Social Problems

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rapidly

1.4.2. Change in workforce has negative effects

middle class declining

new poor: laid off workers with little opportunity for new work

communities devastated by relocation of business

even workers remaining in manufacturing will experience decline in standard of living

2. FAMILIES

2.1. Are traditional American families declining? No, rather, they’re changing. Some problems: the relationship between family problems and larger social issues (e.g., poverty), the high divorce rate, postponing/forging marriage and childbearing.

2.2. Definitions of:

family- a group consisting of parents and children together in a household; all descendants of a common ancestor

nuclear family- a couple and their dependent children

extended family-nuclear plus grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, who all live nearby or in one household- a house and its occupants, regarded as a unit

kinship- blood relationship

2.3. Mythical U.S. family

2.3.1. Stable and harmonious past family (“pillar’)

Assumption that families of the past were better than families of the present.

2.3.2. Separate worlds (private vs. public)

Due to economic conditions and social inequalities, some groups are prevented from having good experiences at home.

2.3.3. Monolithic form

(heterosexual family, father as breadwinner, mother as homemaker, one-family detached house)

Accounts for only 10% of homes.

2.3.4. Family decline as a cause of other social ills.

Myth: families who do not fit the monolithic mold are the cause of social problems.

Families in historical perspective

Family arrangements have closely followed economic development (the type of the economy)

Families have varied (and adapted) to the social conditions surrounding them

Family life and stratification

Families are embedded in a class hierarchy

Socio-economic forces produce different configurations

Middle-class families are idealized (these days both spouses work)

Working-class families create larger family networks to expand resources

Upper-class families have open boundaries and have privileged access to life chances and life styles

Changing families- All families are households, but not all households are families.

Economic changes and families (family life is intertwined with other social institutions)

Global shifts (econ. recession)

working class families the most affected

Postmodern families (What is their distinctive feature?)

Diverse family forms (smaller and diverse families, postponing marriage)

Balancing work and family (dual-worker families and child care); the U.S. does not have a national child care system

day care is expensive, often confines women to staying at home

2.6.4. Single parenthood and their children (features of children living in mother-only families)

households headed by women having been growing the past 20 years

27% of children live with one parent

Divorce

High divorce rates (highest of all major industrialized nations)

Divorce rate varies with race/ethnicity and income availability

blacks have higher divorce rates than whites

higher the income, lower the divorce rate

50% of all divorces occur during first 7 years

4 in 5 divorcees will remarry

Violence in American families

Intimate partner abuse

women more likely than men to be targets of spousal abuse

often lie about cause out of shame or guilt

he said, she said

Child abuse: non accidental physical injury requiring medical attention

MANY DEFINITIONS

Implications and consequences of abused children

impossible to know extent

2/3 of parents use some sort of violence against their children

consequences

1200 children die each year from abuse

half of runaways were abused

adults who were abused as children are more likely to be abusers themselves (THIS HAS SINCE BEEN DISPROVEN, BUT FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE TEST PRETEND ITS TRUE)

3. EDUCATION

Problems with education

School success

school performance related to

Which factors affect educational opportunities

schools tend to be segregated by social class and race

classes