiting sexual relationships between certain culturally specified relatives.

Aspects of Mate Selection 2

Homogamy: the conscious or unconscious tendency to select mate with personal characteristics similar to one’s own

While some people follow this, others follow the “opposites attract” rule.

The Love Relationship

Parents in the United States tend to value love highly as a rationale for marriage.

Encourage children to develop intimate relationships based on love and affection.

Popular culture (books, movies, songs, etc.) reinforces the theme of love.

The coupling of love and marriage is not a cultural universal.

Many cultures give priority in mate selection to other factors.

Variations in Family Life and Intimate Relationships

Variations in family life are created by social class, race, and ethnicity.

Social Class Differences 1

U.S. upper class emphasizes lineage and maintenance of family position.

Concerned about proper training for children.

Lower-class families likely to have one parent at home, and children typically assume adult responsibilities.

Concerned about paying bills and crises associated with poverty.

Social Class Differences 2

Social class differences less striking today

Increasingly more families turn to the same sources for rearing children.

Among college-educated, marriage is delayed and divorce rates are relatively low.

Among poor, women play a significant role in family’s economic support.

Disproportionate representation of female-headed households among the poor (feminization of poverty).

Racial and Ethnic Differences 1

Subordinate status of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States affects family lives.

Lower income makes creating and maintaining successful marital unions more difficult.

Immigration policy of the United States has complicated the successful relocation of intact families from Asia and Latin America.

No father is present in a significantly higher proportion of black than white families.

Black single mothers often belong to stable, functioning kin networks.

Black family life has deep religious commitment and high achievement aspirations.

Racial and Ethnic Differences 2

Native Americans draw on family ties to cushion many hardships.

Teenage parenthood not regarded as a crisis.

Couples reside with the wife’s family after marriage.

Mexican Americans are described as more familistic than many other subcultures.

Machismo: sense of virility, personal worth, and pride in one’s maleness.

Familism: pride in extended family expressed through the maintenance of close ties and strong obligations to kinfolk.

Racial and Ethnic Differences 3

Figure 12-3: Rise of Single-Parent Families in the United States, 19 70 to 2016

Note: Families are groups with children under 18. Early data for Asian Americans are for 19 80. White data are for non-Hispanic whites. Not included are unrelated people living together with no children present. All data exclude children who live with neither parent.

Sources: Bureau of the Census 2008a:56; 2017f:Table C3.

Child-Rearing Patterns

Caring for children is a universal function of the family.

Ways in which societies assign this function to family members differ.

Today, fewer than one in five children live in a household with a father present and working, a mother present, and no other step or custodial children present.

Parenthood and Grandparenthood

Four factors complicate transition to adulthood and role of socialization

Little anticipatory socialization for caregiver role.

Limited learning occurs during pregnancy.

Abrupt transition to parenthood.

Lack of clear and helpful guidelines for successful parenthood.

About 10 percent of all children live with a grandparent.

Adoption

Adoption: the transfer of legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges of parenthood to new legal parent or parents

Every year, about 110,000 children are adopted.

Functionalist perspective: government has a strong interest in encouraging adoption because it offers a stable family environment.

Interactionist perspective: adoption may require child to adjust to very different family environment and parental approach to child rearing.

Research Today

Transracial Adoption: The Experience of Children from Korea

As a child, did you know anyone who may have been transracially adopted? If so, did the child fit in well with his or her peers? Relate your answer to the community you grew up in.

Compare the experience of transracial adoption to the experience of entering a blended family. From the child’s point of view, what might be the advantages and disadvantages of each? From the parents’ point of view, what might be the challenges of each?

Dual-Income Families

Among couples with children under 18, 93 percent of the men and 71 percent of the women were in the labor force in 2016.

Rise in the number of dual-income couples

Economic need.

Desire by both members to pursue their careers.

Commuter marriages have risen.

Single-Parent Families 1

Single-parent families: only one parent present to care for children

In 2016, a single parent headed 21 percent of white families with children, 30 percent of Hispanic families, and 59 percent of black families.

In recent decades, stigma attached to unwed mothers and other single parents has significantly diminished.

Life in single-parent households can be extremely stressful.

Single-Parent Families 2

In 19 50, 85 percent of single parents were mothers.

By 2017, 78 percent of single families were headed by women.

Single fathers typically more isolated than single mothers

Stepfamilies

Rising rates of divorce and remarriage increased number of stepfamily relationships

The nature of blended families has social significance for adults and children.

Children may not be better off than children of divorced, single-parent households.

Children raised in families with stepmothers are less likely to have health care, education, and money spent on their food.

Divorce

Tension exists between commitments to both marriage and self-expression/personal growth.

Tensions can undermine a marriage and lasting relationships.

Statistical Trends in Divorce 1

Divorce statistics are difficult to interpret.

Media report one out of every two marriages ends in divorce.

Based on the number of divorces in a year with the number of marriages in the same year.

70 percent of marriages that began in the 19 90s were still together as of late 2014.

Those who married between 2000 and 2010 have a stronger tendency to stay together.

Divorce rate has declined since the late 19 80s in many countries.

Statistical Trends in Divorce 2

Figure 12-4: Trends in Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 19 20 to 2014

Sources: Bureau of the Census 19 75:64; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2012b, 2017a.

Statistical Trends in Divorce 3

57 percent of all divorced people have remarried.

Women less likely to remarry than men because of child custody

Factors Associated with Divorce

Most important factor is a greater social acceptance of divorce worldwide

Contributing factors in the United States

More liberal divorce laws.

More practical options in newly formed families.

A general increase in family incomes.

Greater opportunities for women mean less dependence on husbands.

