Chapter 14: Marriage and Family

• Chapter 14 discusses families, lifestyles, parenting, different lifestyles, parenting and styles, and family relationships

Lifestyles

• Single life has increased dramatically.
• Cohabitation entails an unmarried couple living together.
• In 48% of households 92% of people get married.
• Married people tend to be happier than unmarried people.

Predictors of Marital Success (Gottman)

• Enhance love maps by gaining insights of each other.
• Nurture fondness and admiration
• Turn toward each other instead of away.
• Let partner influence you by sharing power and decision-making.
• Solve solvable problems.
• Overcome gridlock by being patient and communicating.
• Create shared meaning by sharing goals.

Other Tips for Marital Success

• Establish realistic expectations.
• Have similar interests.
• Agree upon role distribution.
• Compromise and avoid keeping score.
• Accept partner's flaws.
• Have a sense of commitment.

Marital Satisfaction

• Marital satisfaction often follows a U-shape curve.
• Marital satisfaction will decline during late adulthood.
• Retirement adjustment and caring for illness are severe stressors.

Divorce

• U.S. divorce rate is going down.
• Divorce often occurs 7-8 years into marriage.

Divorce Risk factors

• Marrying young.
• Low education level.
• Low income.
• No or differing religious affiliation.
• Having divorced parents.
• Having a baby before marriage.
• Divorce in middle adulthood is on the rise.
• Women are more likely to seek divorce.
• Primary causes are abuse or the lack of commitment.
• Within 3 years, 50% remarry.

Parenting Styles (Baumrind)

• Authoritative
• Permissive
• Authoritarian
• Uninvolved

Parenting - Demographics & Statistics

• Average age of first-time parents:
  • Mom: 26 years old
  • Dad: 31 years old
• Delay of childbirth for financial advantage.
• Time spent parenting:
  • Dad: Less than 1 hour/day
  • Mom: 11 hours/day

Parenting - Discipline

• Methods of instilling character, self-control, moral values, and behavior.

Parenting - Co-regulation

• Occurs when a child and caregiver interact, with the adult sharing their calm when the child is overwhelmed or dysregulated.

Parenting - Reciprocal socialization

• Parents and children socialize each other, operating bidirectionally.

Parenting through Divorce

• Shield children from conflict.
• Provide continuity and familiarity.
• Explain the divorce and what to expect.
• Emphasize the permanence of the divorce.
• Respond sympathetically to the child's feelings.
• Practice authoritative parenting.
• Promote a relationship with both parents.

Families

• In 2020, 70% of children lived in 2-parent families.
• In 2020, 25% of children lived in 1-parent families.
• 80% of single parents are moms.
• 60% of working parents have 2 working parents.
• 18% of parents are stay-at-home parents.
• Considers the positives and negatives of working parents.
• Divorced parents are common.
• Coparenting occurs.
• Step-parent and blended families are present in 40% of families in 2020.
• 20% of same-sex couples are parenting.

Grandparents

• The average age of becoming a grandparent was 50 in 2019.
• The average number of grandchildren is 5-6.
• Three types of grandparents: involved, companionate, and remote.
• 2% of children are raised by grandparents.

Families - Siblings and Aging Parents

• Birth order has effects.
• Contact with adult children is beneficial for aging parents.

Common Family Situations

• Helicopter parents are over involved and controlling.
• Empty Nest Syndrome where parents report increase in happiness.
• Boomerang Children move back in with parents after living independently.
• Sandwich generation.

Families - Final Thoughts

• 38% of children in the US live in low-income families.
• Poverty rates are highest among Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people.
• 16,000 kids in Ohio are in foster care.
• Up to 80% of children in care have mental health issues.