Marriage and Alternative Family Arrangements

1
Chapter 12

• Marriage and Alternative Family Arrangements

2
Chapter Outline

• The Nature of Family Life
• Defining Marriage
• The Transformation of the Family
• Family Diversity
• The Future Bright or Dismal?

3
Changes in the American Family Since 1970

• The marriage rate has fallen more than 40.
• When men and women marry today they are on
  average 4 years older than in 1970.
• The number of single-parent households has more
  than doubled.
• The proportion of those who have not married by
  age 35 has tripled for both men and women.

4
Changes in the American Family Since 1970

• Women are nearly twice as likely to be divorced
  as in 1970.
• The divorce rate has increased by nearly 40.
• Unmarried-couple households have increased nearly
  fivefold.
• Half of all children are expected to spend some
  part of their childhood in a single-parent home.

5
Functions of the Family

• Patterning reproduction
• Organizing production and consumption
• Socializing children
• Providing care and protection
• Providing social status

6
Question

• Most of the important decisions in the life of
  the family should be made by the man of the
  house.
• Strongly agree
• Agree somewhat
• Unsure
• Disagree somewhat
• Strongly disagree

7
Family Structures

• The nuclear family is the most basic family form
  and is made up of a married couple and their
  biological or adopted children.
• The nuclear family is found in all societies, and
  it is from this form that all other (composite)
  family forms are derived.

8
Family Structures

• Polygamous families are nuclear families linked
  together by multiple marriage bonds, with one
  central married to several spouses.
• The family is polygynous when the central person
  is male and the multiple spouses are female.
• The family is polyandrous when the central person
  is female and the multiple spouses are male.

9
Family Structures

• In extended families, along with married parents
  and their offspring, there may be the parents
  parents, siblings of the parents, the siblings
  spouses and children, and in-laws.
• All the members of the extended family live in
  one house or in homes close to one another,
  forming one cooperative unit.

10
Marriage

• Marriage, an institution found in all societies,
  is the socially recognized, legitimized, and
  supported union of individuals of opposite sexes.

11
Choosing a Marriage Partner

• Rules of endogamyLimit the social categories
  from within which one can choose a marriage
  partner.
• Rules of exogamyRequire an individual to marry
  someone outside his or her culturally defined
  group.

12
Marriage

• How marriage differs from other unions
• Takes place in a public manner.
• Includes sexual intercourse as an explicit
  element of the relationship.
• Provides the essential condition for legitimizing
  offspring.
• Is intended to be a stable and enduring
  relationship.

13
Question

• The government should recognize homosexual
  marriages under the law with the same privileges
  as heterosexual marriages.
• Strongly agree
• Agree somewhat
• Unsure
• Disagree somewhat
• Strongly disagree

14
Nuclear Family Characteristics

• Child-centered family.
• Marriage based on romantic love.
• Increased equality for women.
• Decreased links with extended families or kinship
  networks.
• Increased geographical and social mobility.
• Clear separation between work and leisure.

15
The Transformation of the Family

• Most scholars agree that the Industrial
  Revolution had a strong impact on the family.
• Industrialism demands that workers be
  geographically mobile so that a workforce is
  available wherever new industries are built.
• Industrialism requires a certain degree of social
  mobility.
• The modern nuclear family allows for inheritance
  and descent through both sides of the family.

16
Decline of the Traditional Family

• Between 1990 and 2000, percentage of married
  couples with children fell from 26 to 24.
• Proportion of families headed by married couples
  fell from 76 in 1990 to 72 in 2000.
• Since the 1950s, traditional families have become
  increasingly rare.

17
Number of Marriages, in Millions, 19602004
18
Number of Marriages per 1,000 Unmarried Women, 15
and Older
19
Cohabitation

• Increased dramatically in the past 20 years and
  is having a significant impact on the family.
• In 1988, fewer than one in five married Americans
  said they lived with their spouse before
  marriage.

20
of High School Seniors Who Thought It Was a
Good Idea to Live Together before Getting Married
21
Family Violence

• 30 of adults who were abused as children are
  abusive to their own children.
• 22 of American women report having been
  physically abused by their spouses or companions.
  
• 1 in 5 of these women report that the abuse took
  place in the previous year.

22
Annual Divorce Rate per 1,000 Population,
19702003
23
Divorce Factors Education

• The likelihood of a first marriage ending in
  divorce is 60 for people with some college
  education.
• Those who have a college degree have nearly a 40
  chance of divorce and are the least
  divorce-prone.
• Approximately 53 of women who have gone on to
  graduate school will divorce.

24
Question

• The strength of the American family is declining.
• Strongly agree
• Agree somewhat
• Unsure
• Disagree somewhat
• Strongly disagree

25
Marriage and Divorce Quiz

• One of the reasons there is more divorce today
  than in the past is because people live longer
  and there is more time to get divorced.
• False. Even though people live longer, they also
  marry later than in the past.
• Living together before marriage increases your
  chance of divorce.
• True.

26
Marriage and Divorce Quiz

• An unmarried woman is more likely to experienced
  domestic violence than a married woman.
• True.
• Now that people are more likely to divorce, those
  that stay married are happier than when people
  stayed married because of the stigma against
  divorce.
• False. Studies show that the general level of
  marital satisfaction has not increased.

27
Marriage and Divorce Quiz

• Second marriages are more successful than first
  marriages because people learn from their
  mistakes.
• False. The divorce rate for second marriages is
  higher than for first marriages.
• If your parents divorced your chances of
  divorcing are increased.
• True.

28
Marriage and Divorce Quiz

• Women are more likely than men to be the ones who
  initiate a divorce.
• True.
• Teenage marriages are fairly successful if they
  can get through the first year.
• False. Marrying in your teens increase the
  likelihood of divorce two to three times over
  that of couples in their twenties and older.

29
Remarriage and Stepfamilies

• The United States has the highest incidence of
  stepfamilies in the world.
• 17 of married couple households involve a
  stepparent.
• 54 of divorced women and 62 of men divorced men
  remarry within five years.

30
Reluctant to Marry The Men Who Want to Stay
Single

• Compared to men who marry earlier these men are
  more likely to
• Worry about the risks of divorce.
• Not want children.
• Believe women cannot be trusted to tell the truth
  about past relationships.
• Think single men have better sex lives than
  married men.
• Believe marriage will reduce their personal
  freedom.

31
The Growing Single Population

• In 2000, 61.5 of American men and nearly 58 of
  American women over the age of 18 were married.
• In 1970, only 10.5 of the women and 19.1 of the
  men between the ages of 25 and 39 had never been
  married.
• In 2003, 40.3 of women and 54.6 of men that age
  had never been married.

32
Single-Parent Families

• In 1960, nearly 1/3 of all single mothers with
  children under 18 were widows.
• In the 1970s, most single mothers were divorced
  or separated.
• By 1980, only 11 of single mothers were widowed
  and two-thirds were divorced or separated.
• By 2000, 40 of single mothers had never been
  married.

33
of Children under Age 18 Living with a Single
Parent
34
Of Births to Unmarried Women
Iceland 64
Sweden 54
Norway 49
Denmark 45
France 40
United Kingdom 38
United States 33
Canada 28
German 14
Italy 9
Japan 1
35
Gay and Lesbian Couples

• 5 of gay and 22 of lesbian families include
  children.
• Many of these children were part of a
  mother-father family and continued to live with a
  parent who transitioned to same-sex
  relationships.
• 17 of gays and 29 of lesbians had previously
  been in a heterosexual marriage.