The Family

1

• The Family
• Teenage Pregnancy
• Divorce
• Child Care
• Same-Sex Marriage

2
The Family Introduction

• Sociological research and program development
  related to the family includes investigations
  into a very broad range of topics
• Dating.
• Marriage and remarriage.
• Sexuality and sexual relationships.
• Gender.
• Labor force participation.
• Household division of labor.
• Spouse abuse.
• Childbirth and childrearing.
• Child abuse.
• Life course.
• Divorce.
• See SOC 219 Sociology of Intimate Relationships.

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The Family Introduction

• SOC 235 Social Problems
• In Sociology 235, we will cover the topics that
  give rise to social problems
• Teenage pregnancy Chapter 33.
• Divorce Chapter 34.
• Child care Chapter 36.
• Same-sex marriage Notes.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Kristin Luker The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy.
• Rearing a child for unmarried, teenage mothers
  creates many problems for the mother, child, and
  society.
• Approximately 1 million unmarried, teenage women
  get pregnant each year.
• About 1/2 choose to carry their babies to term.
• About 2/3 will be unmarried when the child is
  born.
• Most of the unmarried mothers receive some type
  of welfare assistance.
• Why do so many young women get pregnant?
• In what ways is this phenomenon sociological?

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Expectations
• A young woman can no longer expect that she will
  have a husband on whom she can be totally
  dependent, both economically and emotionally.
• Women cannot expect a husband to share the
  burdens of childrearing and homemaking equally.
• Young women today want a career and a family.
• No teenager hopes to end up as an unmarried
  mother on welfare.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• The Path to Pregnancy
• Many persons, both liberal and conservative
  (although for different reasons) believe that
  teenagers simply should stop having sex.
• In general, cultural trends condone premarital
  sex. Recent trends advocate abstinence.
• Teenagers today are using more contraception and
  using it more effectively than ever before.
• About 80 of sexually active teenage women are
  using some method of contraception.
• Among poor teens, this rate is slightly lower
  (72), but still substantial given the tendency
  for risk taking behavior among teenagers.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• The Path to Pregnancy
• So, why do teenagers get pregnant?
• Some get pregnant the first time they have sex
  because they are unknowledgeable about
  contraception or inexperienced in negotiating the
  situation.
• Others get pregnant during transitions from one
  method of contraception to another.
• For many young women, the sexual relationship is
  not entirely consensual. Young women feel
  coerced by peer pressure from males and females.
• The skills needed to prevent pregnancy often are
  not taught to young men and women.
• Some want a baby!

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Abortion
• The decision to terminate pregnancy is powerfully
  affected by class, race, and socioeconomic
  status.
• Women who are successful, or who expect to be
  successful, are more likely to terminate.
• Affluent women are more likely to terminate.
• White women are more likely to terminate.
• Women with partners are more likely to terminate.
• The decision to terminate is affected strongly by
  the opinions of family and friends.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Marriage
• Overall, Americans are less likely to get
  married, more likely to live together without
  being married, and more likely to be divorced.
• Nevertheless, pregnant teenagers get married or
  settle down with a partner.
• Many get married when they learn they have become
  pregnant.
• Marriage during pregnancy varies widely by race
• White teens who bring the baby to term are more
  likely to marry.
• About 69 of African-American children are born
  to single mothers.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Adoption
• It is less common today compared with 50 years
  ago to give up a baby for adoption.
• It has become more culturally acceptable to raise
  a child as a single parent.
• Only about 3 percent of babies born to a white
  mother and 1 percent of babies born to a black
  mother are given up for adoption.
• In the past, giving up the baby for adoption was
  considered to be more ethical than it is today.
• Poor, African-American mothers are the least
  likely to give up their babies for adoption.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Social Context
• In the U.S., women over 20 account for most
  abortions, 70 percent of unmarried women are not
  teenagers, and teens make up a declining
  proportion of all unwed mothers.
• Still, teens in the U.S. have higher rates of
  childbearing than teens in other industrialized
  country.
• At the same time, abortion rates are much higher
  in the U.S. than in other nations.

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Teenage Pregnancy

• Social Context
• In the U.S., childbearing and childrearing have
  become increasingly disconnected from marriage.
• Americans have come to think of childbearing as a
  private enterprise, one that will receive little
  support from the larger society.
• The birth patterns of poor and affluent women in
  the U.S. have begun to bifurcate, as each group
  copes with the difficulties of having children in
  a country that provides so little support.
• Poor women follow the traditional pattern of
  childbirth and childrearing.
• Affluent women are more likely to either
  terminate or give up the child for abortion.

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Divorce in Perspective

• Stephanie Coontz Divorce in Perspective
• Although no one who marries expects or wants to
  divorce, about half of marriages in America end
  that way.
• For most persons, divorce is a emotionally
  painful, embarrassing, and sometimes expensive
  ordeal.
• Research does not support the claim that the
  current culture supports parents obtaining a
  divorce so they can pursue their selfish desires
  at the expense of the family.
• Divorce is not necessarily a growth experience.

