This document provides an outline and overview of key topics related to families, including: 1) It defines what constitutes a family and notes the diversity in modern family structures. 2) It discusses several theoretical perspectives for understanding families, including structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. 3) It outlines some challenges families face, such as abuse, aging, divorce, and changing gender roles around family labor. 4) It notes trends toward more single-parent households, cohabitation rather than marriage, and alternative living arrangements outside the traditional nuclear family model.

1. Chapter 13

2. Outline
 What is a family?
 Diversity in families
 Theoretical perspectives
 Gender and Family Labor
 Aging in the Family
 Abuse
 Divorce, Breakups and Blended Families

3. What is a family?
 Family-social group whose members are bound by
legal, biological or emotional ties, or some
combination of the three
 Meaning always changes with social, cultural, political
tide of society
 Industrial Revolution, Women’s Liberation, divorce
rates, gay families, single parents, etc…
 Nuclear family-heterosexual couple with one or more
children living in a single household
 Extended family-large group of relatives (incl. at least 3
generations either in one household or in close
proximity

4. Diversity in Families
 Endogamy-marriage to someone in one’s social group
 More common than exogamy
 Exogamy-marriage to someone from a different social
group
 Increasing, still rare: 5.7% of couples interracial (2000)
 Monogamy-marrying only one individual at a time
 Polygamy-allows people to have more than one
spouse at a time
 Polygyny-allows men to have multiple wives
 Polyandry-allows women to have multiple husbands

5. Theoretical Perspectives
 Structural-functionalism-family is essential institution
that allows modern industrial economy to function
 Durkheim-marriage and family decreased men’s suicide
rates
 Conflict Theory-nuclear family contributes to
oppressive social relations
 Competition over scarce resources (time, energy, leisure)
 Gendered social institution (unequal power between
men and women)

6. Theoretical Perspectives
 Symbolic
Interactionism-looks at
how family relations are
created and maintained
in interaction
 Family members
actively construct
meaning of social bonds
and roles

7. Gender and Family
Labor
 The Industrial Revolution
created different and unequal
roles for men and women-men
working outside home for
wages/women in home taking
care of kids
 Second Shift-unpaid labor
inside the home; often expected
of women after paid job
 Hochschild-“supermom”-
women who accept dual roles

8. Aging in the Family
 American population is
aging-current average
life expectancy is 78
years
 Retirement-Social
Security benefits only
source of income for 54%
of retired population
 10% of retired below
poverty line

9. Abuse in Families
 *People more likely to be killed, assaulted, sexually
victimized in own homes by family members than
anywhere else
 Related to privacy of nuclear family (early 1900s)
 1 in 3 women will experience violence by partner at some
point in her life
 Women 5-8 times more likely to be victimized than men
 Domestic violence-any physical, verbal, financial,
sexual, or psychological behaviors abusers use to gain
and maintain power over victims

10. Abuse in Families
 Cycle of Violence-common behavior pattern of
abusive relationships
 1. Begins happily
 2. Relationship grows tense
 3. Violence occurs
 4. “honeymoon phase”-reason victims stay
 Neglect-form of child abuse where caregiver fails to
provide adequate nutrition, clothing or shelter
 Elders also subject to abuse in form of neglect,
abandonment, financial exploitation, etc…
 Elders and children both at risk because of relative
powerlessness

11. Divorce, Custody, Child Support
 2002-55% of U.S. population married/10% divorced
 Rates of divorce have been steadily climbing
 Most who divorce remarry, but rate lower than in 1960s
 Increase in cohabitation-living together as a
romantically involved, unmarried couple
 Growing acceptance of divorce-less stigma

12. Divorce, Custody, Child Support
 Mothers still disproportionately get kids,
 Trend toward joint custody-physical and legal
responsibility of caring for children
 Children are more likely to live in poverty after divorce
 Women often experience downward economic
mobility

13. Trends
 Being single-not just young; gays, long-distance
relationships, communes, widows, and due to choice
 Cohabitation-1960-2000 number of cohabitating
couples in U.S. increased 1000%
 Most 25-34 years old
 Single parenting-only 10% of single parents fathers
 Intentional community-any group who form a
communal living arrangement outside marriage
 For a common purpose