Marriage and Family

Diversity in US Families

African-American Families• Upper class is concerned with maintaining family

lineage• Middle class focuses on achievement and respectability• Lower class face problems that poverty brings– Sharing resources and “stretching kinship” are survival

mechanisms for poor families• “fictive kin”- nonrelated individuals who help the family in hard

times• Marriage squeeze- fewer unmarried males than

unmarried females– Women are more likely to marry men with less education,

unemployed or divorced or remain single– African-American men are more likely to look outside their

race for mate than African-American women

Latino families

• Effects of social class also applies as well as country of origin

• Latino families are distinguishable by the Spanish language, Roman Catholic religion, strong family ties and disapproval of divorce

• Male dominance, the husband-father plays a stronger role than in white or African-American families

Asian American families

• Almost identical to that of white families although there is still significant variations in family life because Asian Americans come from twenty countries – Family life of recent immigrants is closer to that of

their country of origin

• More emphasis on extended family, respect for elders

Native American families

• Question is whether to follow traditional values or to assimilate

• Traditionals speak native languages and emphasize distinctive values and beliefs

Single-Parent Families

• High divorce rate and increase in unwed mothers

• Most of these families are lower income- most are headed by women who make less than men

• Children from one-parent families are more likely to drop out of school, become delinquent, be poor as adults, divorce, and have children outside of marriage

Childless families• Growing number of families that are voluntarily

childless• The more educated the woman is the more likely she is

to expect to have no children• white women are more likely than their Latino or

African-American counterparts to not have children• Reasons to not have children:– Weak relationship– Financial constraints– Demanding career– Contraception – Changing attitudes towards children and goals in life

Blended families

• One whose members were once part of other families

• Divorced people marry, bringing children into a new family unit

• Often experience complicated family relationships

Gay Marriage

• Legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Washington

• Civil unions recognized or domestic partnerships in Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and California

• Face usual problems of heterosexual marriages:– Housework, money, careers, children, problems with

relatives