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Divorce in Perspective

• What Effects Does Divorce Have on the Children?
• When couples have children, then divorce becomes
  a societal issue rather than a personal one.
• More children of divorced parents drop out of
  school, exhibit emotional distress, get into
  trouble with the law, abuse drugs, etc.
• But children of divorced parents do not have more
  problems than children from intact families.
• The distinction is that children of divorced
  parents do not necessarily have more problems.
• In fact, a large percentage of children from
  divorced parents score higher on achievement and
  adjustment tests than children from intact
  families.

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Divorce in Perspective
Consider these diagrams of intact and divorced
families. Children with few problems
Children with noticeable problems Children with
higher than average achievement
Intact Families
Divorced Families
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Divorce in Perspective

• What Effects Does Divorce Have on the Children?
• Many of the problems seen in children of divorced
  parents are caused not by the divorce alone but
  by other frequently coexisting yet analytically
  separate factors, such as poverty, financial
  loss, school relocation, or a prior history of
  severe marital conflict.
• Income differences account for almost 50 percent
  of the disadvantage faced by children of
  single-parent households.
• The tendency for less-educated parents to have
  higher divorce rates and unwed motherhood further
  distorts the statistics on the effects of divorce
  on the well-being of children.
• The problems of children of divorced parents
  often were there for years prior to the divorce.

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Divorce in Perspective

• How to Minimize the Long-Term Effects of Divorce
• Divorce is stressful for children.
• Its consequences should not be trivialized as a
  growth experience.
• But divorce does not doom the child to problems.
• Some characteristics of parents that mediate the
  effects of divorce on child adjustment.
• Personal adjustment.
• Lack of conflict with former spouse.
• Income.
• Education.
• Interpersonal communication skills.
• Felt obligations to the former spouse and
  children.

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Divorce in Perspective

• How to Minimize the Long-Term Effects of Divorce
• Some researchers suggest that we
  institutionalize divorce.
• Clear obligations and rights should be attached
  to divorce as well as to child custody.
• Establishing clear expectations of civilized
  behavior towards the former spouse and children.
• Recognize the importance and value of remarriage
  and stepfamilies.
• Institutionalizing divorce does not mean
  advocating for it.
• It does mean accepting it and directly addressing
  its consequences for the adults and children
  involved.

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Child Care in America
Barbara Bergmann and Suzanne Helburn Whats
Wrong with Child Care in America? Looking back
over the twentieth century, historians may well
decide that the most important transformation it
brought to America was the change in the role of
women and the resulting change in the way our
society finances and arranges for the care and
rearing of young children. The American child
care system, in which parents, largely
unassisted, must buy the care they need in the
marketplace, has not worked well.
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Child Care in America

• Increasing Need for Child Care.
• Americans demand for child care has increased
  over the past few decades.
• More women are working outside the home.
• Men continue to work outside the home.
• Divorce rates continue to be at about 50.
• Out-of-wedlock births are increasing.
• The high cost and low quality of child care,
  therefore, has given rise to a social problem
  childhood care and socialization outside the home.

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Child Care in America

• Problems of Obtaining Good Quality Child Care.
• Child care can be expensive.
• Care in a center for one preschool child for a
  normal work week begins at about 650 per month
  in Ames, Iowa.
• Child care is expensive because it is labor
  intensive.
• Quality child care is difficult to obtain.
• Caring for children is difficult work, the most
  difficult job one will ever have.
• High quality care costs more.
• Poor-to-mediocre child care facilities flourish
  in America.

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Child Care in America

• How Do We Improve Child Care?
• Suggestions for change reflect different opinions
  about family and childrearing.
• Some say women should return to the home.
• Some say withdraw government subsidies and let
  the free market determine who works and what type
  of care children will receive for those who
  choose to work.
• Some argue that government assistance to families
  with children (rich and poor) is a form of
  discrimination.
• Some argue for more government assistance.
• Some argue for increased community action.

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Child Care in America

• How Do We Improve Child Care?
• Bergmann and Helburn suggest an aggressive
  approach to providing good quality child care.
• Children of families with incomes at or below the
  poverty line should be completely subsidized out
  of public funds (i.e., some federal, the
  remaining state and local).
• Children of low-income families (i.e., 130 of
  the poverty line) should receive government
  supported vouchers.
• Policies should be developed to improve the
  quality of child care, such as accreditation
  programs.
• Providers should be reimbursed for receiving
  training leading to accreditation.

