The American Family

1
The American Family!
2
Why bother?

• 1. Regulate Sexual behavior
• 2. Socialization
• 3. Care and Emotional Support
• 4. Maintain economic system
• 5. Social status of members

3
Whos your Daddy?

• Nuclear Family
• Monogamy
• Polygamy
• Polygyny
• Polyandry
• Extended Family
• Single-Parent

4
Match-dot what?

• Romantic love is a new concept.
• The Rules
• Exogamy
• Endogamy
• Homogamy
• Hetrogamy

5
Patterns of Residence

• Patrilocality is when the newly married couple
  is expected to live with or near the husbands
  parents.
• Matrilocality is when the couple is expected to
  live with or near the wifes parents.
• Bilocality allows the newly married could to
  choose whether they will live near the husbands
  parents or near the wifes parents.
• Most societies practice neolocality which allows
  the married couple to set up their residence
  apart from both sets of parents

6
Authority Patterns

• In a patriarchal family, the father holds most
  of the authority
• In a matriarchal family, the mother holds most of
  the authority
• In an egalitarian family authority is shared by
  both the mother and the father
• The vast majority of societies around the world
  are patriarchal
• The U.S. is moving toward more egalitarian
  authority patterns

7
The American Family

• 95 of all adults marry at least once during
  their lifetimes
• The U.S. has one of the highest marriages rates
  of any industrialized nation
• Marriage rates are declining slightly among
  younger Americans

Trends

• Delayed Marriage
• Delayed Childbearing
• Dual Earner Marriages
• One-Parent Families
• Remarriages

8
Happily ever after?

• Having parents who are successfully married
• Having known each other for at least two years
• Getting married at an older age
• Holding traditional values
• Having had an engagement that was relatively free
  from conflict
• Being from the same race and
• religion
• Having a college education
• Having parental approval of
• the marriage

9
The Cycle of Modern American Family Life

• 1. Prechildren DINK
• 2. Parenthood
• 3. Empty nest

10
What do our families look like?

• Just under 50 of all marriages end in divorce.
• 27 of all families are single-parent.
• In 2006 67 of children lived in two parent
  homes.
• From 1978 to 1996 the number of children born to
  unwed mothers went from 500,000 to 2,000,000.
• 1 out of 25 children lives with neither parent
• Between 35-40 of all American births are to
  single women.
• 4.5 Million mixed race couples.
• 18 of American children live in poverty.
• In 2005 47 of high school students reported
  having had sex.

11

• Between 1980 and 2006 the population of Hispanic
  children went from being 9 of the child
  population to 20.
• About 25 of the population is below the age of
  18
• Between 6-10 million children live with
  homosexual parents.
• 1/3 of lesbian and 1/5 of gay male households
  have children.
• 71 of all high school drop outs come from
  fatherless homes.
• Children from fatherless homes are 5 times more
  likely to commit suicide and 20 times more likely
  to go to jail and 14 times more likely to commit
  rape.
• 1 in 3 women will experience at least one
  physical assault by a partner in their life.
• 47 of men who abuse their intimates will do so
  at least 3 times a year.

12

• 47 of men who abuse their intimates will do so
  at least 3 times a year.
• After being abused once 32 of women are abused
  again.
• 27 of domestic murders are children.
• 23 of family murder victims were under the age
  of 13 and only 3 of non-family murder victims
  were under 13.
• Eight in ten murderers who killed a family member
  were male. Males were 83 of spouse murderers and
  75 of murderers who killed a boyfriend or
  girlfriend.
• In homes of domestic abuse children are 1,500
  times more likely to also be abused.
• 4 children are killed every day as a result of
  abuse or neglect.
• 82 of those killed are under 5 42 are under
  the age of 1.