Showing papers in "Journal of Family Issues in 1988"
TL;DR: The authors presented a summary of Blumberg's general theory of gender stratification, which emphasizes relative male/female control of economic resources as a main predictor of a broad array of gender-strategies consequences.
Abstract: This article presents a summary of Blumberg's general theory of gender stratification, which emphasizes relative male/female control of economic resources as a main (although not sole) predictor of a broad array of gender stratification consequences. It also reviews evidence from numerous Third World countries that men and women spend income under their control differently—with women holding back less for themselves and spending more on child nutrition and family “basic human needs.” Thus the data indicate that when women lose control of income, what is affected is not only their relative marital/familial power (and self-esteem) but also family well-being. Moreover, evidence is presented that planned Third World development projects that rely on female labor but don't provide women with a return to that labor also are likely to suffer: Women will attempt to reallocate their efforts to tasks yielding income under their own control. In Africa, where women raise most locally marketed/consumed food and usuall...
272 citations
TL;DR: The pattern of household division of labor apparently is affected not only by both spouses' monetary contributions, but also by their time availabilities, power relations, and ideologies.
Abstract: Using data from a large sample of married couples (N = 3,649), this study examines factors that are correlated with the amount of a husband's participation in domestic work. It was hypothesized that both spouses' earnings, work status, sex-role orientations, their power relationship, and the interaction between power and sex-role orientations were related to the husband's relative share in domestic work. The hypothesized relationships were found statistically significant in these data. The pattern of household division of labor apparently is affected not only by both spouses' monetary contributions, but also by their time availabilities, power relations, and ideologies.
220 citations
TL;DR: This article examined four models of the way in which premarital cohabitation may affect marital quality using interview data from a national probability sample of married persons, and found that co-habitation is negatively related to marital interaction and positively related with marital disagreement, proneness to divorce, and the probability of divorce in nonminority populations.
Abstract: Four models of the way in which premarital cohabitation may affect marital quality are examined using interview data from a national probability sample of married persons. The idea that cohabitation improves mate selection and marital training is rejected. Cohabitation is negatively related to marital interaction and positively related to marital disagreement, proneness to divorce, and the probability of divorce in nonminority populations. No evidence is found that the accelerated marriage model explains these findings. Some support is found for the explanation that some of those who cohabit are poor marriage risks before they marry. No support is found for the idea that cohabitation itself causes a decline in marital quality, but this argument cannot be rejected with confidence, given the data at hand.
205 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on spouses' shared leisure activities as a possible deterrent to marital break-up, and test the attachment hypothesis in the context of controls for a variety of hypotheses.
Abstract: Given the prominence of marital dissolution in American life in recent decades, it is important to understand what contributes to or deters it. This article focuses on spouses' shared leisure activities as a possible deterrent. An “attachment hypothesis”— that spouses' shared leisure time is a form of pleasurable interaction that strengthens the attachment between them and helps prevent marital break-up at the time and into the future—is tested in the context of controls for a variety of hypotheses. The empirical tests are supportive of the attachment hypothesis and suggest that, because couples with children have less shared leisure time, children can contribute to marital break-up as well as help prevent it.
174 citations
TL;DR: A theory of the major mechanisms that sustain and reproduce systems of gender stratification is presented, which concludes that the central support mechanism is the gender division of labor, within both the family and the wider society.
Abstract: A theory of the major mechanisms that sustain and reproduce systems of gender stratification is presented. The central support mechanism is the gender division of labor, within both the family and the wider society. Because of it, men gain superior resource and definitional power, which enable them to maintain the gender status quo regardless of women's wishes. Elite men create dominant social definitions that, together with the gender division of labor, contribute to gender differentiation. This results in women usually choosing that which they would otherwise be constrained to do, thereby legitimating the system and allowing men to refrain from exercising their coercive potential.
143 citations
TL;DR: For instance, the authors found that exposure to pornography increased the belief that male and female promiscuity are natural and that the repression of sexual inclinations poses a health risk, and increased the desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of extramarital sex.
Abstract: Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. Marriage, cohabitational relationships, and related issues were judged on an especially created Value-of-Marriage questionnaire. The findings showed a consistent impact of pornography consumption. Exposure prompted, among other things, greater acceptance of pre- and extramarital sex and greater tolerance of nonexclusive sexual access to intimate partners. It enhanced the belief that male and female promiscuity are natural and that the repression of sexual inclinations poses a health risk. Exposure lowered the evaluation of marriage, making this institution appear less significant and less viable in the future. Exposure also reduced the desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of ma...
