Familial Ties

The family, is a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group related by descent, marriage or adoption. Marriage is the legal union of two people, which may allow them to live together and to have children by birth or adoption. In terms of number of marriage partners, monogamy is a marriage of one wife and one husband, or perhaps between two men or between two women. A person may have several spouse over a lift time but only one spouse at a time, known as serial monogamy. Polygamy involves multiple spouses at one given time. Three types of polygamy exist: polygyny, polyandry, and group marriage, also called cenogamy. Polygyny is a family with multiple wives. Polyandry is where a women takes multiple husbands. Cenogamy involves group marriage.

Endogamy involves marrying one with similar characteristics in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, education level, social class. In contrast, exogamy, marrying someone with characteristics that are dissimilar on these, or other, dimensions.

Changes in the Family

Decline in Marriage

In 1981, married couples constituted of 83.1 percent of all households (see Figure 1.1); by 2006: only 68.6 percent of all Canadian households were married couples. The traditional nuclear family involving two adults and one or more children has dropped to under 40% of all families, and even then a rising percentage of those parents live in common law (see figure 1.2).

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Non-Family Households

Nonfamily households are those in which a person lives either alone or with non-relatives . There is a clear growth of one-person households, or people living alone, from 9.3 percent in 1961 to over 27 percent of all households in 2011. While in the past living alone might well have been considered a problem, Eric Klinenberg, author of "Going Solo" argues that increasing numbers of people are coming to prefer living alone. It allows people to pursue “individual freedom, personal control, and self-realization… It allows us to do what we want, when we want, on our own terms”

Family Households

The family household is a residential unit of one or more people occupying a given domicile who are related by blood, marriage or adoption. Those involved are related but not necessary married and by their occupation of a specific domicile. One member of the family household- the householder - owns or rents to property, as well as maintains it. The family household, like the family itself, has been declining in Canada: in 1961, 91.6 percent of households were married couples, but that has declined down to 67 percent in 2011. There is a corresponding increase in alternative household formations.

Alternative Forms of Family

Cohabitation

Cohabitation as couples or living common law is understood as sharing a home and a bed without being legally married, and where the partner is of the same or opposite sex. Common law relationships are growing rapidly in Canada. Statistics Canada began collecting data on cohabitation only in 1981, when just over 5 percent of all families were living in common law. By 2011, 19.7 percent of families were living common law. At one time cohabitation was associated with being poor, less educated, if in the lower classes- it was seen as the "poor man's marriage." More recently, cohabitation has become increasing with those with advanced education Increasingly, Canadian law treats common law relationships as analogous to marriage even though a cohabitating couple is not legally married. In a 1995 legal case the courts ruled that a cohabitating adult should be treated as equivalent to a married partner. For example, John Miron was uninsured but injured in a car accident. His common law partner had insurance that could cover his claim. The Supreme Court ruled that Miron should be covered by his partner’s insurance, as he would have been had the couple been legally married

Lone- Parent Families

Lone- Parent Families (also referred to as single parents is a family in which only one parent is caring for the child. Among the developed countries, Canada has a relatively high rate of lone-parent families. Canada has 16.3 percent of all households with children living in lone-parent families. Lone- parent families is mainly caused by the increase in divorce or separation.

Non-resident Families

Non-resident Parents involve families in which fathers and mothers live apart from their children. . Non-resident parents are mainly fathers although mothers is increasing. Historically, there have been many reasons for fathers to be absent from their families, such as demands of work, war, and incarceration. Today, although these reasons continue to exist, major reasons include non-marital childbearing with the parents never having lived together, the breakdown of a cohabiting relationship, and marital dissolution. Women typically have greater problems as non-resident parents then men. They generally have fewer financial resources, and this makes it more difficult for them to perform their role as a mother. Gender roles, such as being nurturer and caretakers for children, put more pressure on females to be highly active as non-resident parents. Gender roles may also lead women to be labelled negatively because of the negative stigma of living apart from their children. Despite the difficulties, non-resident mothers are more likely than such fathers to see their children.

Disney's Life With Derek is a TV series about step-families

Step families and Blended Families

A step family involves two adults who are married or cohabitating, at least one of whom has a child or children from a previous marriage or cohabitation living with them. A blended family includes some combination of children from the parents' previous marriage along with one or more children of the currently married or cohabitating couple. Step-families and blended families have become more common in Canada because about half of all marriages include a partner who was previously married. Of all families with children, the 2011 Canadian census showed that 12.6 percent were step-families. Although the differences are not great, step children tend to have more problems, such as behavior problems and difficulties in school, than those who grow up living with their original parents. One explanation is that step-families are “incomplete institutions”, that is when dealing with problems, step families do not have the same institutionalized guidelines and support that exist for first-marriage families.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka with their children

Gay and Lesbian Parents

Lesbian and Gay Families refers to gay or lesbian couples parenting one or more child. As late as the 1990s, there were no legal recognition of such marriages anywhere in the world In recent years, lesbian and gay politics have devoted more attention to individual right to marry, adopt children, and be parents A key event occurred in 2000 in the Netherlands when the right to marry was extended to same- sex couples. In the ensuing decade a number of countries around the world, including Canada, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain and South Africa, came to permit same-sex marriages. With new technology, same-sex couples are likely to become parents themselves in various ways, such as artificial insemination, adopting children, becoming foster parents or becoming surrogate parents.

