Social Class, Culture, and Family: The Impact on Childhood and Marriage - Prof. Olivia Het, Study notes of Introduction to Sociology

Download Social Class, Culture, and Family: The Impact on Childhood and Marriage - Prof. Olivia Het and more Study notes Introduction to Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Social Class, Culture, and Family Life Unequal Childhoods Unequal Childhoods Important issues in research: -Transmission and Reproduction of social class -Importance of: Cultural Capital Social Structures: where live, available accommodations, composition, jobs, education Hidden Inequalities Link of Social to Family Life Class matters: Classed individuals Consequences • Natural Growth: -Expect and accept constraint when confronting social institutions. -Often leads to alienation. • Concerted Cultivation: -Empowerment and entitlement. Parenting and Language Use • NG: Use directives, “Don’t do that!” Child: “Why not?” Parent: “Because I said so!” • CC: More reasoning, and bargaining behind directives. – Potato chip example. Language and Class: “codes” • Two types of “codes”, class based -Elaborated code -Restricted code: shared information and meaning Findings of Code Research • Working-class students: restricted code • Middle-class students had access to both restricted and elaborated codes – AND knew when to use one or the other style. – This is an important skill. • Ex. In Search of Respect, Or Code of the Street. – Relation to outside institutions and success. Schools and EC • concerned with the introduction of new knowledge rather than only shared meanings • Schools use elaborated code, and reward students who do so. – Ex. Photo – Failing to use elaborated code can result in poor educational outcomes. Back to Lareau Class matters in exposure to codes: Cultivated and Fostered by Parent: Discerning important from unimportant information, clarifying, negotiation… Example from text? Have these class differences always existed? • No – far more pronounced today. • Early 20th Century: – Important for children to learn virtues of “hard work” – unstructured after-school play across all social classes. 1980s + • Prevalence of institutions and relations that emphasize: – competition, efficiency, maximization of self- interested action. • Increased emphasis on building: – human, cultural, and social capital of kids so they can compete adequately • Investment in “quality” of children. • Emerging norm vs. deviance Findings • Cultural Capital plays significant role in reproduction of inequality. – Informal knowledge of process – Networks – Poor and working class not only lacked in economic capital, but also social and cultural. Even when ability was high. What is “agency”? • Agency: Free will, or choice, in a given situation. Standpoints on S/A  1. Social life is determined by social structure. Individual actions can be explained as an outcome of structure.  Structural-deterministic  2. Some focus on the power of individuals to construct and give meaning to their social world.  agency  3. Structure and Agency are complementary. Structure influences agency, but human agency influences structure. Relationship between S/A • Many see social structure as influencing human activity, structure can have an agency of it’s own. • Some point out the degree of “choice” is often constrained by structure. While we always have “choice”, to act upon some choices may not always be in our best interests • Structure is not “out there”, bearing down upon us, we interact with structure. Structure is reproduced by social agents. The Place of “culture” • Culture: group norms, values, attitudes – While there is multiple ways to think of a situation, some are accepted and others condemned. • Dominant Culture assumes a structure: though we may not agree, or adhere, to dominant logic, we are “forced” to contend with it. – What would an example of this relationship be? Single Parent Families as Marked • How are stereotypes a form of social structure? • React against or within: – Multiple Stigmas at play: family, poverty, etc. Promises I Can Keep • Study of poor single-mothers. – Why do the poor so often become parents before they become married partners? – Do the poor’s high rates of non-marital childbearing signify a rejection of marriage? – Among the poor, what is the meaning of parenthood? Of marriage? Do the poor hold unconventional or mainstream views? Few examples of mobility, choices. • Those who already have very troubled lives do not see parenthood as a costly alternative. – In fact, parenthood can impose order and discipline in a disorderly life. Making Meaning • Responsible Choice – Motherhood as a rite of passage, highly esteemed – Important source of identity – Children to be had earlier, not delayed Joe: “I [am just] ready to have a baby.” Brehanna: “We was always going out to the mall and going [window] shopping for [baby things] We always talked about having a baby.” Rejecting or Adhering to Cultural Norms? • Children are viewed as a “blessing,” and