122 citations
TL;DR: In Sweden, family life and sexual behavior is considered to belong in the personal domain and public policies seek to promote unrestricted individual choice as mentioned in this paper, thus Swedish policies mitigate the direct costs and opportunity costs of childbearing.
Abstract: Changes in family-related demographic behavior in Sweden since the early 1960s have included a rise in early consensual union formation postponement of both marriage and motherhood substantial increases in female employment rates and more divorces. Much of the fertility decline that began in the mid-1960s has been caused by a sharp drop in 3rd-birth rates. These changes are largely attributable to public policy features that are unique to Sweden and seek to ensure a decent standard of living for all citizens. Family life and sexual behavior is considered to belong in the personal domain and public policies seek to promote unrestricted individual choice. Womens labor force participation has been promoted by a firm public commitment to gender equality and a stress on economic activity. Public policy further promotes the sharing of household and child care responsibilities by both men and women. Thus Swedish policies mitigate the direct costs and opportunity costs of childbearing. On balance such policies have played an important role in maintaining fertility at a level that is quite high relative to the rest of Western Europe and have led to a shift in childbearing toward higher ages.
81 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined gender differences in the relationships of marital status and of marital quality to psychosocial well-being in order to test hypotheses that the former is more important for men and the latter is more crucial for women.
Abstract: Using national survey data, this article examines gender differences in the relationships of marital status and of marital quality to psychosocial well-being in order to test hypotheses that the former is more important for the well-being of men and the latter is more crucial for the well-being of women. Findings suggest that it is the quality of marital interaction rather than marriage per se that is more important for individual well-being, and that the effects of marital quality are stronger among women than among men. Further examinations of the data find little support for the idea that the effects of marital quality on women's well-being are due to their greater reliance on marriage for self-validation or to a lack of alternate sources of role gratification in comparison with men. The possibility that women's higher expectations for intimacy and emotional support within marriage are implicated in findings of gender differences in the effects of marital quality on well-being are discussed.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a representative sample of 1,070 married Protestants and Catholics were used to examine the relationship between religious homogamy and marital happiness and found that the larger the religious distance or disparity, the greater the likelihood of unhappiness with the marriage.
Abstract: Data from a representative sample of 1,070 married Protestants and Catholics were used to examine the relationship between religious homogamy and marital happiness. Although couples may vary in the extent to which they share religious views (e.g., beliefs, values), previous research has treated religious homogamy as a dichotomy; a couple is either homogamous or it is not. A partial explanation for this is that few studies have gone beyond the broad divisions of Protestant, Catholic, and Jew. In the present study religious bodies were classified on the basis of doctrine and ritual, yielding six categories: Baptist, Calvinist, Catholic, fundamentalist, Lutheran, and Methodist. These categories were then used to develop a measure of estimated “religious distance” or degrees of heterogamy. This measure was used to test the hypothesis that the larger the religious distance or disparity, the greater the likelihood of unhappiness with the marriage. The hypothesis was supported by the data.
72 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, adult respondents who experienced parental divorce or death as children were compared with respondents who grew up in continuously intact families on two measures of self-concept: self-esteem and sense of power.
Abstract: Adult respondents who experienced parental divorce or death as children were compared with respondents who grew up in continuously intact families on two measures of self-concept: self-esteem and sense of power. No differences in self-esteem were observed across the three groups. Respondents who experienced parental divorce scored significantly lower on sense of power than did respondents from intact families. However, this difference was no longer significant when controls were introduced for respondents' education. Further analysis indicated that low educational attainment largely mediated the relationship between parental divorce during childhood and low sense of power as an adult.
67 citations
TL;DR: Many women are involved in “Goffmanian labor” of presenting the frontstage image of an organization, with the result that they have a somewhat more “official” attitude than typical male working class, who are usually in a backstage position and hence are cynical of frontstage images.
