Showing papers in "Journal of Marriage and Family in 1968"
1,388Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, a structural analysis of the parental role cycle is presented, pointing out the factors which make the transition to parenthood more difficut than marital and occupational adjustment in Americant society.
Abstract: A structural analysis of the parental role cycle pinpoints the factors which make the transition to parenthood more difficut than marital and occupational adjustment in Americant society: (1) lack of the cultural option to reject parenthood or to terminate a pregnancy when it is not desired, (2) the shift from marriage to the first pregnancy as the major transition point in adult women's lives, (3) abruptness of the transition at childbirth, and (4) the lack of guidelines to successful parenthood in our society. It is also suggested that every social role has the two independent axes of support and authority and that, contrary to expectation, the balance between expressive and instrumental activities is tipped toward a greater instrumental focus to the maternal role and to an excess of expressive activities in the paternal role, with the result that neither sex is adequately prepared for parenthood.
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TL;DR: This paper found that the initial response to warnings was marked disbelief regardless of warning source and that families evacuated as units, and data indicated a strong tendency for them to take refuge in homes of relatives rather than in official centers.
Abstract: In response to a massive flood which struck the metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado, June 16, 1965, approximately 3,700 families were evacuated from their homes. Interviews with a random sample of 278 of these families indicated that the initial response to warnings was marked disbelief regardless of warning source. Families evacuated as units, and data indicated a strong tendency for them to take refuge in homes of relatives rather than in official centers. This tendency was significantly affected by social class. Data further suggested that interaction between relatives during the warning period increased the likelihood that relative homes would be selected as evacuation points.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimate that the costs of family-planning programs are estimated to average $300 to prevent every unwanted birth that would otherwise have occurred, and the ratio of benefits to costs is 26 to 1.
Abstract: The prevention of unwanted births would have a substantial economic impact on families living in poverty. Using conservative assumptions the costs of family-planning programs are estimated to average $300 to prevent every unwanted birth that would otherwise have occurred. Over the years however the avoidance of an unwanted child would save the family an average of $8000 in the costs of child care. It would also enable couples to add an average of $600 to their annual incomes over a four-year period by making it possible for some of the wives to work. When all of these savings and added earnings are discounted to the year in which the unwanted births were prevented the total economic benefits average $7800 for every $300 spent on family-planning services. The ratio of benefits to costs is 26 to 1. (authors)
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TL;DR: In this article, the processes of acculturation, as they effect marriage roles, are examined in the Mexican-American wife population of the United States Southwest and two groups, representing more-and less-acculturated populations, but roughly equivalent in age, are compared.
Abstract: The processes of acculturation, as they effect marriage roles, are examined in the Mexican-American wife population of the United States Southwest. Two groups, representing more-and lessacculturated populations, but roughly equivalent in age, are compared. A combination of area and cluster sampling techniques were employed, using home-interview methods. Item responses were analyzed for group differences. Hypotheses were generally confirmed: during acculturation, marriage roles change toward a more egalitarian-companiotnate pattern or, in Rainwater's terms, from a segregated to a joint conjugal role pattern. SOCIAL science has long assumed that the processes of acculturation operate with widespread and profound effects upon the minority ethnic group family. As the minority ethnic group in the United States faces the economic, social, and psychological challenges of an alien but dominant culture, each group finds itself forced to make adjustments in living habits which will have inevitable consequences for family relationships. An implicit assumption of investigators in this area has been that the family is a prime field of the ensuing conflicts. For instance, in Spiro's1 fundamental article, he posits that the family will be an "anti-acculturative" influence; in the privacy and intimacy of the home, traditional values and practices can be perpetuated, with the ramifications of these traditionalisms serving to counteract extrafamilial influences toward compliance with the dominant value system. He argues also that the stress of culture contact will be reduced by family traditionalism, presumably due to solidarity support. Nevertheless, Spiro also observes that children are the agents of culture change. Generational distance from the area of origin undoubtedly decreases tendencies toward traditionalism. It also intensifies the focus on the family as the arena of conflict between the two cultural value
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used survey data collected in predominantly lower-and middle-income neighborhoods of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to test three propositions: participation in the labor force is associated with increased influence by the wife in family decision-making, particularly with respect to having additional children.
