Chapter 15: Families

1
Chapter 15 Families
Social Analysts, have come to conclude that
todays families are in trouble, that we have
lost our family values.
This chapter Examines the family as a social
institution and the social problems that have
locus on family life
2
The Mythical Family in the U.S.

• The harmonious family
• Haven in the heartless world
• Monolithic family form
• Unified family experience
• Family decline

3
The Harmonious Family

• Myth
• Families of the past are better than current
• More stable
• Better adjusted
• Happier

• Why is it a Myth?
• Many children were raised by single parents
• Divorce rates were low, due to community norms
  and religion
• Modern problems occurred in the past also

4
Haven in the heartless World

• Myth
• Family solely as a place of intimacy, love
  and trust.
• Truth
• Families commonly experience emotional and
  physical aggression

5
Monolithic Family Form

• Media as a common source of what families should
  be or look like
• Less than 10 of families are actually in
  monolithic form
• Importance for children to understand quality of
  relationships

Religion, media, and politicians provide us with
consistent images of what a family should be.
6
Unified Family Experience

• Gendered Institution
• Women and men experience marriage differently
• Decision making
• Division of labor
• Forms of intimacy and sexuality

• Children experience marriage differently
• Different expectations
• Different rules
• Different punishments

7
Social Problem Family Decline

• Myth-
• Norm - two-parent, father working,
  mother-and-children-at-home
• Anything but, leads to -
• Poverty
• Violence
• Drug Addiction
• Crime

• Truth -
• Poverty is ongoing, married couple or not
• Violence, drug addiction, and crime is a matter
  of education and choice. It can be altered
  and/or influenced

8
The Family in Capitalism

• Families are closely related to economic
  conditions
• Industrialization
• Immigration
• Post World War Two
• Society and Family Norms
• Family vs. Households

9
Industry and Immigration

• American industry brought many immigrants
• Result families became integral part of society
• Lived with extended families
• Rebuilt a new society
• Racial Industry affected job opportunity

10
Family post WWII

• GI Bill
• National Defense Education Act
• Expansion of Federal Housing Authority
• Veterans Administration loan subsidy

• All affected family life
• Opportunity for middle-class whites to create a
  suburban lifestyle as depicted
• Often, these benefits were denied to people of
  color

11
Family vs. Households

• Family Construct of meanings and relationships
• Household Residential and economic unit

12
The Golden Rule Is the One With the Gold Makes
the Rule.
13
Stratification

• Social Classes
• Social and economical conditions
• Social Patterns of families
• Poverty, living conditions

14
Stratification and Family Life

• Structural transformation and family life
• Changing Composition households and families

15
Structural transformation and Family Life

• Effects of globalization
• Increased job loss
• Lower paying jobs
• Downward mobility
• Struggling family under economic conditions

16
Changing Composition

• Households
• 1970 - 81
• 2003 69
• Non family households
• Elderly
• College age
• Cohabitating couples
• Delay or forgo marriage
• Between Marriages

17
Parents and Children

• Social Supports/Dual working families
• Parental Leave
• Child Care
• Government Help
• Effect on Children

18
Social Supports

• Obtaining jobs-protected leaves for family
  emergencies
• Birth
• Medical
• Satisfactory care while at work
• Adequate day care

• Increase in dual-worker families
• 1970- 40 of women w/child in workforce
• 2001 70 of women w/child in workforce
• Blending jobs, housework and parenting
• Critical to ease stress of work and parenting

19
Parental Leave

• Businesses arent consistent around U.S. with
  generous parental leave policies
• Family and Medical Leave act
• Company with over 50 employees
• Loss of pay during time frame

20
Child Care

• Accessible
• Affording the cost
• Rich get better care
• Poor use overcrowded facilities
• Acceptable
• Sanitation
• Safety
• Stimulation
• Caring support

• FUN FACT 1
• It will cost you more to put your 4-year old
  child through day care than a year of public
  college tuition.

21
Government Help

• Classic Argument Free Day Care
• France awards 5,500 per year for 3-5 years of
  age
• U.S. has no comprehensive program

• Were forced to hold full time jobs in order to
  support our families, which in turn, increases
  demand for child care drastically.
• Families rely on social support such as their
  parents or friends to provide care

22
Effect on Children

• Quality childcare affects intellectual
  development
• Interaction skills develop faster under daycare
  providers

• Belief that children will suffer if not enough
  time with mother
• Create close relationship with primary care taker
• Lower-class children benefit from care

23
Teen Parenting

• Single Parent households
• Voices/Teen parenting in jobless environment
• Single Mothers

24
Single Parent Households

• Single households up 12 from 1970
• ¼ children live in single parent homes
• More single mothers than single fathers due to
• Divorce
• Unwed pregnancy
• Teen pregnancy