Abstract: The stratification position of women is generally more complex than that of men. By the crucial class distinction of organizational power position, most women are either white-collar working class or blue-collar working class (order takers, not order givers). However, many women are involved in “Goffmanian labor” of presenting the frontstage image of an organization, with the result that they have a somewhat more “official” attitude than typical male working class, who are usually in a backstage position and hence are cynical of frontstage images. In the home, housewives do considerable surplus domestic labor, devoted to the production of symbolic status rather than material reproduction. Women's paid employment is often concentrated in the formal organizations producing and distributing cultural goods and status-laden objects; the leisure activities of wives of the higher social classes also concentrate in realms of symbolic status, including the arts and charity. The class cultures of women can be expla...
TL;DR: The authors presented a gender stratification theoretical framework that appears promising for the examination of the qualitative differences in household and child care division of labor, focusing on the concept of the wife's "net economic power".
Abstract: Although the question of division of household labor between wives and their husbands has been of interest to social scientists for quite some time, in general we do not know much beyond how much time each spends in such activity. While lack of detail and datedness hamper studies based on most large scale data sets, it is possible to glean some initial impressions from the existing work. Those data suggest that there are important qualitative differences between the work that men and women do within the household. This article reviews those findings and presents a gender stratification theoretical framework that appears promising for the examination of the qualitative differences in household and child care division of labor. Three general hypotheses focusing on the concept of the wife's “net economic power” are derived from this framework. Furthermore, the differential impacts of the earnings ratio between husband and wife, stability of that ratio, and presence of surplus income on household division of ...
TL;DR: Evidence comes from societies based on foraging, the hoe, the plow, herding, and industrial technologies to shape the differential distribution of power and prestige by sex.
Abstract: Two assumptions undergird the argument: In all societies producers have more power than consumers; those who control the distribution of valued goods beyond the family have the most power. Historically, the requirements of population replacement have interacted with modes of subsistence technology to shape the differential distribution of power and prestige by sex. Evidence comes from societies based on foraging, the hoe, the plow, herding, and industrial technologies.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the neighborhood context of child maltreatment and find that neighborhoods that include residents who are free from drain compose socially rich environments in which people can engage in neighborly exchanges and thereby reduce the risk of maltreatment.
Abstract: This study examines the neighborhood context of child maltreatment. The neighborhood level of analysis reveals something of the resources upon which caregivers can draw in carrying out their roles. After a discussion of the connection between structural inequality (in terms of both class and gender) and child abuse, we employ a model of neighborhood “impoverishment,” devised from the ecological perspective, to predict rates of maltreatment in neighborhoods in a West Texas city. Our findings underscore the importance of social support in mediating child maltreatment. Neighborhoods that include residents who are “free from drain” compose socially rich environments in which people can engage in neighborly exchanges and thereby reduce the risk of maltreatment.
TL;DR: A case study to the question of gender stratification and industrialization is addressed by analyzing the relationship between factory daughters and their families in Java, Indonesia, suggesting that industrialization at the very least maintains, and may even enhance, female status within the family.
Abstract: It is generally argued that industrialization has an adverse affect on the position of women due to their exclusion from industrial employment and the resultant erosion of their status. This article addresses a case study to the question of gender stratification and industrialization by analyzing the relationship between factory daughters and their families in Java, Indonesia. The case study suggests that industrialization at the very least maintains, and may even enhance, female status within the family. I compare this Southeast Asian case with the East Asian experience to demonstrate the important role family systems play in mediating the effects of industrialization upon women and family change.
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that those who do confide in their spouses have higher levels of marital satisfaction than others and also generally score higher on measures of overall emotional well-being.
Abstract: This article reports on a study of the choice of confidant among a sample of married persons aged 55 and over. Although 85% of the women and 70% of the men reported having a confidant, less than 30% of the women and 40% of the men reported confiding in their spouses. Those who do confide in their spouses have markedly higher levels of marital satisfaction than others and also generally score higher on measures of overall emotional well-being. In many cases, the estimated negative effects of confiding in someone other than one's spouse are as large as or larger than the negative effects of not having a confidant. These findings indicate the import of identity of the confidant for both marital and general well-being.
TL;DR: The articles in this issue demonstrate that the pattern of post-WWII family change has been generally similar in North America, Western Europe, and even part of Eastern Europe, suggesting that more global rather than particular national explanations need to be sought.
