# Study Guide: Chapter 10 — The Changing Family > Organized by textbook section. Review the objectives, study topics, key takeaways, and questions for each section. ## 10.1: Overview of the Family ### Study Topics - Marriage and the Family in the United States Today - The United States Compared to Other Democracies - Children and Families ### Key Terms - **cohabit** — To live together in a romantic, sexual relationship without being married. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **extended family** — A family in which parents, children, and other relatives live in the same household. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **life expectancy** — The average age to which people can be expected to live. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. ### Learning Objectives 1. Describe why many children throughout history have not lived in a nuclear family. 2. Understand the status of the nuclear family in the United States since the colonial period. 3. Describe the major marriage and family arrangements in the United States today. ### Key Takeaways - Although the nuclear family has been very common, many children throughout history have not lived in a nuclear family, in part because a parent would die at an early age. - Most Americans eventually marry. This fact means that marriage remains an important ideal in American life, even if not all marriages succeed. - About 30 percent of children live with only one parent, almost always their mother. ### Review Questions 1. Write a brief essay in which you describe the advantages and disadvantages of the 1950s-type nuclear family in which the father works outside the home and the mother stays at home. 2. The text notes that most people eventually marry. In view of the fact that so many marriages end in divorce, why do you think that so many people continue to marry? 3. Some of the children who live only with their mothers were born out of wedlock. Do you think the parents should have married for the sake of their child? Why or why not? ## 10.2: Sociological Perspectives on the Family ### Study Topics - Learning Objective - Table 10.1 Theory Snapshot - Social Functions of the Family - The Family and Conflict - Applying Social Research - Families and Social Interaction ### Key Terms - **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure. - **economic inequality** — The extent of the economic difference between the rich and the poor. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **Functionalism** — The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability. - **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. - **patriarchy** — Male domination. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. - **Socialization** — The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society. ### Key Takeaways - The family ideally serves several functions for society. It socializes children, provides practical and emotional support for its members, regulates sexual reproduction, and provides its members with a social identity. - Reflecting conflict theory’s emphases, the family may also produce several problems. In particular, it may contribute for several reasons to social inequality, and it may subject its members to violence, arguments, and other forms of conflict. - Social interactionist understandings of the family emphasize how family members interact on a daily basis. In this regard, several studies find that husbands and wives communicate differently in certain ways that sometimes impede effective communication. ### Review Questions 1. As you think how best to understand the family, do you favor the views and assumptions of functional theory, conflict theory, or social interactionist theory? Explain your answer. 2. Do you think the family continues to serve the function of regulating sexual behavior and sexual reproduction? Why or why not? ## 10.3: Changes and Problems in American Families ### Study Topics - Divorce and Single-Parent Households - Reasons for Divorce - Effects of Divorce and Single-Parent Households - Effects on Spouses - Effects on Children - Fathers and Children - Marriage and Well-Being - Working Mothers and Day Care - Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Marriages and Families - Figure 10.5 Percentage of Births to Unmarried Mothers, by Race/Ethnicity 2010 - Family Violence - People Making a Difference - Child Abuse - Children and Our Future ### Key Terms - **Child abuse** — Maltreatment of children in the form of physical or sexual assault, emotional trauma, or neglect. - **cohabit** — To live together in a romantic, sexual relationship without being married. - **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law. - **economic inequality** — The extent of the economic difference between the rich and the poor. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **intimate violence** — Violence between spouses, ex-spouses, and current and former sexual partners. - **National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)** — An annual survey conducted by the US Department of Justice that asks a representative sample of the American public about crimes they have suffered. - **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. - **random sample** — A subset drawn from the larger population in which every unit in the population has the same chance of being included in the subset. ### Learning Objectives 1. Discuss why the US divorce rate rose during the 1960s and 1970s and summarize the major individual-level factors accounting for divorce today. 2. Describe the effects of divorce for spouses and children. 