Transcript File - Yesenia King

Diversity in
Families
Ch. 2
Critical Thinking:
• How do YOU define family?
• What assumptions are inherent in this
definition?
• How do your experiences influence your
understanding of family?
• How might social and cultural forces
influence our understanding of family?
Defining Family
• Traditionally, both law and social science have specified that the family
consists of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
• The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as “a group of two or more
persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing together in
a household.”
• Many sociologists agree to define family as: Any sexually expressive,
parent–child, or other kin relationship in which people—usually related by
ancestry, marriage, or adoption—(1) form an economic and/or otherwise
practical unit and care for any children or other dependents, (2) consider
their identity to be significantly attached to the group, and (3) commit to
maintaining that group over time.
What is a Family?
• Your book:
A group united by marriage, cohabitation, blood, and/or adoption in order to satisfy
intimacy needs and/or to bear and socialize children.
Issues for Thought: Which
of these is a Family?
• A husband and wife and their offspring.
• A single woman and her three young children.
• An eighty-four-year-old widow and her dog,
Fido.
• A man and all of his ancestors back to Adam and
Eve.
• The 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates
(theme song: “We Are Family”).
Family Functions
Social scientists usually list three major functions
filled by today’s families:
• Raising children responsibly
• Providing members with economic and other
practical support
• Offering emotional security
Family Structure
Refers to the form a family takes, and varies
according to the society in which it is embedded:
• Extended Family
• Nuclear Family
• Postmodern Family
Extended Family
• In preindustrial or traditional societies, the family
structure involved whole kinship groups.
• The extended family of parents, children,
grandparents, and other relatives performed
most societal functions, including economic
production (e.g., the family farm), protection of
family members, vocational training, and
maintaining social order.
Nuclear Family
• In industrial or modern societies, the typical family
structure often became the nuclear family (husband,
wife, children).
• Until about fifty years ago, social attitudes, religious
beliefs, and law converged into a fairly common
expectation about what form the American family
should take: breadwinner husband, homemaker
wife, and children living together in an independent
household—the nuclear family model.
Postmodern Family
• The term postmodern family came into use in order to acknowledge the
fact that families today exhibit a multiplicity of forms and that new or
altered family forms continue to emerge and develop.
• Today, family members are not necessarily bound to one another by legal
marriage, blood, or adoption.
• The term family can identify relationships beyond spouses, parents,
children, and extended kin. Individuals fashion and experience intimate
relationships and families in many forms.
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As social scientists take into account this structural variability, it is not
uncommon to find them referring to the family as postmodern (Stacey
1990).
Typical Families
• Today, only 7% of families fit the 1950s nuclear family ideal
of married couple and children.
• Dual-career families are common, and there are reversedrole families (working wife, househusband).
• There are many different family forms: single-parent
families, stepfamilies, cohabiting heterosexual couples, gay
and lesbian families, and three-generation families.
American Households
Types of Families
• Today there are more
single-parent
families, gay partners
and parents,
remarried families,
and families in which
adult children care for
their aging parents.
Variations in Families
• Single parent families
• Racial and ethnic minority families
• Same-sex families
Challenges of the Single-Parent Family
o Challenges of Single Parents
o Challenges of Children of Single Parents
o Problems between Parents and Children
Children Living With One Parent
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 1994:66; 2010a.
Race:
Ethnicity:
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Race is a social construction
reflecting how Americans think about
different social groups.
The term race implies a biologically
distinct group, but scientific thinking
rejects the idea that there are races
distinguished by biological markers.
The 2000 census used five major
categories:
1.
White
2.
Black or African American
3.
Asian
4.
American Indian or
Alaska Native
5.
Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander
•
Ethnicity refers to cultural
distinctions often based in
language, religion, and history.
For U.S. Census purposes,
there are two major categories
of ethnicity: Hispanic and nonHispanic.
Changes in America’s Race/Ethnic Composition
• The United States is seeing greater and increasing racial and ethnic
diversity.
• Making up about one-third of the U.S. population today, racial and
ethnic minorities are projected to reach 50% of the population by
about 2042.
o African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Asians, and
Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders are often grouped into a
category termed “minority group.”
• This conveys the idea that persons in those groups experience some
disadvantage, exclusion, or discrimination in American society as compared to the
dominant group: non-Hispanic white Americans.
• As a result, there is greater variation in the structure, form, and
experience of family life.
Diversity in the United States
• In 2008, the United States was:
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65.6% non-Hispanic white
12% black
4.3% Asian
Less than 1% American Indian/Alaska Native
Less than 1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
Hispanics are 15.4% of the population
Child Population
• The child population of the United States is more
racially and ethnically diverse than the adult population
and will become even more diverse in the future.
Racial and Ethnic Minority Families
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The African-American Family
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The Hispanic Family
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The Asian-American Family
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The Pacific Islander Family
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The Native American Family
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The Arab American Family
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The White Family
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The Interracial/Multi-Ethnic Family
2-21
African American Families
• Between 2007-2008, African American households saw their median
income decline 2.8% to $34,218.
• A higher proportion of black children than those of most other
racial/ethnic groups lives in poverty (33.9%), although by 2008 more
Hispanic children were living in poverty (39.6%).
• 71% of births in 2007 were to unmarried mothers.
• Divorce rates are higher as well
• Black women are more than twice as likely as whites to suffer the
death of an infant.
• Only 35% of African American children are living with married
parents, compared to 75% of white and 64% of Hispanic children.
• In the 1960s, more than 70% of black families were headed by
married couples. In 2008, only 31.1% were.
Latino (Hispanic) Families
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Many Latinos are recent immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the
Caribbean, or South America.