Abstract: The 7 chapters in this journal discuss the European family including families in Britain the Federal Republic of Germany France the German Democratic Republic Italy and Sweden. The authors feel that observers in the US sometimes resort to peculiarly American explanations (the budget deficit changes in welfare benefits) to account for recent trends in marriage and fertility. The articles in this issue demonstrate that the pattern of post-WWII family change has been generally similar in North America Western Europe and even part of Eastern Europe suggesting that more global rather than particular national explanations need to be sought. The post-WWII years can be divided into 2 periods: 1) the period from 1945 to 1965 that brought the unexpected marriage rush and baby boom and 2) the period from 1965 to the present that brought a reversal of those trends in the form of later marriage a great increase in nonmarital cohabitation a large rise in divorce and a sharp fall in fertility to below the replacement level. The similarity of these large-scale trends in North America and Western Europe is striking. The US is most like Britain and beyond Europe Canada and Australia suggesting that influence of the common culture of the English-speaking Western world. Yet the US has and probably always has had higher rates of fertility marriage and divorce than most Western European nations. The proportion of single-parent families is unusually large even though some nations such as Sweden and East Germany have higher proportions of births to unmarried but cohabiting women. The level of cohabitation in the US although greatly increased is still moderate by European standards. Concern over the burden of government support for the elderly already has prompted changes in the Social Security program. The ability to support programs for children and for poor families is being questioned even though the level of government support for the family is relatively low by Western standards. Concern about the below-replacement birth rate is just beginning to emerge. For American as well as European readers the major question left unanswered by the accounts presented in this issue is whether the continuing changes will lead to a greater degree of convergence in the future or to an elaboration of current variations on the Western theme. The former possibility would likely imply a massive erosion of marriage and radical change in the division of labor. The latter would still encompass substantial similarities (generally low fertility increasing proportions of women in the labor force) but with important differences of historical cultural and political origin. (authors modified)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the leisure time expenditures of married women in the paid labor force and find that women's responsibilities for paid work and unpaid household labor come at the expense of their leisure time.
Abstract: In this article we examine the leisure time expenditures of married women in the paid labor force. Our analysis delineates two categories of leisure activities (active and passive) that are differentially affected by women's work. Using the 1981 Time Use Study (Juster, Hill, Stafford, and Parsons, 1983), we estimate a path model of the amount of leisure time available to married women showing the effects of time spent in paid labor, age, number of children, and time spent on household labor on available leisure time. We estimate that women's responsibilities for paid work and unpaid household labor come at the expense of their leisure time. Paid work time has an estimated negative effect on both active and passive leisure time, while household labor time has an estimated direct negative effect on total leisure time. We speculate that because paid work and household tasks are requisite for most women today they must schedule leisure time around both activities.
TL;DR: This article examined relationships between economic distress and family satisfaction and the effects of social integration on these relationships and found that economic distress is negatively related to social integration; social integration is positively related to family satisfaction.
Abstract: This study examines relationships between economic distress and family satisfaction and the effects of social integration on these relationships. The sample includes 1,561 married respondents between the ages of 18 and 65 who were interviewed as part of the 1983 and 1986 General Social Surveys. Results indicate that the income components of economic distress are related to family satisfaction while the employment components are not. Economic distress is negatively related to social integration; social integration is positively related to family satisfaction. One aspect of social integration, satisfaction with friends, partially mediates the relationship between economic strain and family satisfaction. Patterns of relationships are similar across sex and occupational subgroups.
TL;DR: In this paper, a total of seven different parental control techniques were examined in data based on 197 suburban parents' descriptions of 1,109 parent-adolescent influence encounters, and the most prevalent control techniques are "imperative statements without punishments or overt threats of punishment" and "self-oriented induction" (suggested consequences for the child of his or her behavior).
Abstract: A total of seven different parental control techniques—approaches employed in parental influence attempts—are examined in data based on 197 suburban parents' descriptions of 1,109 parent-adolescent influence encounters. The most prevalent control techniques are “command” (imperative statements without punishments or overt threats of punishment) and “self-oriented induction” (suggested consequences for the child of his or her behavior—consequences not controlled by the parent). Other control techniques are relatively infrequent. Most of the control techniques are related to one or more situational factors, but the situational effects upon command and self-oriented induction are especially pronounced. Most of the estimated situational effects are interpreted in terms of the relative immediacy of the various control techniques.
TL;DR: The author describes the effects of socioeconomic and regional factors on family structures, the importance of tradition and kinship networks, social policies, female labor force participation, and family stability and dissolution.
