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A family is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as two or more people who are connected by blood, marriage, and adoption. Sociologists define family as a system or social unit of relatives living together, including adopted family.

4 Types of Marriages:

Monogamy: Marriage in which only two people are married together. Polygamy: Marriage in which one person has multiple spouses.

Polygyny: A type of polygamy in which one man is married to multiple women. Polyandry: A type of polygamy in which one woman is married to multiple men.

Since 1892, the United States has made polygamy illegal as a crime referred to as bigamy. Kody Brown from the TLC show “Sister Wives” has worked around the law by only legally marrying one of his wives and just having unofficial commitment ceremonies with the other wives.

Polyandry occurs in countries like Tibet in which women will marry all of the brothers in one family so that they can share limited resources.

Changing Family Norms: In marriages, it is common for the males to have dominance in the relationships and the marriages. However, it is now common in Westernized countries for the power in the family to be split evenly between the male and female. This is called an egalitarian marriage, and also impacts from more wives joining the workforce. In less developed countries, women are not likely to work and instead get married at young ages and have multiple children.

In some countries, homosexual marriages are not legal or accepted. However, recently homosexual couples have become accepted and normalized in some countries. Same-sex

marriages have been legal in the United States since 2015. Same-sex cohabitation has also increased in recent years.

Another prominent change in the family norms is the acceptance of singlehood. Over the past several decades it has become more and more accepted to be an adult who never married, and now 1 out of every five adults are not married.

In the last century, having children out of marriage was socially unacceptable and many would give up those children to avoid bringing shame on their family. In the 21st century, however, having children out of marriage is accepted in society. It is also more common to have children out of wedlock in minority families. In addition, the stigma around divorce in society is also uncommon and 50 % of marriages today end in divorce.

This means that there is an increase in joined families such as step- moms and step-children.

Furthermore, it is now common for grandparents to be the primary caretakers of their grandchildren. These families are called grandfamilies, and consist of 10% of American children’s living situations. Grandfamilies can happen for many reasons including parents having to work and not being able to take care of their children or also in situations where the parents are absent or unfit to be parents.

Sociological Perspectives on Family

The Marital Decline Perspective states that the focus on marital and family commitment has declined and that personal happiness is now the focus of most people’s lives. This perspective also believes that this decline has led to a variety of social problems like poverty, violence, substance abuse, and delinquency in youth. The Marital Resiliency Perspective, however refutes this claim. This perspective believes that the lack of basic support for citizens like proper education, health insurance, and child care are the major issues regarding society. Marital Resiliency Perspective believes that the recent change in types of marriages does not negatively impact society and instead the troubled marriages in the past were harmful because divorce was not an option to them so they were forced to stay together.

The Structural Functionalist Perspective views families as an important unit of society and that the family helps the society to function. These functions include regulating sexual activity and child birth, providing care for family members, and socialization. The Structural Functionalist Perspective supports traditional gender roles for the family. The role of the woman is to be the expressive role of taking care of children and the home. The role of the man is to be the instrumental role and financially support the family and make decisions on behalf of the family.

The perspective of Conflict Theorists is that power and social classes influence the relationships in a marriage or family.

Feminist Perspective focuses on the effects of gender inequality in families. Male dominance is referred to as Patriarchy by feminists. Patriarchy disagrees with a wife taking a husband’s last name and they believe that in traditional relationships wives and children and owned by the husband.

Symbolic Interactionists believe that labels impact marriages and relationships. They believe these labels especially impact children’s self-esteem and belief of themselves. The Symbolic Interactionists theory is especially helpful in understanding abuse victims.

Divorce:

A divorce can have both positive and negative effects. On one hand, divorce can separate those who are in an unhappy relationship. However, divorce can also separate families and negatively impact children or family members. In the United States, there are several factors that contribute to the recent increase in divorce. These factors include: increased financial independence of women, liberalized divorce laws, an increase in individualism, longer life expectancy, and the changing definition of marriage. Other factors that impact divorce include second shift work that women have to do at the home after they come home from their jobs. No-fault divorces also cause an increase in divorces because in a no-fault divorce no partner is legally at fault.

There are also many consequences of divorce. Studies have shown that individuals who have been divorced are more likely to have health problems and have more psychological issues. After a divorce, both parties also suffer from economic consequences. These are more common for women and may also affect the quality of life. Divorce can also be a stressor for children and create psychological issues for them as well. The relationships between child and parents are going to be different after a divorce. Parental alienation can occur in which one parent tries to

keep the children from seeing or having a relationship with the other parent. Parental Alienation can have drastic effects on the children and may cause low self-esteem, depression, or substance abuse problems.

Violence and Abuse in Relationships:

Studies have shown that victims of violent crimes are most likely to be harmed in their own homes by an acquaintance. Intimate Partner Violence is physically harming or threatening past or previous relationship partners. Women are four times more likely to become victims of Intimate Partner Violence in the United States than men. There are 3 types of abusers in Intimate Partner Violence: psychological abusers, hostile or controlling abusers and borderline or dependent abusers. There are many reasons why people feel as if they cannot leave these relationships. The reasons include fear, guilt, economic dependence, feeling as though they deserve it, or emotional attachment. Another reason why victims stay with their abusers is the cycle of abuse. The cycle of abuse shows that abusive relationships go through a cycle of buildup of anger, abuse, and then asking forgiveness.

Abuse on Children:

Children can also be harmed in a family. Child abuse is physically, mentally, or sexually harming a child. Child Neglect is abusing a child by not providing the needs of a child including, food, shelter, attention, and hygiene. Shaken Baby Syndrome is a form of abuse in infants in which a caregiver shakes a baby rough enough to cause brain damage. This often occurs in anger when an infant will not stop crying. Child abuse can physically harm children or lead to their death. Child abuse can also impact an individual psychologically and cause depression, substance abuse, suicide or obesity later on in life. Sexual abuse effects both boys and girls and can cause depression, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and substance abuse.

Abuse on other members of the Family:

Elder abuse is any harming of an elderly person, most commonly committed by adult children. Parent abuse is the violent abuse towards a parent. The most common form of parents abuse is a son abusing a mother. The most prevalent form of abuse in families is sibling abuse, which is abuse of a sibling by a sibling. A recent survey found that 30 % of minors said that their siblings had physically assaulted them. Pet abuse involves harming a pet, either through direct abuse of negligence.

Contributing Factors of Abuse:

There are many factors that can increase someone’s risk of becoming an abuser. These risks include having been abused in the past, violent or aggressive behaviors, and a stressful life event. Alcohol and drug use also increases the risk of abuse and up to 75% of aggression in intimate relationships happens under the influence of drugs or alcohol.