parenthood is seen as the most important role they will have. • Many of these women invest in “intensive mothering” • Important of “being there”. -- ongoing, day-to-day presence -- monitoring of child’s safety -- not losing one’s kids to the “system”: (due to bad parenting, neglect) Cultural Understandings of Marriage • Research suggests that children who grow up in healthy married, two-parent families do better…than those who do not. • 1. Married couples seem to build more wealth…than singles or cohabiting couples…decreasing the likelihood that their children will grow up in poverty. • 2. Children who live in a two-parent, married household enjoy better physical health, on average, than children in non- married households. See 1. • 3. Healthy marriages reduce the risk of adults and children either perpetrating, or being victimized by, crime. See 1. • Marriage ensures health of children, economic success, and equates responsible citizenship. See 1. Marriage and Single Parent Families  Thus, state response to single parenting is to encourage marriage.  *Healthy Marriage Initiative  Promote marriage, education in classrooms, mentoring, divorce reduction programs, disincentives to divorce.  Basis:  (1) Marriage is the foundation of a successful society.  (2) Marriage is an essential institution of a successful society which promotes the interests of children.” However,  Marriage promotion does not tolerate alternatives:  same-sex couples and extended kinship networks;  suggests that single and cohabiting women will always be poor, and that single and cohabiting parents hurt their children and society.  This does not make sense to all families. Divorce Trends, Gender, and Family Issues affecting Divorce Prevalence • Macro: – Laws – Women’s Employment – Attitudes Toward Divorce – Norms – Changing Gender Roles – Religion – Urbanization • Micro: – Parental Divorce, Age, Children, Non-marital Childbearing Concerns in Process • Economic: – Child Support – Alimony • Emotional: friend or foe – Focus on Family • Children: – Custody: physical and legal/joint and sole • Mothers: unfit (past) – 8/10 mothers receive physical custody » Less men ask, when do 70% receive sole or joint • More economically advantaged with father, but still lower income and twice the poverty rate than children with both parents Women and Children • Standard of living reduced by 27% –Cut expenses, move to cheaper housing –Men increase by 10% • Yet, women better adjust emotionally. • Networks • Why? Better off? • Depends: Unhappily Married OR Divorce • Do not fare well in conflict – amount of conflict not so much divorce. • High conflict intact: suffered more than those whose high conflict parents divorced. – Many report doing better following divorce. • Antisocial behavior decreased following divorce of dysfunctional families. • Low conflict families: worse off. • Worst: high conflict that do not divorce and low conflict that do divorce Remarriage • 2/3 women, 3/4 men remarry • Men within 3 years, women 5 • Women: likelihood lower with children (under 6) or older – Men more easily initiate contact: norms, larger circle of friends – Double Standard of Aging – Pool of partners less for women: cougars and sugar daddies. – Presence of Children – Not always happier and more likely to end in divorce than first marriages. Divorce as a “problem” • Many agree that divorce should be harder to attain. • Many support pre-marital counseling. • Many support enforced counseling prior to separation. • Many support waiting periods for divorce to help “work out problems” Issues in Family Formation Intersections of Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Changes in HHLD Type • 1970: – Married couples with children : 40.3& – Married couples w/o children: 30.3% – Single Parent HHLD: 10.6% – Non-family: 18.8% • 2007: – Married couples with children: 22.5% – Married couples w/o children: 28.3% – Single parent hhlds: 16.8% – Non-Family: 32.5% Marriage and Family across R/E • Asian/PI: – Married: 55% – Male headed: 18% – Female headed: 27% • Whites: – Married couple families:80% – Male headed: 3% – Female headed: 17% • Black: – 45% married – 7% male headed – 48% female headed • Hispanic: – 65% married – 7% male headed – 28% female headed * “headed”=claim a dependent Disruptions to “Family” Domestic Violence and Homelessness Time to Stop Pretending Violence in the Home • Violence is a gendered problem • “New” problem – Battered women’s movement in 1970’s, rape – Battered women began to speak out about relationships and marriages – Set up safe homes, hide, reorganize • Through voice, began to realize society was indifferent, seek social justice – Realize that battering was pervasive. – At first, focus on safe space, shelter system and programs DV and Family • Witnessing violence between parents – transmit violent behavior from one generation to the next. • Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children as adults. • 30%-60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household.