Couples Living Apart Together

Living apart together (LAT) involve both heterosexuals and homosexuals, who define themselves as couples without the necessity of living together. They have separate residences within the same geographic area and are, in that sense, different from commuter marriages where there is a second home or one parents is frequently away. In both LAT and commuter marriages women have some measure of independence that may not have been possible in the past, because of the women’s financial independence. LAT is related to increased individualism, where more people realise that they can successfully live alone. However, not everyone has equal access to LAT since is requires greater economic resources and more flexibility at work, therefore it is more likely in higher socio-economic groups to be in a living apart together relationship.

Abuse and Violence

Heightened conflict within the family can lead to abuse and violence. This can take various forms, but the most common are parental abuse of children, and husbands who use violence against their wives. Violence within the family can involve emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse.

Child Abuse

Hundreds of millions of children throughout the world are abused, as well as maltreated and exploited. According to the World Health Organization, “child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development, or dignity in the contact of the relationship of responsibility, trust, or power”. Physical and emotional abuse and violence toward children can lead to an increased likelihood of cognitive impairment, impaired ability to reason morally, and a greater likelihood of engaging in violence and crime. Such children are more likely to be violent toward other children, future own children, spouse and elderly parents. There is often a cycle of violence and abuse toward children that stretches across several generations. Many of the parents who mistreat and abuse their children were themselves victims as children, and as a result they may have developed mental and substance abuse problems that can increase the likelihood of maltreatment.

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence entails the exertion of power over a partner in an intimate relationship that involves behavior that is intimidating, threatening, harassing, or harmful. The spouse can be harmed physically, as well as sexually, emotionally, and psychologically General conclusions can be drawn from research done on domestic and family violence:

• "The majority of spousal abuse victims are women, accounting for at least four of every five victims
• When physically or sexually assaulted, children and adolescents are most often the victims of someone they know
• One of the leading causes to injury to women is partner abuse
• Aboriginal people are three times more likely than non-Aboriginal people to be spousal abuse victims
• Among spousal abuse victims, about one third report that children saw or heard the violence
• It is difficult to leave a violent relationship, and the risk of serious, even fatal, injury is greatest when one does try to leave such a relationship
• Domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness
• Women are more likely than men to die due to spousal homicide"

Elder Abuse

Recently, there has been attention given to elder abuse. Canada police reported nearly 7,900 seniors were the victims of violence crimes. The elderly are abused in various ways such as physically, psychologically, financially, sexually and through neglect. Elderly men are more likely to be abused than women and adult children and spouses are most likely to perpetrate the abuse. Abuse also takes place in residential care facilities for the elderly.

Gender Roles in the Family

The intersection of work and family varies by gender. It has been shown that married or cohabiting males do better at work and are more productive, at least in part, because their wives are handling more of the responsibilities at home. According to Statistics Canada, married men had always had greater income than male lone parents or single men. However, female lone parents and single women have historically had incomes significantly below those of married couples. Many of these inequities are based on traditional gender roles in the family

Separate Spheres

The Industrialization Revolution brought forth social change, namely the separation of the public and private spheres, where men became the breadwinners, venturing forth into the public world of work; women were less likely to work outside the home and were neglected to the private sphere. The "cult of domesticity" that arouse argued that women should display:

• Submissiveness to their husbands and other male authorities
• Piety as moral exemplars within the home
• Purity in being virgins at marriage and strict monogamy thereafter, and
• Domesticity in being well-trained in the domestic arts and caretaking

Since the mid-20th century, this once clear cut, gender-based differentiation between the public and private spheres has been breaking down and women are more likely to be working but also the main or only wage earner in the family.

Dual-Earner Households

In dual-earner families with children, wives who take jobs outside the home tend to be saddled with a second body of work -their traditional tasks of child care and housework- when they get home from their paid job, called the second shift. Men typically devote more time to paid work, although the differences are slim and women typically devote more time to housework, and when families have kids, women devote a bit more time to household responsibilities However, Canadian women among women in other regions spend the least number of hours on an average day on housework.

Angelina Jolie takes her kids to the aquarium: Media's version of a supermom

Supermoms

The media are an important contributor to social pressures on women to be supermom (also referred to as superwomen). Images of happy women tending to their children’s every need manipulate women into feeling they must become supermoms. Women are daily subjected to a heavy promotion of impossible ideals of mothering. Quoted from "The Mommy Myth", “Mothers are subjected to an onslaught of beatific imagery, romantic fantasies, self-righteous sermons… and totally unrealistic advice about how to be the most perfect and revered mom in the whole neighborhood, maybe even in the whole country.”

See also

• Marriage
• Kinship
• Children
• Extended family
• Types of marriages
• North American Family Structure
• Family tree
• Miscarriages
• Adolescence