3. Summarize the evidence on how children fare when their mothers work outside the home. 4. Describe the extent of family violence and explain why it occurs. ### Key Takeaways - The divorce rate rose for several reasons during the 1960s and 1970s but has generally leveled off since then. - Divorce often lowers the psychological well-being of spouses and their children, but the consequences of divorce also depend on the level of contention in the marriage that has ended. - Despite continuing controversy over the welfare of children whose mothers work outside the home, research indicates that children in high-quality day care fare better in cognitive development than those who stay at home. - Violence between intimates is fairly common and stems from gender inequality, income inequality, and several cultural myths that minimize the harm that intimate violence causes. - At least 800,000 children are abused or neglected each year in the United States. Because most abused children do not report the abuse, the number of cases of abuse and neglect is undoubtedly much higher. ### Review Questions 1. Think of someone you know (either yourself, a relative, or a friend) whose parents are divorced. Write a brief essay in which you discuss how the divorce affected this person. 2. Do you think it is ever acceptable for a spouse to slap or hit another spouse? Why or why not? ## 10.4: Families in the Future ### Study Topics - Learning Objective - Lessons from Other Societies - Putting Families First: Helping Families in Western Europe ### Key Terms - **Child abuse** — Maltreatment of children in the form of physical or sexual assault, emotional trauma, or neglect. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **masculinity** — Cultural expectations of boys and men, including toughness and bravery. - **Socialization** — The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society. ### Key Takeaways - Efforts to help children and families living in poverty or near poverty should be expanded. - Efforts to help preserve marriages should proceed cautiously or not at all for highly contentious marriages. ### Review Questions 1. Why do you think the United States lags behind other democracies in efforts to help families? 2. What do you think is the single most important policy or action that our government should take to help America’s families? ## 10.5: End-of-Chapter Material ### Key Terms - **Child abuse** — Maltreatment of children in the form of physical or sexual assault, emotional trauma, or neglect. - **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure. - **corporation** — An organization that has a legal existence apart from that of its members. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **intimate violence** — Violence between spouses, ex-spouses, and current and former sexual partners. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. - **Socialization** — The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society. ### Chapter Summary 1. As a social institution, the family is a universal or near-universal phenomenon. Yet historical and cross-cultural records indicate that many types of families and family arrangements exist now and have existed in the past. Although the nuclear family has been the norm in many societies, in practice its use has been less common than many people think. Many societies have favored extended families, and in early times children could expect, because of the death of a parent or births out of wedlock, to live at least some part of their childhood with only one parent. 2. Almost one-third of American children live in one-parent families; this percentage varies by race and ethnicity. Some research finds that parents experience more stress and lower psychological well-being than nonparents. 3. Sociological perspectives on the family fall into the more general functional, conflict, and social interactionist approaches guiding sociological thought. Functional theory emphasizes the several functions that families serve for society, including the socialization of children and the economic and practical support of family members. Conflict theory emphasizes the ways in which nuclear families contribute to ongoing gender, class, and race inequality, while social interactionist approaches examine family communication and interaction to make sense of family life. 4. Scholars continue to debate the consequences of divorce and single-parent households for women, men, and their children. Several studies find that divorce and single parenting in and of themselves do not have the dire consequences for children that many observers assume. The low income of single-parent households, and not the absence of a second parent, seems to account for many of the problems that children in such households do experience. Women and children seem to fare better when a highly contentious marriage ends. 5. Despite ongoing concern over the effect on children of day care instead of full-time care by one parent, recent research finds that children in high-quality day care are not worse off than their stay-at-home counterparts. Some studies find that day-care children are more independent and self-confident than children who stay at home and that they perform better on various tests of cognitive ability. 6. Racial and ethnic diversity marks American family life. Controversy also continues to exist over the high number of fatherless families in the African American community. Many observers blame many of the problems African Americans face on their comparative lack of two-parent households, but other observers say this blame is misplaced. 7. Family violence affects millions of spouses and children yearly. Structural and cultural factors help account for the high amount of intimate violence and child abuse. Despite claims to the contrary, the best evidence indicates that women are much more at risk than men for violence by spouses and partners. ### Application You’re working for a medium-sized corporation and have become friendly with one of your coworkers, Susan. One day she shows up at work with some bruises on the right side of her face. She looks upset, and when you ask her what happened, Susan replies that she slipped on the stairs at home and took a nasty fall. You suspect that her husband hit her and that she’s not telling the truth about how she got hurt. What, if anything, do you say or do? ### Action Ideas To help deal with the family problems discussed in this chapter, you may wish to do any of the following: 1. Volunteer at a day-care center. 2. Volunteer at a battered women’s shelter. 3. Start or join a group on your campus that addresses dating violence.