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Child Care in America

• How Do We Improve Child Care?
• Initially, it might seem like these suggestions
  will be too expensive. And, likely they will be
  opposed by persons who think that women should
  return home.
• But consider the positive outcomes of such an
  approach
• Improved care for children.
• Lowered rates of child abuse.
• Lowered juvenile delinquency.
• Improved academic performance of young children.
• Recruitment of low-income labor in areas where it
  is needed.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• Same-sex marriage is considered as a social
  problem in America because it many people believe
  it is an important issue for defining the moral
  foundations of our society.
• Is the institution of marriage reserved for one
  man and one woman?
• Or is society best served by allowing marriage
  for all loving and committed couples?
• The issue has mobilized the political left and
  right in a struggle to define what is moral and
  how morality will influence the laws of society.
• Learning about this issue will help us understand
  how latency affects society.
• It will also help us understand political
  discourse.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Opponents
• Marriage is an institution between one man and
  one woman.
• The key point here is that most religious belief
  systems consider homosexuality to be a sin.
• Same-sex marriage would destroy the sanctity of
  marriage as it is defined by a higher being.
• Marriage is a common good, not a special interest
  (for the sinners).
• Science cannot address this issue. Science
  cannot define what is moral. Yet definitions of
  morality are crucial to promoting social cohesion
  and therefore social order.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Opponents
• Same-sex marriages are not the optimum
  environment in which to raise children.
• Children should not be denied their right to a
  mother and father.
• Children need male and female role models in the
  household.
• Gay/lesbian parents will raise gay/lesbian
  children.
• Same-sex couples who raise children are pursuing
  their own selfish interests rather than meeting
  the needs of children.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Opponents
• Where does it stop?
• How do we say no to a woman who wants to become
  the third wife of a polygamist?
• Does same-sex marriage promote open marriage?
  Note The book, Open Marriage is about
  communication, not sex.
• Is banning same-sex marriage like banning
  interracial marriage?
• No, marriage is a union of one man and one woman,
  regardless of race.
• There are no negative child-development outcomes
  created by interracial marriages.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Opponents
• Why would you write radical family redefinition
  into the Constitution?
• Supporters of the Federal Marriage Amendment want
  a small few to constitutionally redefine marriage
  for all of us.
• Either a small handful of unaccountable, activist
  judges are going to write a radical new
  definition of marriage into the Constitution, or
  the American people can protect marriage
  constitutionally through the option the founding
  fathers provided us via the amendment process.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Opponents
• Same-sex marriages will negatively affect the
  quality of opposite sex marriages.
• Children in heterosexual marriages will learn
  that such marriages are optional for the family
  and therefore, meaningless.
• Masculinity and femininity matter far too much to
  let them be negatively affected by allowing
  same-sex marriage.
• Marriage is for procreation.
• Same-sex marriages cannot produce children.
• Children are needed for the survival of the
  species.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Same-sex marriages are not immoral.
• Freedom of religion also means freedom from
  religion.
• The Bible has no standing in American law.
• The Bible states proscriptions against many types
  of behavior that Christians engage in everyday.
• A society that clings too closely to
  fundamentalist beliefs will fail to adapt to
  changing world conditions.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Many heterosexual marriages cannot or do not
  produce children.
• Since when is childbearing a litmus test for
  marriage?
• Should heterosexual couples who do not choose to
  or cannot have children be forced to divorce?
• The world population is hardly at risk from the
  lack of procreation among a small minority of the
  population.
• Same-sex couples can adopt the many children in
  need of adoption.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Same-sex marriages do not harm children.
• Research shows that children raised by same-sex
  couples score no differently on tests of academic
  achievement or social adjustment than do children
  from heterosexual couples.
• Heterosexual perpetrators who abuse children are
  allowed to marry and stay married.

34
Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Same-sex marriages would not threaten the
  institution of marriage.
• How can being married threaten the institution of
  marriage?
• Allowing gay/lesbians to marry would reinforce
  rather than threaten the importance of marriage.
• Same-sex unions have been shown to be more stable
  than heterosexual unions.
• Marriage is traditionally a heterosexual
  institution.
• So was slavery for many years.

35
Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Same-sex marriages would not lead us down a
  slippery slope towards legalized incest, bestial
  marriage, polygamy, or other unions.
• Such forms have not been advocated in countries
  that do allow same-sex marriage.
• Convicted child molesters, known pedophiles, drug
  pushers, pimps, arms dealers, and others are
  allowed to marry without leading us down a
  slippery slope toward the types of unions
  mentioned above.
• Society can allow or disallow any kind of
  marriage it wants. Allowing same-sex marriage is
  not a slippery slope.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• The Perspective of Proponents
• Legalizing same-sex marriages would force
  churches to marry gay/lesbian couples when they
  have a moral objection to doing so.
• Churches can refuse to marry anyone, now.
• Straight marriages would be less meaningful.
• Britney Spears 55-hour just-for-fun marriage,
  for example, was highly meaningful!
• Civil unions, providing most of the same
  benefits of marriage, are sufficient.
• Separate but equal has never worked well in
  America.

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Same-Sex Marriage

• Why Is Same-Sex Marriage a Social Problem?
• Same-sex marriage is a social problem because it
  affects the latency of the social system.
• Social cohesion (sense of we-ness) and social
  solidarity (willingness to work together) are
  crucial elements of the effective functioning of
  society.
• Defining morality and its limits is a critical
  element affecting social cohesion and social
  solidarity.
• Public discourse about same-sex marriage is
  important because it helps Americans explore the
  boundaries of what they consider to be moral and
  immoral.
• What is best for the benefit of the whole?
• Whose definitions of morality will prevail?

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