A majority of U.S. Latinos were born in this country, but 40% are foreign
born.
o Binational families are those in which some family members are
American citizens while others are undocumented immigrants.
28.3% of Latino children are poor, compared to 17.6% of all children.
Only 62.3% of Latinos graduate from high school and 13.3% from college.
Hispanics are most likely to be employed in service level occupations and to
have higher rates of unemployment.
Tend to marry at young ages
Birth rates are the highest of any racial/ethnic group, but vary by withingroup ethnicity.
Half of births to native-born Latinas in 2007 were to unmarried women.
Families are more likely to be extended and larger than those of nonHispanic whites.
Asian American Families
• Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing of all racial/ethnic
groups.
• Asian Americans have the highest proportion of college graduates, high
representation in managerial and professional occupations, and family
incomes that are the highest of all racial/ethnic groups.
• A higher percentage of Asian Americans are married than among
general population.
• 85% of Asian American children are very likely to live in married-couple
families.
• Only 10% live in single-mother families, 2% in single-father families, and
2% live with neither.
• Asian Americans are most likely of all groups to be caring for older
family members.
• More diversity exists among Asian Americans in terms of language,
religion, and customs than in in other broad racial/ethnic group.
• Discrimination against Asian Americans still exists, and Asian Americans
are more likely than whites to be poor.
Pacific Islander Families
• Major Pacific Islander groups in the U.S. are Native Hawaiians,
Samoans, and Guamians.
• Hawaiians are American citizens by birth, as are American Samoans,
Guamians, and those born in the North Mariana Islands.
• Relatively young population (median age is 29.8 years old); about 29% of
the population are children
• Just under half are married (47.4%).
• Pacific Islander children are more likely to reside in family households
(31.5%) than the U.S. population generally (21%).
• Similar rates of marital stability as compared to non-Hispanic whites
• Smaller proportion of college graduates
• Median household incomes is slightly higher ($55,273 in 2007), and
poverty is slightly higher (15.7%) than for the general U.S. population.
American Indian (Native American) Families
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At present there are over 500 federally recognized tribes.
In the latter half of the 19th century, American Indians were forcibly removed from
their original tribal lands to reservations, and some tribes were dissolved.
Assimilation policies led to the creation of boarding schools, where American
Indian children were placed for years with little contact with family or tribe.
Significantly lower median income at $35,345
One-third have incomes of more than $50,000.
Poverty rate is high—25.3% on average for the years 2006-2008.
Childhood poverty rate for all children under the age of 18 is 46.1% in femaleheaded families.
One of the poorest groups, with poverty rate highest among those living on
reservations
High rates of adolescent births and nonmarital births
Infant mortality rate and childhood mortality rate are higher than overall U.S.
rates.
Higher rate of cohabitation and lower percentage of married couples
In 2006, 51% of children lived with two parents.
Arab American Families
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Arab American population is a little over 1.5 million.
Often the subject of media stereotyping and government suspicion
Have long been stereotyped as exotic, mysterious, and dangerous
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Arab American
families have been the subject of harassment, intimidation,
vandalism, physical attacks, discrimination, and murder.
Family is very important, and Arab American families are often
extended beyond American borders.
Religion is an important factor; 65% of Arab Americans are Christian.
Arab American women are employed at lower rates than other
women.
Traditional gender roles are emphasized.
White Families
• Non-Hispanic whites are the majority in the United States at 66% of the
population.
• The non-Hispanic white family appears more likely to be headed by a
married couple and less likely to include family members beyond the
nuclear family.
• Older than other groups
• Lower fertility rates
• Higher incomes than all groups but Asians and lower poverty rates than
all other racial/ethnic groups.
• White women are less likely than black and Hispanic women to bear
children as teenagers or to have nonmarital births.
• In 2008, almost 73% of non-Hispanic white children lived with two
parents.
Multi-Ethnic Families
Multiracial families are formed through:
• interracial marriage
• formation of a nonmarital partnership
• the adoption of children across racial
lines
• 7% of married-couple households include spouses whose
racial/ethnic identities differ.
• 15% of opposite-sex partners and male same-sex partners and 13%
of female same-sex partners report different racial/ethnic identities.
• The proportion of multiracial children in the population is likely to
grow with increasing intermarriage and perhaps a greater tendency to
acknowledge a mixed racial/ethnic heritage.
Same-Sex Couples and Family Life
• In 2008, there were approximately 754,000 same-sex couple
households in the U.S.
• In the absence of access to legal marriage, partners may
publicly declare their commitment in ceremonies among
friends or in some congregations and churches.
• Same-sex partners highly value love, faithfulness, and
commitment (like heterosexual couples).
• More equality and role sharing than in heterosexual
marriages
• Same-sex couples must daily negotiate their private
relationship within a heterosexual (often heterosexist) world.
• Discrimination adds stress and may result in lowered mental
health and relationship quality.
Same-Sex Parents and Outcomes for Children
• A national study of gay and lesbian parents found more similarities
than differences between them and heterosexual parents.
o gay and lesbian parents had, in a number of areas, more positive childrearing practices: compared to heterosexual parents, they were more
responsive to their children, more child oriented, and more egalitarian in
sharing household tasks between the partners.
• 2008 Census survey found 31% of same-sex couples who
identified themselves as married and 17% of other same-sex
households now include children under age 18.
• Children of gay male and lesbian parents are generally well
adjusted, with no noticeable differences from children of
heterosexual parents in cognitive abilities, behavior, or emotional
development.
• No evidence that children are confused about their gender identity
or that they are more likely to be homosexual.
Families and Historical Events
• Historical events and conditions affect options, decisions,
and everyday lives of families.
• Changes in society over time have meant changes in how
family is defined, experienced, and understood.
• A historical perspective allows us to understand past and
present social forces as they influence the family
experience.