SOC246 - Lecture 7.docx

SOC246Lecture 7Aging and Families Families are unique because they are age integrated institutions Defining family o Compositionalnarrow definitionsTied to legal systemsChange over timeeg The Canada census definition of familyA married couple and the children if any of either or both spouses a couple living common law and the children if any of either or both partners or a lone parent of any marital status with at least one child living in the same dwelling and that child or those children All members of a particular census family live in the same dwelling A couple may be of opposite or same sex Children may be children by birth marriage or adoption regardless of their age or marital status as long as they live in the dwelling and do not have their own spouse or child living in the dwelling Grandchildren living with their grandparents but with no parents present also constitute a census familyfunctional o who share values goals resources for decisions o have commitment over time o intimate reproduction and socialization of the young most definitions offamily focus on the nuclear familykinship relates more to the total family aunts uncles etcEmering Trends in Kinship Structures 1 Kinship system has become longer a Beanpole families vertical extention but horizontal shrinkage because of decreased fertility b More generations alive at any given time2 Shift from an age condensed structure to an age gaped structure in many exteneded families a Age condensed successive generations in a family have children at an early age 21 and under b Age gaped gap between generations is 30 years or more c Normative structiue each generation has babies between 2229 d In Canada normative55 32 condensed 13 gapped 3 Emergence of truncated families a Family lineages that disappear i Youngest child in kinship structure does not have children and the lineage stops 4 Increases in blended or reconstituted families following widowhood or divorce