In 2009, About __________ Percent of Families Maintained by Women With Children Were Poor.

The combination of husband, wife, and children that 99.8 percent of people in the United States believe constitutes a family is not representative of 99.viii percentage of U.Due south. families. According to 2010 census data, only 66 percent of children under seventeen years old live in a household with two married parents. This is a decrease from 77 percent in 1980 (U.Due south. Census 2011). This two-parent family unit structure is known as a nuclear family , referring to married parents and children as the nucleus, or core, of the grouping. Recent years have seen a rise in variations of the nuclear family with the parents not being married. 3 percent of children alive with two cohabiting parents (U.South. Census 2011).

More than one quarter of U.S. children live in a single-parent household. (Photo courtesy of Ross Griff/flickr)

Single Parents

Single-parent households are on the rise. In 2010, 27 percentage of children lived with a single parent only, up from 25 pct in 2008. Of that 27 pct, 23 percent live with their female parent and iii percent live with their begetter. Ten percent of children living with their unmarried mother and twenty percent of children living with their unmarried begetter also live with the cohabitating partner of their parent (for example, boyfriends or girlfriends).

Stepparents are an additional family element in two-parent homes. Among children living in two-parent households, nine percent live with a biological or adoptive parent and a stepparent. The majority (seventy percent) of those children alive with their biological mother and a stepfather. Family unit structure has been shown to vary with the age of the kid. Older children (fifteen to seventeen years quondam) are less probable to alive with two parents than adolescent children (vi to fourteen years one-time) or immature children (zero to five years old). Older children who exercise live with two parents are also more likely to live with stepparents (U.S. Census 2011).

In some family structures a parent is not present at all. In 2010, three one thousand thousand children (4 percent of all children) lived with a guardian who was neither their biological nor adoptive parent. Of these children, 54 percent live with grandparents, 21 percent live with other relatives, and 24 percent live with nonrelatives. This family structure is referred to as the extended family unit , and may include aunts, uncles, and cousins living in the same home. Foster parents account for near a quarter of nonrelatives. The practice of grandparents acting every bit parents, whether alone or in combination with the kid's parent, is becoming widespread amid today's families (De Toledo and Brown 1995). Nine percent of all children alive with a grandparent, and in almost one-half those cases, the grandparent maintains primary responsibleness for the child (U.S. Census 2011). A grandparent functioning as the master care provider often results from parental drug corruption, incarceration, or abandonment. Events like these can render the parent incapable of caring for his or her child.

Changes in the traditional family structure raise questions about how such societal shifts affect children. U.S. Census statistics have long shown that children living in homes with both parents abound up with more financial and educational advantages than children who are raised in unmarried-parent homes (U.S. Census 1997). Parental marital status seems to be a significant indicator of advancement in a child'south life. Children living with a divorced parent typically take more advantages than children living with a parent who never married; this is particularly true of children who live with divorced fathers. This correlates with the statistic that never-married parents are typically younger, have fewer years of schooling, and have lower incomes (U.S. Demography 1997). Six in 10 children living with but their mother live virtually or beneath the poverty level. Of those being raised by single mothers, 69 percent live in or near poverty compared to 45 per centum for divorced mothers (U.Southward. Demography 1997). Though other factors such equally historic period and instruction play a role in these differences, it can be inferred that marriage between parents is generally beneficial for children.

Cohabitation

Living together earlier or in lieu of marriage is a growing choice for many couples. Cohabitation, when a man and woman live together in a sexual human relationship without existence married, was practiced by an estimated vii.5 meg people (11.5 per centum of the population) in 2011, which shows an increment of 13 per centum since 2009 (U.South. Census 2010). This surge in cohabitation is probable due to the decrease in social stigma pertaining to the practise. In a 2010 National Centre for Health Statistics survey, just 38 percent of the 13,000-person sample idea that cohabitation negatively impacted society (Jayson 2010). Of those who cohabitate, the majority are not-Hispanic with no high school diploma or GED and grew up in a single-parent household (U.S. Census 2010).

Cohabiting couples may cull to live together in an effort to spend more time together or to save money on living costs. Many couples view cohabitation as a "trial run" for marriage. Today, approximately 28 per centum of men and women cohabited before their outset marriage. By comparison, 18 per centum of men and 23 percent of women married without ever cohabiting (U.S. Demography Agency 2010). The vast bulk of cohabiting relationships eventually result in marriage; only 15 per centum of men and women conjugate only and do not marry. About one half of cohabitors transition into matrimony inside three years (U.S. Census 2010).

While couples may apply this fourth dimension to "piece of work out the kinks" of a relationship before they midweek, the nearly recent research has establish that cohabitation has little effect on the success of a marriage. In fact, those who do non cohabite before matrimony have slightly better rates of remaining married for more than ten years (Jayson 2010). Cohabitation may contribute to the increase in the number of men and women who filibuster marriage. The median age for marriage is the highest it has ever been since the U.S. Census kept records—historic period xx-half dozen for women and age 20-eight for men (U.Southward. Census 2010).

As shown by this graph of marital status percentages among young adults, more young people are choosing to delay or opt out of marriage. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census and American Community Survey)

Same-Sexual practice Couples

The number of aforementioned-sexual activity couples has grown significantly in the past decade. The U.S. Census Bureau reported 594,000 same-sexual practice couple households in the United states, a 50 percent increment from 2000. This increase is a result of more than coupling, the growing social acceptance of homosexuality, and a subsequent increase in willingness to written report it. Nationally, same-sex activity couple households make up 1 percent of the population, ranging from as little as 0.29 percent in Wyoming to 4.01 percent in the District of Columbia (U.S. Demography 2011). The 2010 U.S. Census, immune same-sex couples to report as spouses regardless of whether their country legally recognized their relationship at the time. Nationally, 25 percent of all same-sexual practice households reported that they were spouses. On June 26, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the decision that any ban on same-sexual practice marriage was a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.South. Constitution resulting in the legalization of same-sex marriage in all fifty states.