25
Voices/Teen parenting in jobless environment

• Harder to achieve higher status or living
  starting in socially deprived area
• Most are uneducated
• Live in deteriorating neighborhoods
• Poverty, drugs, and poor health
• Lack of child care

26
Single Mothers

• Income dependency
• Basic needs
• Housing
• Heat
• food
• 3 main overloads
• Responsibility
• Task
• Emotional

• 85 of women head single parent families
• Child Suffers more likely to
• perform poorly in school
• absentness
• drop out
• divorce
• break the law

27
Divorce in the U.S.

• Divorce in the U.S
• Statistics
• His divorce
• Her divorce

28
Statistics

• 40-52 of first marriages end in divorce
• USA highest rate out of 19 industrial nations
• One in five, separation or divorce within 5 years
• Children present less likely to divorce
• Lower the income, greater divorce rate
• Men are more likely to remarry

29
His Divorce

• Men are almost always better off financially
• Fathers with no custody had 28 increase in
  standard of living
• 85 of children live with mom, leaving men with
  more freedom
• Men have troubles maintaining household and
  experience loneliness

30
Her Divorce

• Mothers with custody
• Get overwhelmed
• Standard of living decreases
• Increases female and child poverty
• More connected to child than father

I was taken to divorce court and Ill I have
left is this lousy shirt!
31
Divorce and Children

• Population
• Race
• Money
• Parental Conflict
• Stress on Children
• Trouble

32
Population and Race

• 65 of divorcing couples have children under 18

• Majority of divorces in the U.S. occurs amongst
  African Americans and whites
• One in three white children come from divorced
  parents, and two out of three African American

33
Money

• Child support
• 50 entitled receive support
• 3.3 million deadbeat parents
• Limited income
• decent housing
• transportation

34
Parental Control

• Creates tension for children
• Torn between mom dad
• Guilt of taking sides
• Feel the blame for conflict

• Creates future problems for children
• Observing conflict between parents
• More susceptible to divorce in their lives

35
Stress on Children

• Guilty
• Feel like a mediator
• Feel withdrawn
• Depressed
• Children feel stress for parents
• Money
• Social anxiety

36
Trouble

• Supervision
• Two sets of rules
• Rebellious
• Aggressive
• Drugs/ Alcohol
• Teen pregnancy

37
Spouse Abuse

• Vulnerability
• Seeking Help
• Incidence of Wife Abuse
• Conditions favoring Wife Abuse
• Other facts

38
Vulnerability

• Women 16-24 more likely to be abuse
• African-American experience more domestic
  violence
• Hispanic women less likely
• Women are more vulnerable when separated or
  divorced

39
Seeking Help

• 1 in 5 with physical injuries seek treatment
• Women are more likely to be murdered
• ½ incidents are reported
• Private or personal matter
• Police wont do anything

40
Incidence of Wife Abuse

• Data on battered wives impossible to obtain
• Takes place privately
• No witnesses
• Treated by physician who dont ask questions

41
Conditions Favoring Wife Abuse

• Battered women are usually from families
  threatened financially
• Excessive use of alcohol
• Weak relation between being abused as a child and
  marital abuse
• Dominance men posses
• Gender inequality

42
Other important facts

• Emotional abuse just as dangerous
• Marriages can be saved
• Men suffer too
• Not reported because of stigma

43
Child Abuse
With the exception of the police and the
military, the family is perhaps the most
violent social group, and the home the most
violent social setting, in our society Gelles
and Stratus, 1979a15

• The home is one of the most dangerous places a
  child can be!!

• Definition
• Incidence
• Causes
• Consequences

44
Child Abuse Defined
Nine out of ten parents spank their children,
which is considered an act of violence.
Ultimately, its the courts, social workers, or
counselors responsibility to decide whether the
violence is excessive or damaging.

• Physical Abuse
• Neglect
• Sexual Abuse
• Emotional maltreatment
• Substance-exposed newborns

45
Incidence
Extent of abuse is impossible to know
Statistics for the year 2000

• Sticky subject
• No uniform definitions
• Rely on police, teachers, social workers
  and medical providers for stats

• 900,000 cases of child abuse and neglect
• 1,200 deaths
• 12.1 cases per 1,000 children

46
Causes

• Leading factors
• Mental illness (10)
• Excessive alcohol
• Stress
• Unemployment
• Poverty
• Social support

47
Consequences

• 1,200 children die annually from abuse
• Physical/mental
• Malnutrition
• Prostitution
• Crime
• Running away
• Violence begets
• Etc

48

• http//webcast.mediaondemand.com/library_video/200
  00901/06_child_abuse_56100.ram
• http//www.pbs.org/workfamily/clip.html

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