sociology

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Families and Poverty:

• Why is poverty “as American as apple pie?”

Theories of families in poverty:

• Cultural deficiency model:

• A belief that there are distinct values, aspirations, and psychological characteristics that restrict their abilities and foster behavioral deficiencies which keep families poor from generation to generation
• Culture of Poverty – Poor values are passed on. Ex) spending majority of your money on clothes and foods, oppose to books.  This is bad and problematic because it’s blaming poverty on the person and not society.  People don’t stay in poverty for too long

Problems with Cultural model:

• high turnover in individual families in poverty
• Blames poverty on the person rather than society.
• Individual motivation and characteristics are not a sociological explanation for group poverty.

Structural Explanation:

• How do changes in society effect socioeconomic status of families?
• Problems of childcare
• Being parents makes it difficult to hold jobs.
• Lack of resources. Parenting is easier when there are resources. Ex) More donations of public school located at a nice neighborhood vs. poor neighborhood.
• Lack jobs. Lesser pay compare to the past. High wage paying jobs in the past suddenly become low wage paying job. Ex) Adjunct Professor, More work, less pay .  

Sociologists argue that if certain families are disproportionately represented in poverty, then they must be treated differently in society or denied opportunities.

• Female-headed households
• African-American and Latino families

Family variables affect poverty:

• high divorce rates
• marital status
• female-headed households
• number of adults earning an income in house
• availability of marriable men????

Structural factors affect poverty:

• Transformations in the economy
• Employment rates
• Place of residence : city vs. suburban

Feminization of Poverty:

• The rapid increase in poverty among women with children.
• difficult to find well-paid employment
• child care
• time to do the unpaid labor of housework

Larger Implications:

• The resources of the family and community you are born into significantly effects where you will end up.

Divorce:

• Why are so many marriages ending in divorce?

Sociological Perspectives:

• What factors explain divorce?
• What are societal views on divorce?
• What are consequences of divorce for society?

Frameworks:

• Micro-level vs. Macro-level

• Micro-level explanations focus on changes in everyday interactions between partners
• Macro-level explanations focus on larger societal changes and patterns that affect relationships.

Unequal Exchange:

• Partner’s expectations
• Work-family conflicts : childcare, housework, careers and money
• Different attitudes about relationship expectations and gender roles : Emotions and Affection

Sources Of Instability:
MICRO-LEVEL CONCERNS

• Career changes : working too much, Working too little, the loss of a job
• Differences in income
• Parenting/children

Disagreements over children:

• parenting styles
• the amount of time/energy each invests in raising the child.
• the decision to have children,
• difficulty having children
• having children with medical, psychological developmental or physical problems.

Sources of Change:
MACRO-LEVEL

• Changing socio-economic structure
• Declining emphasis on religion
• Changing social norms

Legal Issues:

• Legal separation
• Divorce :Contested /Uncontested
• Custody of Children: Joint (decision-making) , Sole, Physical (possession)

Dividing-Divorce:

• Assets/Debt
• Alimony is paid in specific circumstances, and usually for a specified period of time.

Who gets what?:
Children

• Majority are raised by the mother, only one-third get the child support awarded.
• Research finds that men tend to view divorce as broken family:  “him”  vs. “her and them

Effects of Divorce on Children:
FACTORS

• Age at time of divorce
• Gender
• Relationship between parents
• Relationships between children and parents

Uncoupling Narratives:

• Initiators and non-initiators
• Why do some partners make excuses for divorcing while others justify their role?

Ex) “We drove home together and I said, “We are going to have to get a divorce,” and he said, “I guess so”; and I guess in the back of my mind I was hoping he’d say, “Well, let’s think it over, it’s not that important to me.” But he never said that.”  / She went on to say: A lot of people said to me, “You were so great, once you made up your mind, that was it for you.” [But] it wasn’t me who made that decision.

The Effects of Divorce:

• “ Accounting for divorce generally leads to finger-pointing at a specific person or marriage, but not at the institution of marriage itself”
• Shifting the center: Can there be a “GOOD” divorce?

Work and Care-work:

• How are different realms of “work,” “family” and “home” defined?
• Which is valued or prioritized?  Why?

Types of “Carework”:

• Interaction work -sustain communication between house members
• Emotion work -keep everyone feeling good
• Consumption work -selecting and purchasing goods necessary for house
• Kin work -maintain ties, parties, celebrations, phone calls, culture…

The Work-Home Crunch:

• Increased work time
• Geographic mobility
• Stress
• “Work as a haven”

Type of work one does influences how the work-family transition is negotiated

• White collar vs., blue collar
• Physical or mental energy

• Work-family interference refers to the ways in which the connections between work and family life may be a source of tension and stress
• Spillover is the carrying over of concerns, responsibilities and demands from one part to another.

How do people navigate the emotional geography of work and family?

