Symbolic interactionist theories indicate that families are groups in which participants see themselves as family members and act accordingly. In other words, families are groups where people come together to form a strong primary group bond and maintain emotional ties with each other over a long period of time. These families could potentially include groups of close friends as family. However, the self-image of family groups is not independent of broader social forces and current debates in society as a whole. Nuclear family: A man and a woman living together who have a socially recognized sexual relationship and have at least one child. Especially in Western cultures, the modern family today is a consuming unit rather than a production unit, and family members are more likely to work away from home than from home. Public authorities, especially those of the State, have taken over many of the functions that the family previously performed, such as care for the elderly and sick, education of young people and leisure. Advances in technology have made it possible for couples to decide if and when they want to have children. Cohen, Philip. (2011). Chinese: maternal grandmothers, outsiders. FamilyInequality.com, accessed February 13, 2012, by familyinequality.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/chinese-maternal-grandmothers-outside-women/. Physical abuse of children can take the form of beatings, kicks, throws, choking, blows with objects, burns or other methods.
Injuries caused by such behaviour are considered abuse, even if the parent or caregiver did not intend to harm the child. Other types of physical contact called discipline (e.g., spanking) are not considered abuse until there is an injury. The Supreme Court decision states that teachers and parents may use appropriate remedial measures against children between the ages of 2 and 12 as long as the abuse is “minor” and “temporary and insignificant in nature” (CBC News, 2004). The court ruled that it was unacceptable to hit a child with an object such as a strap or whip, and that it was also unacceptable to hit a child on the head. Matrilocal residence: A system in which it is customary for a husband to live with his wife`s family. 2. Research suggests that people generally feel that their current family is ___ than the family they grew up with. In modern systems, the parties to a marriage can usually create the economic events of the marriage through a separate agreement. In some of the earliest legal systems, and in today`s systems where customary family law applies, there is little choice regarding the economic events of marriage because they are determined by custom.
In legal systems that leave a wide margin of personal independence, spouses may, by means of a marriage contract or will, acquire their own position in relation to the economic basis of their family circle. Whether you grew up with the Cleavers, the Waltons, the Huxtables or the Simpsons, most of the iconic families you saw in TV sitcoms included a father, mother and children frolicking under one roof while the comedy followed. The 1960s were the heyday of the nuclear family of American suburbs on television with shows like The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best. While some shows from that era depicted single parents (My Three Sons and Bonanza for example), single status almost always resulted from the fact that they were widowed, not divorced or single. Crano, William and Joel Aronoff. (August 1978). An intercultural study of the expressive and instrumental complementarity of roles in the family. American Sociological Review, 43(4):463-471. The combination of husband, wife and children, who 80% of Canadians believe form a family, is not representative of the majority of Canadian families.
According to 2011 Census data, only 31.9% of all census families were married couples with children, compared with 37.4% in 2001. 63% of children under the age of 14 live in households where both parents are married. This is a decrease of almost 70% in 1981 (Statistics Canada, 2012). As mentioned earlier, this two-parent family structure is known as the nuclear family and refers to married parents and children as the nucleus or nucleus of the group. In recent years, variations in the nuclear family have increased, with parents not married. The proportion of children under the age of 14 living with two unmarried cohabiting parents increased from 12.8% in 2001 to 16.3% in 2011 (Statistics Canada, 2012). Parsons (1943) also argued that in modern North American society, the distinction between these roles created tensions or tensions on individuals seeking to conform to conflicting norms or requirements (roles) between American professional and kinship systems. There is an “asymmetrical relationship of the couple to the professional structure” in which the norms of equality of spouses in the family system are undermined by the inequality of status in the professional system between paid employment outside the home and unpaid domestic work at home. Parsons argued that the result of this division was a burden in terms of gender role models. As men became narrow instrumental specialists incapable of a life of full expression, women turned to “neurotic” expressive tasks to create a functional equivalent to demonstrate their abilities and fundamental equality to their husbands. Infants are also often victims of physical violence, especially in the form of violent shaking. This type of physical abuse is called shaken baby syndrome, which describes a group of medical symptoms such as swelling of the brain and retinal hemorrhage caused by vigorous jerks or blows to an infant`s head.
The cry of a baby is the number one trigger for tremor. Parents may not be able to calm a baby`s worries and may express frustration with the child by shaking them violently. Other stressors such as a poor economy, unemployment and general dissatisfaction with parenting can contribute to this type of violence. Shaken baby syndrome was attributed as the cause of almost one-third (31%) of family-related homicides among infants less than 1 year of age between 2000 and 2010 (Sinha, 2012). With respect to maltreatment by provincial and territorial child welfare agencies, infants (children under 1 year of age) were the most frequently affected population, with an incident rate of 52 examinations per 1,000 children, compared to 43 per 1,000 for children aged 1 to 3 years. the second top category (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2010). Infants under 1 year of age are also the most likely to commit family murder, 98% of which were committed by their parents (27 per million between 2000 and 2010, compared to 9 per million for children aged 1 to 3, the next highest category) (Sinha, 2012). This age group is particularly susceptible to neglect because it depends entirely on parents for care. Some parents do not deliberately neglect their children; Factors such as cultural values, standard of care in a community, and poverty can lead to dangerous neglect.
If information or support from public or private services is available and a parent is not using these services, child care can intervene (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2010). Strong, B. and C. DeVault. (1992). The Experience of Marriage and Family. (5th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.
Marriage the second time (or the third or fourth time) can be a very different process from the first. Remarriage lacks many of the classic courtship rituals of a first marriage. In a second marriage, people are less likely to face issues such as parental consent, premarital sex, or desired family size (Elliot, 2010). Clark and Crompton suggest that second marriages tend to be more stable than first marriages, largely because the spouses are older and more mature. At the time of Statistics Canada`s General Social Survey, 71% of remarried couples surveyed were still together, and had been for an average of 13 years. Couples tend to marry a second time for intimate rather than external reasons and therefore enjoy a better quality relationship (Clark & Crompton, 2006). At the meso level, the sociology of partner choice and marital satisfaction shows the different ways in which group dynamics or the family form itself affect the desires, preferences, and decisions of individual actors. At the meso level, sociologists deal with interactions within groups in which several social roles interact simultaneously.
Since the spontaneity of romantic love and notions of individual “chemistry” have become so central to our concepts of partner choice in Western societies, it is interesting to observe the social and group influences that affect what otherwise seems to be a purely individual choice: the valorization of socially defined “assets” among potential partners, in-group/out-of-group dynamics in partner preference, and demographic variables that affect the availability of desirable partners (see analysis below). As early theories have been criticized for generalizing family life and ignoring differences in gender, ethnicity, culture and lifestyle, less rigid models of the family life cycle have been developed. One example is the family life course, which recognizes events that occur in the lives of families, but sees them as starting terms for a fluid course rather than successive phases (Strong & DeVault, 1992). This type of model takes into account changes in family development, such as the fact that today`s children do not always accompany marriage.