Abstract: The evolution of the Italian family over the past 30 years is reviewed using official and other published data. The author describes the effects of socioeconomic and regional factors on family structures the importance of tradition and kinship networks social policies female labor force participation and family stability and dissolution. The relationship between traditional and modern family behaviors is also discussed. (ANNOTATION)
TL;DR: In this article, changes in family structure in the Federal Republic of Germany are analyzed and family characteristics are first reviewed and then an outline of family policy and legislation is provided. (ANNOTATION)
Abstract: Changes in family structure in the Federal Republic of Germany are analyzed. Family characteristics are first reviewed followed by an outline of family policy and legislation. Data are from official and other published sources and concern selected years from 1900 to 1985 with an emphasis on the period since 1950. (ANNOTATION)
TL;DR: Trends in family characteristics in Britain are discussed using data from official and other published sources, and separate consideration is given to marriage patterns, particularly marriage age and marriage postponement.
Abstract: Trends in family characteristics in Britain are discussed using data from official and other published sources. Separate consideration is given to marriage patterns particularly marriage age and marriage postponement; the rise in consensual unions; fertility and illegitimacy; divorce; single parent families; and location of children under age 18. The effects of the employment situation on families as well as the future of social policies are also briefly examined. (ANNOTATION)
TL;DR: Major demographic trends and changes in family policy in France since World War II are analyzed, with a focus on fertility and marriage patterns (including divorce).
Abstract: Major demographic trends and changes in family policy in France since World War II are analyzed with a focus on fertility and marriage patterns (including divorce). The effects of political and economic factors on family policy and legislation since 1945 are also discussed. Data are from official and other published sources. (ANNOTATION)
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of family structure on how children perceive whether they are happy or anxious, by means of multiple regression analysis, were found that single-parent children were less happy than children from two-parent homes even when controlled for the amount of family conflict.
Abstract: We estimated the effects of family structure on how children perceive whether they are happy or anxious, by means of multiple regression analysis. Our sample was from preadolescent- and early-adolescent youth from the nation of Trinidad and Tobago; we found that single-parent children were less happy than children from two-parent homes even when we controlled for the amount of family conflict. We concluded that family structure was an important variable that should not be dismissed prematurely when attempting to understand child outcomes.
TL;DR: In this paper, two regression analyses were performed that tested the relationships between the amount of negative sibling interaction and the amount positive sibling interaction, and measures of relationship quality and family form and found that the quality of other relationships in the family were important predictors of sibling interactions.
Abstract: Two regression analyses were performed that tested the relationships between the amount of negative sibling interaction and the amount of positive sibling interaction and measures of relationship quality and family form. When measures of husband-wife, mother-child, and father-child relationship quality were controlled, marital status was not significantly related to either measure of sibling interactions. However, when the marital status of the parents (family form) was controlled, both the quality of husband-wife relationship and the quality of mother-child relationship were positively related to positive sibling interaction and negatively related to negative sibling interaction. Regardless of family form, the quality of other relationships in the family were important predictors of sibling interactions.
TL;DR: Analysis of linkage between patriarchal family structures and the employment experience of women and men by comparing job-related characteristics of spouses working for the same employer suggests occupational differentiation between spouses appears to be decreasing.
Abstract: The authors use assumptions from theories of gender and economic stratification to examine the linkage between patriarchal family structures and the employment experience of women and men by comparing job-related characteristics of spouses working for the same employer. Personnel data were used to develop a wife-husband occupational typology that became the basis for several middle range theoretical questions probing for evidence of (1) marital status differences in employment, (2) husband dominance in educational achievement and job selection, (3) family status consistency, and (4) gender discrimination. Findings suggest that all four phenomena are present, but variations in couple patterns show that economic factors take precedence over stereotyped gender roles in the family. Thus occupational differentiation between spouses appears to be decreasing.
TL;DR: Family formation patterns and the changing role of women in the German Democratic Republic are examined and changes in the fertility rate, single parenthood, divorce, consensual union, and state policies are considered.
Abstract: Family formation patterns and the changing role of women in the German Democratic Republic are examined. Consideration is given to employment and female labor force participation the availability of child care changes in the fertility rate (including illegitimacy) female education and occupational level single parenthood divorce consensual union and state policies. Data are from official and other published sources. (ANNOTATION)