INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS, 9TH

EDITION
Thomas J. Sullivan

Chapter 3

Family-Related Problems

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 Myths and Facts

• Divorce is a modern phenomenon and

was relatively unheard of in premodern
societies.
• The U.S has more teenage pregnancies
than any other industrial nation.

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 Families

• Family
– the social institution based on kinship that
functions to replace members of society and
to nurture them
• In the U.S. today cultural norms call for
people
– To practice monogamy
– To have an egalitarian family

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 Families

• Families in the U.S. have transitioned from

an extended family to a nuclear family; yet
many families form a modified extended
family.

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 The Family in Society

• The Functionalist Perspective

– Some form of the family exists in all societies
because families perform certain basic
functions essential to human survival and the
maintenance of society including
• regulation of sexual behavior and reproduction
• socialization and education

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 The Family in Society

• status conferral
• economic activity
• protection
• affection and companionship

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 The Family in Society

• The Conflict Perspective

– The family serves the interests of the
dominant groups in society.
• There is no reason to assume that a single family
form will benefit everyone.
• The dominant form can perpetuate social and
economic inequality.

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 The Family in Society

– The most common type of authority structure

in families is
• patriarchy, which refers to a family in which males
dominate the regulation of political and economic
decision making, whereas women and children are
subordinate.

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 The Family in Society

• The Interactionist Perspective

– Family form is a matter of social definition.
• People are socialized to accept their society’s
family form as “natural.”
• Today there is much less widespread consensus
regarding family and family-related behavior.

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 Attitudes Toward Marriage and Family

• In the U.S. today

– more people marry than ever before, well over
90%
– this may reflect the long transition from
“arranged marriages” to “participant-run”
romances where the selection of a marital
partner is based primarily on the individual
desires of the prospective mates

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 Attitudes Toward Marriage and Family

– marriage is viewed quite positively by many

people, but alternatives are also becoming
more popular

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 Divorce

• The Divorce Rate

– The refined divorce rate is determined by
dividing the number of divorces each year by
the total number of existing marriages in that
year.
• The divorce rate has doubled since 1940, going
from 8.8 to about 18 divorces for every 1,000
marriages
• The divorce rate has gone up over the last sixty
years, but has declined a little since its high point
around 1980.
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 Divorce

– The family performs fewer functions today.

– The increasing equality between men and
women has created opportunities and
tensions.
– There is less stigma attached to divorce
today.
– Pressures have surfaced to simplify the legal
process for obtaining a divorce.

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 Divorce

• Who Gets Divorced?

– Couples with an increased likelihood of
divorcing have the following characteristics:
• social differences between the couple
• low socioeconomic standing
• young age at marriage
• whirlwind romances

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 Divorce

• The Effects of Divorce

– When parents divorce what are the
consequences for the children?
• The impact on children depends on their age.
• Children in divorced homes seem to be more
prone to delinquency.

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 Divorce

• A decline in school performance and a higher

school dropout rate is a common consequence.
• It is not the divorce itself that produces the
negative consequences; the social and emotional
conditions that often surround divorce are also a
part of the problem.
• Research suggests that the impact on children
persists into adulthood.

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 Diverse Family Lifestyles

• Dual-Earner Families
– In most nuclear families in the United States
in the past, women did not work
– Today, in almost two-thirds of two-parent
families, both spouses work
– Higher rates of childlessness among dual
earner families may be an effort to avoid
some competing demands

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 Diverse Family Lifestyles

• Singlehood
– Today, 54 million adults in the United States
have never been married
• This figure includes slightly more males than
females
– Many remain single because they believe it
affords them distinct advantages:
• freedom from unnecessary commitments,
economic independence, new people and new
relationships, personal growth, and the ability to
have a more varied sex life that is free of guilt
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 Diverse Family Lifestyles

• Cohabitation
– Cohabitation refers to relationships in which
two people live in the same household and
share sexual, emotional, and often economic
ties without being legally married
– Why? To get to know each other and
determine compatibility and to establish
relationships after a failed marriage, or even
for economic convenience or necessity

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 Diverse Family Lifestyles

• Single Parenthood
– Today, 30 percent of all families with children
under 18 years of age are headed by only one
parent, mostly by women
– Almost 1/3 of children lives in a family in
which one or both parents are absent, and
half of all children may spend at least part of
their childhood in a single-parent home

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 Diverse Family Lifestyles

• A Global Perspective
– In the past few decades the proportion of
births to unmarried women has increased in
most nations, in some cases dramatically
– Many households are headed by women:
almost 50% in nations such as Botswana and
Barbados and 31% in the United States
– Household size has also been decreasing in
every part of the world

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 Violence in the Family

• Intimate Partner Violence

– Includes violence between spouses,
cohabitating partners, boyfriends/girlfriends,
and dates
– Reasons for intimate partner violence
• Use of violence to settle disputes, especially by
males

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 Violence in the Family

• Marital poverty
• Sexual inequality
• An inconsistency between a man’s and woman’s
achievements
• Social isolation
• Child Abuse
– Irrespective of social class considerations, it
appears that child abuse is a behavior pattern
that is passed on from generation to
generation in some families.
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 Violence in the Family

• Abuse of the Elderly

– Abuse is more likely to occur when the
caregiver is dependent on the elderly person
under his or her care.

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 Constructing Family Problems: Media
Images
• Studies of the content of television shows
over the decades document the changing
portrayals of the family
– The portrayals mirror actual family forms in
some respects but seriously distort them in
other respects
– There has also been a substantial growth in
the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters in
television and movies

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 Future Prospects

• The family performs important functions in

society, and some type of family will
undoubtedly continue to perform those
functions in the future.
• The Future of Divorce
– Despite the rapid rise in divorce in recent
decades, the divorce rate will not necessarily
continue to rise substantially in the future.

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 Future Prospects

• Reducing Family Violence

– One of the most positive steps toward
reducing family violence has been bringing
the issue into the open.
• Children and the Family
– Social policies related to children and the
family can be highly controversial and cover
such topics as teen pregnancy and child-care.

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