In terms of demographics, same-sexual activity couples are not very dissimilar from opposite-sex activity couples. Same-sex couple households have an average age of 52 and an boilerplate household income of $91,558; opposite-sexual practice couple households take an average age of 59 and an boilerplate household income of $95,075. Additionally, 31 pct of same-sex couples are raising children, not far from the 43 percent of opposite-sexual practice couples (U.S. Census 2009). Of the children in same-sexual practice couple households, 73 per centum are biological children (of only one of the parents), 21 percent are adopted only, and half dozen per centum are a combination of biological and adopted (U.Southward. Demography 2009).

While there is some business organisation from socially conservative groups regarding the well-being of children who grow upwardly in aforementioned-sex households, research reports that same-sex parents are equally effective every bit reverse-sexual practice parents. In an assay of 81 parenting studies, sociologists found no quantifiable data to back up the notion that opposite-sex parenting is whatsoever amend than same-sexual activity parenting. Children of lesbian couples, however, were shown to take slightly lower rates of behavioral problems and college rates of self-esteem (Biblarz and Stacey 2010).

Staying Single

Gay or direct, a new pick for many people in the United States is but to stay single. In 2010, there were 99.six meg unmarried individuals over age eighteen in the United states, accounting for 44 pct of the full adult population (U.S. Census 2011). In 2010, never-married individuals in the twenty-five to xx-nine age bracket accounted for 62 percentage of women and 48 percent of men, up from 11 percent and 19 percent, respectively, in 1970 (U.S. Demography 2011). Single, or never-married, individuals are institute in higher concentrations in big cities or metropolitan areas, with New York Metropolis being one of the highest.

Although both single men and single women study social pressure level to get married, women are subject to greater scrutiny. Single women are oftentimes portrayed as unhappy "spinsters" or "onetime maids" who cannot observe a homo to marry them. Single men, on the other hand, are typically portrayed as lifetime bachelors who cannot settle down or simply "take not establish the right girl." Single women report feeling insecure and displaced in their families when their unmarried condition is disparaged (Roberts 2007). Even so, single women older than xxx-v years old report feeling secure and happy with their unmarried status, equally many women in this category have found success in their education and careers. In general, women feel more independent and more than prepared to live a large portion of their adult lives without a spouse or domestic partner than they did in the 1960s (Roberts 2007).

The conclusion to ally or not to marry can be based a multifariousness of factors including organized religion and cultural expectations. Asian individuals are the most likely to marry while African Americans are the least likely to marry (Venugopal 2011). Additionally, individuals who place no value on organized religion are more than likely to exist single than those who place a loftier value on religion. For blackness women, even so, the importance of religion made no difference in marital condition (Bakalar 2010). In general, being single is not a rejection of marriage; rather, it is a lifestyle that does not necessarily include marriage. Past age forty, according to census figures, 20 pct of women and fourteen of men will have never married (U.Due south. Census Bureau 2011).

More than and more than people in the United States are choosing lifestyles that don't include marriage. (Photograph courtesy of Glenn Harper/flickr)

Deceptive Divorce Rates

Information technology is frequently cited that half of all marriages cease in divorce. This statistic has made many people cynical when information technology comes to union, simply it is misleading. Allow's take a closer wait at the data.

Using National Centre for Wellness Statistics data from 2003 that bear witness a marriage rate of 7.5 (per g people) and a divorce rate of 3.8, information technology would appear that exactly one half of all marriages failed (Hurley 2005). This reasoning is deceptive, nevertheless, because instead of tracing actual marriages to see their longevity (or lack thereof), this compares what are unrelated statistics: that is, the number of marriages in a given year does non have a directly correlation to the divorces occurring that aforementioned year. Research published in the New York Times took a different approach—determining how many people had ever been married, and of those, how many later divorced. The result? According to this assay, U.Due south. divorce rates have only gone as loftier as 41 percent (Hurley 2005). Some other manner to calculate divorce rates would exist through a cohort study. For instance, we could determine the percent of marriages that are intact subsequently, say, v or seven years, compared to marriages that take ended in divorce subsequently v or 7 years. Sociological researchers must remain enlightened of research methods and how statistical results are applied. As illustrated, different methodologies and different interpretations can lead to contradictory, and even misleading, results.

Call back Information technology Over

1. Explain the different variations of the nuclear family unit and the trends that occur in each.
2. Why are some couples choosing to cohabitate before marriage? What effect does cohabitation have on marriage?

Practice

1. The bulk of U.S. children live in:

1. ii-parent households
2. 1-parent households
3. no-parent households
4. multigenerational households

2. According to the written report cited by the U.Due south. Demography Bureau, children who live with married parents grow upwards with more advantages than children who live with:

1. a divorced parent
2. a single parent
3. a grandparent
4. all of the above

three. Couples who cohabitate earlier wedlock are ______ couples who did non cohabitate earlier marriage to exist married at least x years.

1. far more likely than
2. far less probable than
3. slightly less likely than
4. as as likely as

iv. Same-sex couple households account for _____ percent of U.S. households.

1. 1
2. 10
3. fifteen
4. 30

five. The median age of kickoff matrimony has ______ in the last fifty years.

1. increased for men but not women
2. decreased for men just not women
3. increased for both men and women
4. decreased for both men and women

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-variations-in-family-life-needs-update/

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