• Structural interference -practical difficulties organizing and meeting demands
• Psychosocial interference -emotional transition between work and family.

Work-family Labels:

• Dual worker families (even multiple worker families)
• Single workers
• Working parents - Single parents

Do we formalize other work-family relationships?

“Fast-Track” vs. “Stay-at-Home”:

• What does “choose” mean?

• To have children/not to have children
• To work outside the home /to stay at home

While women are said to choose, the reality is that women are the ones limited.  It might be accurate to say “forced to choose.”

ex) “Mommy Tax”-women with children receive much lower pay than men and women without children

ex) “Mommy Track”-women with children are less likely to be promoted

Invisible and Unpaid work:

• The idea of balancing is gendered.

• Husbands do not share equally even if wife works full-time, even if he is unemployed, and even if he espouses a belief in equality.
• Husbands do more housework if a child is under two, if both are better educated, and if they are younger—is this a sign of change?
• This pattern does not vary greatly by race or class

What about in Lesbigay families?

• The myth of egalitarianism…….

Crisis of Care:

• “The relegation of care to the private sphere and to women has had two corollaries: the devaluation of caring work/caring relationships and the exclusion of both from the arena of equality and rights.”

Ways to Shift the Center:

• Caring is recognized as “real work” and as a social contribution (ex. military service)
• Care receivers have say over their care.
• Caring is a collective responsibility (public) rather than simply familial (private).
• Access to care is equally distributed and not subject to economic or social status.
• Care not relegated to the marginalized groups ( women, racialized minorities and immigrants)

Parenting:

Parenting Norms:

• Research explores the changing relationship between parent and child.
• Parenting style, family structure and social environment significantly affect children.

Parenting:

• Ideas about parenting continually change over time.
• Ideas about parenting vary between countries, cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, and socioeconomic statuses.
• What are some examples?

EXAMPLES:
Physical Discipline vs. Abuse

• How is it defined?
• How and Why is it used?

Standards of Care

• How is it defined?
• What does it include?

Parenting Labels:

• Single parent
• Two-parent family
• Working parent
• Custodial parent/ Non-custodial parent

• Socio-economic class status is significant in a number of ways.
• Research looks at how class affects how society looks at parenting and how different classes may engage in different parenting behaviors.

Class Differences:
Middle/Upper class:  Concerted cultivation, extended negotiations and explanations, Children feel a sense of entitlement.
Working Class:  Natural growth, Little questioning, expectation of orders being followed, Obedience.

Parenting:
Adoption and Parenting

• Who gets adopted and why?
• How are adoptive parents viewed?

What role does race play in parenting?

• Societal expectations and assumptions

Does sexual orientation matter when it comes to parenting?:
Against:

• Loss of parent of other sex
• Identity Confusion
• Social stigma
• Children more likely to LGBT
• Sexual promiscuity or exposure

Support:

• Not more likely to be LGBT
• More likely to be open-minded and tolerant
• More likely to live in accepting areas
• No educational differences

Difference does not mean deficit



Family violence:

Violence in Context:

• The U.S has high rates of violent crime and activity in comparisons to other industrialized countries.
• Historically physical force was legal for:
• the state to use on convicted criminals
• husbands to use force on their wives,

  “the rule of thumb.”

• parents to use on their children
• schools to use on students

United States:

• Over 3 million reports
• 12.3 children per 1,000 children abused
• 1,500 children die every year from child abuse and neglect

Layers of Analysis:
Micro-Level:

• Individual/Personal: Agency
• Groups : Interactions

Macro-Level:

• Groups: Societal Treatment
• Structure: Institutions  (Legal/Political)

• “Institutionally sanctioned violence” refers to the way that society legitimizes, rewards or does not punish violence at its roots.

-How does this type of advertise encourage a culture of Violence?
-this can be found in the media, in our laws, and even in religious texts.

U.S. Dept of Justice Stats:

• Nearly 1/3 of murdered women are killed by their current or former partner.
• 28% by husbands or boyfriends
• 35% by acquaintances
• 5% by other relatives

Violence Against Women:

• Domestic violence is leading cause of injury to women,15-44 years old.
• How does gender socialization and gender roles help explain why these patterns exist??

Multiple factors:

• It is important to consider multiple factors together which is called intersectionality or intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality issues

Structural Factors:

• One’s distance from the dominant group
• South Asian woman recently migrated to New York
• Black upper-middle class woman with children
• Impoverished white lesbian

Children from low-income single mother families  (Penn State incident

• In recent years there has been implementation of “mandatory arrest” and “no-drop prosecution” in domestic violence cases.

Does this help or hurt?

Elder abuse:

• There are no clear rules or laws on how the elderly should be cared for.
• Complicated by
• economic stress,
• multiple family roles
• unclear expectations.

If you have any test reviews, homeworks, guides, anything school related that you think can be posted on this website, reach out to me at makingschooleasier@gmail.com