1. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 12e James M. Henslin
Chapter 16
Marriage and Family

2. Marriage and Family in Global Perspective
What Is a Family?
What Is Marriage?
Common Cultural Themes
Family is difficult to define because there are exceptions to every element that one might consider essential. Consequently, family is defined broadly as people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption. Universally, marriage and family are mechanisms for governing mate selection, reckoning descent, and establishing inheritance and authority.

3. Often one of the strongest family bonds is that of mother–daughter
Often one of the strongest family bonds is that of mother–daughter. The young artist, an eleventh grader, wrote: “This painting expresses the way I feel about my future with my child. I want my child to be happy and I want her to love me the same way I love her. In that way we will have a good relationship so that nobody will be able to take us apart. I wanted this picture to be alive; that is why I used a lot of bright colors.”

4. There are over 1,000 online dating sites
There are over 1,000 online dating sites. Some are general—they try to appeal to everyone. Others are niche, targeting people by age, race, or religion. Still others are super-niche.

5. Marriage and Family in Theoretical Perspective
The Functional Perspective: Functions and Dysfunctions
The Conflict Perspective: Struggles Between Husbands and Wives
The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Gender, Housework, and Child Care
Functionalists examine the functions and dysfunctions of family life. Examples include the incest taboo and how weakened family functions increase divorce.
Conflict theorists focus on inequality in marriage, especially unequal and changing power between husbands and wives.
Symbolic interactionists examine the contrasting experiences and perspectives of men and women in marriage. They stress that only by grasping the perspectives of wives and husbands can we understand their behavior.

6. Based on a national sample, this figure shows who makes decisions concerning the family’s finances and purchases, what to do on the weekends, and even what to watch on television. As you can see, wives now have more control over the family purse and make more of these decisions than do their husbands. These findings are such a surprise that we await confirmation by future studies.

7. In Hindu marriages, the roles of husband and wife are firmly established. Neither this woman, whom I photographed in Chittoor, India, nor her husband question whether she should carry the family wash to the village pump. Women here have done this task for millennia. As India industrializes, as happened in the West, who does the wash will be questioned—and may eventually become a source of strain in marriage.

8. The Family Life Cycle Love and Courtship in Global Perspective
Marriage
Childbirth
Child Rearing
Family Transitions
The major elements are love and courtship, marriage, childbirth, child rearing, and the family in later life.
Because romantic love plays such a significant role in Western life—and often is regarded as the only proper basis for marriage—social scientists have probed this concept with the tools of the trade: experiments, questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Romantic love has two components. The first is emotional, a feeling of sexual attraction. The second is cognitive, a label that we attach to our feelings. If we attach this label, we describe ourselves as being “in love.”
Sociologists use the term homogamy to refer to the tendency of people who have similar characteristics to marry one another. Most mate selection follows patterns of age, social class, and race–ethnicity.
Child-rearing patterns vary by social class.

9. Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel are an example of the most common pattern of marriages between African Americans and whites.

10. Look at the race–ethnicity of the husbands and wives in these marriages, and you will see that here, too, Cupid’s arrows don’t hit random targets.

11. Among the health benefits of marriage is a longer life.

12. Note the sharp change in the 1970s
Note the sharp change in the 1970s. I can’t specify with certainty the reason for this sudden change of wanting fewer children, but I expect that it has to do with three major events of that time: the birth control pill, the sexual revolution, and women’s changed perception of work, from a temporary activity before marriage to long-term careers.

13. You can see that about one of six or seven children is in day care.

14. Diversity in U.S. Families
African American Families
Latino Families
Asian American Families
Native American Families
One-Parent Families
Couples Without Children
Blended Families
Gay and Lesbian Families
The primary distinction is social class, not race–ethnicity. Families of the same social class are likely to be similar, regardless of their race–ethnicity.
Also discussed are one-parent, childless, blended, and gay and lesbian families. Each has its unique characteristics, but social class is important in determining their primary characteristics. Poverty is especially significant for one-parent families, most of which are headed by women.

15. Here you can see the decline in the percentage of U. S
Here you can see the decline in the percentage of U.S. children who live with two parents. Divorce is not the only reason for this fundamental change. Another is that single women who give birth are taking longer to get married.

16. Childlessness varies by racial–ethnic group, with whites representing the extreme. From this figure, you can also see that, except for women with Ph.D.s, the more education women have, the less likely they are to have children.

17. Family structure is a vital aspect in the socialization of children.
Let’s look at the seemingly cold and antiseptic term family structure. The term is simple enough. It refers to the way a family is put together, what it consists of. In its simplest form, the term refers to whether families have one or two parents and how many children are in the family. And granted recent changes in legal marriage, it also refers to whether the spouses are of the same or different sex.
Family structure is a vital aspect in the socialization of children.

18. Trends in U.S. Families
The Changing Timetable of Family Life: Marriage and Childbirth
Cohabitation
The “Sandwich Generation” and Elder Care
Three major changes are postponement of first marriage, an increase in cohabitation, and having the first child at a later age.
With more people living longer, many middle-aged couples find themselves sandwiched between rearing their children and taking care of their aging parents.

19. As you can see, the average age of first-time brides and grooms declined from 1890 to about In 1890, the typical first-time bride was 22, but by 1950, she had just left her teens. For about twenty years, there was little change. Then in 1970, the average age took a sharp turn upward, and today’s average first-time bride and groom are older than at any other time in U.S. history.

20. This figure shows the remarkable increase in cohabitation, adults living together in a sexual relationship without being married.

21. Divorce and Remarriage
Ways of Measuring Divorce
Divorce and Intermarriage
Children of Divorce
Grandchildren of Divorce
Fathers’ Contact with Children after Divorce
The Ex-Spouses
Remarriage
Depending on what numbers you choose to compare in measuring the U.S. divorce rate, you can produce rates between 2 percent and 50 percent.
Divorce is difficult for children, whose adjustment problems often continue into adulthood. Consequences of divorce are passed on to grandchildren. Fathers who have frequent contact with their children after a divorce are likely to maintain it.

22. This fanciful depiction of marital trends may not be too far off the mark.

24. Divorces are often messy
Divorces are often messy. To settle the question of who gets the house, a couple in Cambodia sawed their house in half.

25. Two Sides of Family Life
The Dark Side of Family Life: Battering, Child Abuse, Marital Rape, and Incest
The Bright Side of Family Life: Successful Marriages
Symbolic Interactionism and the Misuse of Statistics
The dark side is abuse—spouse battering, child abuse, marital rape, and incest, all a misuse of family power. The bright side is that most people find marriage and family to be rewarding.
Divorce statistics represent all marriages and have absolutely nothing to do with any individual marriage. Our own chances depend on our own situations—especially the way we approach marriage.

26. The Future of Marriage and Family
Sociological research allows us to see how our own family experiences fit into the patterns of our culture
We can expect cohabitation, births to unmarried women, and age at first marriage to increase. The growing numbers of women in the workforce are likely to continue to shift the balance of marital power.