1. Explain basic sociological concepts of the family, marriage, and intimate relationships.
    
2. Describe trends leading to the decline in marriage rates and changes in the family household, including single parenting, blended families, and lesbian and gay families.
    
3. Apply structural/functional, conflict/critical, and inter/actionist theories to the social institution of the family.
    
4. Describe current models of family conflict, forms of abuse and violence within the family, and the effects of poverty on family life.
    
5. Identify the effects of globalization and global flows on the family today.

Summary

The family is a crucial social institution that has changed in many ways over the last century. Marriage is a legal union of two people. It can involve monogamy, polygamy, or cenogamy. In an intimate relationship, partners have a close, personal, and domestic relationship with one another. The traditional nuclear family now accounts for only about a fifth of all households. To explain the decline in such households, Cherlin focuses on the deinstitutionalization of marriage, while Giddens posits that the desire for pure relationships makes marriage more fragile. Simmel suggests that some degree of secrecy is necessary to a successful marriage. The structure of intimate relationships has changed over time. Cohabitation, nonresident parenting, and single-parent households have increased in the United States. Stepfamilies and blended families are more common, and gay and lesbian families are more visible. Parsons believed that the family is functional and structurally important to society because of its ability to control adult behavior and socialize children. Conflict theorists see the family primarily as a place of inequality and conflict, particularly between those of different ages and genders. Feminist theorists view the family as particularly problematic for women because they are oppressed by a system that adversely affects them. Symbolic interactionists focus on the meanings and identities associated with the family. Exchange theorists look at the rewards and costs associated with the choices individuals make within families. Five basic models of family conflict are the deficit, overload, cultural tensions, conflict-of-interest, and anomie models. Abuse and domestic violence severely affect many families, as does poverty, and the recent recession has changed many families’ consumption patterns. Gender inequality in marriages is visible in partners’ decision making and power distribution, and in the different amounts of time they devote to household tasks. Some people find their lives enhanced by divorce, whereas others who experience divorce suffer depression or low self-esteem. Global flows that affect the family take four major forms: Entire families can move from one part of the globe to another; individual family members can move to a different part of the world and bring the rest of the family later; individuals can immigrate to create new families; and transnational adoptions can bring children from less developed to more developed countries. Global migration, trafficking, economics, and conflict all affect the global family.