Chapter 10

The Changing Family

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Figure 10-1: Employment Status of Married Women with Children

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Table 10-1: Percentage of Children Living in Single-Parent Families

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Percentage Who Say They Did the Following Because of the Recession

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Figure 10-2: Median Age at First Marriage for Men and Women

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Postponement of Marriage

• Americans are getting married later in life

• Median age for women is 25.8 years

• Median age for men is 27.1 years

• Many are postponing marriage for:– Educational goals– Career goals

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Changing Norms of Parenthood

• Births to Unmarried Women– Stigma attached to out-of-wedlock births has

declined in society

• Teenage Pregnancy– Teenage fertility and childbearing rates have

fallen in the United States

• Gay and Lesbian Families

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Changing Norms of Parenthood

• Gay and lesbian couples often face a number of obstacles

• One of these issues is the legal status of gay marriages and the rights it accords to married couples

• Obstacles to adopting and rearing children

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Figure 10-3: Birthrates for Females Ages 15–17

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Figure 10-4: Birthrates by State for Ages 15–19 (per 1,000 women)

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Figure 10-5: New Sheltered Clients, by Household Type: April–June 2009

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Figure 10-6: Low-Paid Workers with Severe Housing Cost Burdens

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Family Violence

• Child Abuse– Parents who are demanding and have

unrealistic expectations of what a child can do

• Spouse Abuse– Rate of reported abuse among poor is related

in part to contact with agencies identifying • Abuse that goes hidden in other social classes

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Social Policy

• Future Prospects

• Abstinence Only, Abstinence Not– Congress is preparing to cut the funding for

so-called abstinence only programs– It is unlikely that there will be Federal support

for increased access to birth control – Or sex education directed toward teenagers