Impact of Divorce on Children

National study that tracked 6,332 children before and after divorce found behavior did not suffer.

Other studies have shown greater unhappiness among children who live amidst parental conflict than among children whose parents are divorced.

About 62 percent of court-ordered child support is paid.

Proportion of custodial mothers in poverty is 31.8 percent, which is about twice as many as custodial fathers in poverty.

Lesbian and Gay Relationships

Some lesbians and gay men live alone or with roommates; others in long-term, monogamous relationships.

2015: U.S. Supreme Court ruled Constitution guarantees right to same-sex marriage, nationwide

Same-sex divorce complicated by jurisdictional issues

Queer theorists point out the lack of high-quality research on L G B T households.

Diverse Lifestyles

Marriage has lost much of its social significance as rite of passage.

Decline in U.S. marriage rates since 19 60.

Marriage often postponed until later.

More partnerships without marriage.

Cohabitation

Cohabitation: practice of living together as male–female couple without marrying

About half of currently married couples in the United States lived together before marriage.

About 40 percent of couples’ households had children under age 18.

Cohabitation is very common in Europe.

Remaining Single

Fewer than 4 percent of women and men in the United States are likely to remain single throughout their lives.

Reasons why people may decide not to marry

Do not want to limit sexual intimacy.

Desire not to be highly dependent on someone.

Greater ability to follow values of individuality and self-fulfillment.

Marriage without Children

Modest increase in childlessness in the United States

16 to 22 percent of women will complete their childbearing years without having children.

Up from 9 to 10 percent in 19 80.

“Child-free” versus being “childless”

Having children is expensive.

Concerns about workplace practices regarding child care

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 1

Looking at the Issue

In 2010, the United States became the only industrialized nation that does not mandate paid family leave.

Employers are not even required to grant unpaid leave.

International Labor Organization found that the United States is only one of two countries that provides no cash benefits for women during maternity leave.

Worldwide, 98 nations provide minimum 14 weeks’ maternity leave; 107 nations require some pay during woman’s leave.

Paternity leave less common but increasing.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 2

Figure 12-5: Paid Maternity Leave, Selected Countries, 2013

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Source: Addati, Laura, Naomi Cassirer, and Katherine Gilchrist. Maternity and Paternity at Work, Law and Practice Across the World. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2014:133 to 143, 150 to 166.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 3

Figure 12-6: Paid Paternity Leave, Selected Countries, 2013

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Source: Addati, Laura, Naomi Cassirer, and Katherine Gilchrist. Maternity and Paternity at Work, Law and Practice Across the World. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2014:133 to 143, 150 to 166.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 4

Applying Sociology

Functionalists say that family leave is important as a means of facilitating parent–child interaction crucial to socialization.

Interactionists look at family leave policy’s impact on everyday relations at work and at home.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 5

Applying Sociology

Conflict theorists note the inherent class bias in family leave policy.

Small number of affluent employees are the ones who receive paid leave.

Most paid leave programs in the United States are limited to long-term, full-time employees.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 6

Applying Sociology

Feminist scholars say 70 percent of children live in households with two working adults.

Flexibility stigma: the devaluation of workers who seek or are presumed to need flexible work arrangements

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 7

Initiating Policy

The Family and Medical Leave Act (19 93) entitled some employees to unpaid, job-protected leave.

Some private corporations adopted family friendly policies.

In 2015, Facebook announced employees would receive 4 months of paid maternal and paternal leave.

Over three-quarters of Americans want paid maternity or paternity leave, but only 7 percent want government to pay for it.

Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 8

Figure 12-7: Acceptance of Paid Parental Leave

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Accessibility Content: Text Alternatives for Images

Composition: What Is the Family 2 – Text Alternative

In 19 67, 70 percent of adults age 18 or older lived with a spouse. The remaining 30 percent had other living arrangements, such as living alone, living with an unmarried partner, being a child of the householder, or other arrangements.

In 2017, just over 50 percent of adults age 18 or older lived with a spouse. The remainder had other living arrangements, such as living alone, living with an unmarried partner, being a child of the householder, or other arrangements.

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Courtship and Mate Selection 2 – Text Alternative

The median age at first marriage for women in India is 17.8 years. It is 23.7 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Russia is 22.6 years. It is 24.8 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Poland is 25.6 years. It is 27.5 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Brazil is 27.1 years. It is 29.2 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in the United States is 27.4 years. It is 29.6 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Australia is 27.9 years. It is 29.6 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Canada is 28.4 years. It is 30.2 years for men.

The median age at first marriage for women in Finland is 30.3 years. It is 32.6 years for men.

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Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 2 – Text Alternative

The United States offers no paid maternity leave.

The Philippines offers 9 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Uruguay offers 12 weeks.

Indonesia offers 13 weeks.

Algeria offers 14 weeks.

Bangladesh and Spain offer 16 weeks.

Brazil and Portugal offer 17 weeks.

Denmark offers 18 weeks.

Poland offers 26 weeks.

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Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 3 – Text Alternative

The United States offers no paid paternity leave.

Indonesia offers 2 days of paid paternity leave.

Uruguay offers 3 days.

Brazil offers 5 days.

The Philippines offers 7 days.

Algeria offers 8 days.

Bangladesh offers 10 days.

Poland and Denmark offer 14 days.

Spain offers 15 days.

Portugal offers 20 days.

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Social Policy and the Family: Family Leave Worldwide 8 – Text Alternative

Acceptance of paid parental leave is 97.8 percent in Russia, 94.7 percent in Sweden, 93.3 percent in Venezuela, 84.4 percent in Great Britain, 76.2 percent in the United States, 76.1 percent in China, 73.9 percent in Mexico, and 35.9 percent in India.

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