This week we have learned about characteristics of the family including definitions, types of family formations, and family relationships. One particular area of concern is family-work-life balance. Many families are struggling to balance employment demands (e.g. paid labor), child care and house work demands (e.g. unpaid labor), with leisure/free time. Write a 1-2 page paper on the following prompt. Please make sure to properly cite sources using the APA style guide.
Prompt: Analyze your own family and discuss their family-work-life balance. 1) How balanced is your family? Explain- Discuss characteristics that may hinder or help the outcome. For example, if young children are present in the household, parents are retired, social class, etc. 2) Offer advice for how individuals can strive to achieve a better balance. You can identify strategies you or other family members currently engage in or discuss things you’d like to do to help move toward a more balanced life. Defining Families
The family has been defined in a number of ways over the last century. Institutions, such as the government and workplace, often defines families through genetic, marital or adoption relationships, or individuals living in households and sharing resources. Scholars find that individuals have a much more fluid and diverse definition of the family.
Susan Ferguson says it that if we are going to study the family, we need a working definition of the family that is broad enough to include diverse members and functions, but detailed enough to apply to the study of families across cultures.
She defines the family as a social institution that provides three things:
It gives support to its members (whether it be emotional nurturing, physical caretaking, economic support, or some combination of these).
It binds the individual to a primary social group.
It socializes the person for participating in society outside of the family
The conceptualization of the family as an institution has been challenged by other scholars. DiMaggio argues the family has become deinstitutionalized. That is recent shifts in family trends, such as the commonality in cohabitation, the delay in marriage and childbearing, and the large number of divorces, are evidence of changes to family structures and more flexibility in societal “rules”. This has lead to the popularity of cohabiting households and delays in the timing of marriage in one’s life.
Here are some of the most emerging trends that have shaped family formations in recent decades. Think about how these trends challenge or support these definitions in terms of structure and ideology.
Remaining single longer: According to Pew Research Center, “in 2012, one-in-five adults ages 25 and older (about 42 million people) had never been married. … In 1960, only about one-in-ten adults (9%) in that age range had never been married”.
More couples are cohabiting:According to Manning and Stykes (2013), “the percentage of women who have ever cohabited has almost doubled over the past 25 years. Over two-thirds (69%) of women who first married in the last decade cohabited prior to marriage”.
Boomerang families are increasing: These are families in which children are returning to the parents household after college. “Women aged 18-34 are living with their parents or other family at rates not seen since the 1940s. Over a third (36.4 percent) of women aged 18-34 are living with their parents, aunts or uncles, or other non-spouse family member” (Fry 2015). Men, too, are also increasingly likely to have this household arrangement, with 42.8 percent of men in this age group living with parents or other family (Fry 2015).
Blended families are becoming the norm: These are families created through remarriage, which can include stepchildren living together, or new children created by the couple. Blended families include children, remarried may or may not since it is calculated based on the parents. According to the Census Bureau, 16% of children are living in “blended families”. This has remained stable since the 90s.
Technology is creating new families, including online dating, adopted families and surrogate parents. 59% of Americans feel online dating is a good way to meet people and 5% of Americans who are in a marriage or committed relationship say they met their significant other online (Pew Research 2015). The share of 18- to 24-year-olds who use online dating has roughly tripled from 10% in 2013 to 27% today. 12% of 55- to 64-year-olds report ever using an online dating site or mobile dating app versus only 6% in 2013. IVF has also increased. Doctors performed about 113,000 cycles back in 2003. That number jumped by nearly 50 percent to about 165,000 in 2012.
Multi-generational households for young adults and old is likely to remain a transitional life stage for an increasing number of people. Over a fifth (21%) of all U.S. older adult households contained more than one generation of family members (Aging In Place 2015).
Most households are dual earner. The Labor force participation today stands at 70% among all mothers of children younger than 18, and 64% of moms with preschool-aged children. About three-fourths of all employed moms are working full time (Pew Research 2014). This is slightly below the peak in 2000, where 73% of mothers were employed. COHABITATION
It changes the meaning of being “single”. Singlehood no longer means unattached living.
Cohabitation affects the timing of marriage. For some couples, cohabitation is a trial period of marriage and some feel their marriage began when they started living together. Many couples may plan to marry but have to wait until they are more financially or emotionally secure. Cohabitation means less of a rush to get married until all the pieces fit.
Provides an alternative union formation to marriage. Many couples choose to never marry and cohabit for the rest of their lives.
90% of Americans marry at one point in their lives, many marry several times. In general, people enter into marriage at different points in their lives and for different reasons including love, economic stability, citizenship, pregnancy/children, pressure from family, etc (and these are not necessarily mutually exclusive from each other).The remaining 10% are people who:
Have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from finding a suitable mate (although it should be noted that not all people with these characteristics do not marry)
While most people experience marriage at some point in their lives, scholars find that marriage rates have dropped largely due to the delay in marriage (people marrying later in life) as opposed to people never marrying. Currently, the US is experiencing a historic low in the marriage rate at 6.5 per 1000 adults. As scholars note, marriage has significant consequences on people’s economic well-being and social support. For an interesting perspective on the decline of the marriage rate as it relates to the stay a home order of COVID19.
Is marriage more beneficial than cohabitation?
There are mixed results as to whether marriage provides more benefits than cohabitation. A recent study finds marriage is more beneficial in some areas, but not necessarily others.
Marriage is more beneficial in:
The married have greater economic resources than the unmarried. In 1999, the median household income for a married couple was 61,500 compared to 43,500 for single men and 30,000 for single women. But this economic benefit is greater for middle and upper class individuals rather than those in the working and poor classes. Economic stability results partly from males greater work productivity and increased wages shared resources when both spouses are in the labor force and a greater likelihood for married individuals to save more often than non-married individuals. It is unclear if those who are economically stable are more likely to marry or if marriage itself brings economic stability. Also, the benefits of health and happiness that are associated with marriage may be partly explained by one’s economic status that gives them greater access to health care, greater likelihood to live in a better neighborhood, enjoy more travel and participate in more leisure activities which may help reduce stress.
The divorce rate is affected by social and economic conditions. The divorce rate increases after wars (the Civil War ended in 1863, WWI ended in 1919, and WWII in the 1945, Vietnam officially ended in 1973 but troop withdraws had been taking place since 1969). It decreases in time of economic hardship (such as during the Depression and Great Recession) and it increases in times of prosperity. Divorce CharacteristicsToday, the United States has the highest divorce rate of all the Western nations. The odds or chance for divorce in the US is about 1 in 2. In Europe, the odds are about one in 3 or 4. There are several factors that scholars have associated with the divorce rate.
Age at first marriage: younger people at first marriage (teens) have a higher risk for divorce than those who are older when they marry (twenties). About half of all marriages of teenagers end in divorce compared to a third of those in their mid to late twenties and a fourth of those who marry in their 30s. Those in their twenties are usually more mature and have greater education and financial stability. Younger people may not have been dating for as long as older people and may not have developed their relationship as much.
Children: The presence of children has mixed results in terms of making marriages more or less stable. Overall, couples with children are less likely to divorce than childless couples. The likelihood of divorce also decreases as family size increases, although this is only true for up to four children. Having four or more children makes couples more likely to divorce than those with fewer children. Age of children is also important, where families with children under the age of three are less likely to divorce than families with children over three. Having children prior to marriage increases one’s chance of divorce. The presence of stepchildren for remarried couples increases one’s chance of divorce. And families with all girl children have a higher divorce rate than families who have all boy children.