Abstract: Using survey data collected in predominantly lowerand middle-income neighborhoods of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the author tests three propositions. (1) Participation in the labor force is associated with increased influence by the wife in family decision-making, particularly with respect to having additional children. (2) This increased influence in decision-making is associated with lower fertility among working women. (3) The negative relationship between laborforce status and fertility is stronger among wife-dominant and egalitarian families than among husband-dominant couples. Empirical support is present for each proposition.
TL;DR: This article explored variations in the psychological patterning of marriage within the narrowly defined developmental stage of "being newlyweds" and found that closeness to relatives, role differentiation, and marital problems or complaints as organizing constructs within contrasting newlywed marriage patterns.
Abstract: To explore variations in the psychological patterning of marriage within the narrowly defined developmental stage of "being newlyweds," 50 white, middle-class couples, aged 18-25, were studied. The data were gathered on four evenings during the fourth month after marriage. Two kinds of interviews, direct observations of decision-making behavior and a variety of questionnaires were employed. Data-analytic procedures aimed at identifying stable and meaningful profiles of differences between individual couples suggested the significance of closeness to relatives, role differentiation, and marital problems or complaints as organizing constructs within contrasting newlywed marriage patterns.
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of the father in socializing children was examined by studying effects of his absence on 9to 11-year-old boys and girls in low socioeconomic status, father-absent homes.
Abstract: The role of the father in socializing children was examined by studying effects of his absence on 9to 11-year-old boys and girls. Forty-seven children in low socioeconomic-status, fatherabsent homes were compared with a matched control group with fathers present. Variables studied were the children's concepts of parental roles, their attitudes and feelings about family members, their peer relationships, and their self-concepts. Many similarities and few differences between the groups were found. Discussion suggests matching the groups on socioeconomic level and also the use of low socioeconomic-status subjects as factors influencing the results.
TL;DR: In this paper, a test is made of the theory that children's creativity varies according to the degree to which the child's role in the family requires conformity to conventional norms, and a test of this "conformityinhibition" theory is made possible by the known differences in degree of Indian and American society expect normative conformity of children, and also because both societies expect greater conformity on the part of girls.
Abstract: A test is made of the theory that children's creativity varies according to the degree to which the child's role in the family requires conformity to conventional norms. A test of this "conformityinhibition" theory is made possible by the known differences in degree to which Indian and American society expect normative conformity of children, and also because both societies expect greater conformity on the part of girls. Creativity was measured by the ability to generate ideas which might solve a puzzle in the form of a game presented for solution to husband-wife-child groups. Data for 128 family groups show that the Bombay children had lower scores than the Minneapolis sample. Girls' scores were lower than those of boys in both societies. Sex differences in creativity were greatest in Bombay. The lesser sex difference in the Minneapolis sample is interpreted as reflecting the greater freedom and individuality permitted girls in American society. As societies change towards a less restrictive normative code, individual creativity is likely to increase. AMONG the many possible factors accounting for individual differences in the type of behavior which will later be defined as "creative" is the extent to which family experiences subject the individual to pressures for conformity or socially "correct" behavior. This paper reports an empirical test of the theory that such expectations of conformity or intolerance of deviance inhibits creativity. The empirical test is made possible by the fact that there are known differences in the extent to which different cultures expect conformity and also sex differences in the conformity expected of children within cultures. If this "conformity-inhibition" theory is correct, there should be corresponding differences in the creativity of individuals belonging to the different groups.
TL;DR: In this paper, the results of a follow-up study with maritally conflicted alcoholics and their spouses who had experienced group counseling with other couples with similar difficulties were reported, indicating that marriage counselors working with such couples in the same group can help an appreciable proportion of them to make positive gains.
Abstract: This paper reports the results of a follow-up study with maritally conflicted alcoholics and their spouses who had experienced group counseling with other couples with similar difficulties. It reports a number of limited comparisons of the effectiveness of group versus individual counseling and comments an the possible complem,entarity of these approaches when used jointly. It analyzes comments on the various areas in which the clients feel they were helped and the particular aspects of counseling which they feel enabled them to be helped. These comments implicitly indicate that marriage counselors working with such couples in the same group can help an appreciable proportion of them to make positive gains.
TL;DR: The application of the culture-of-poverty concept to family planning is reviewed in this article, where two approaches to program development are contrasted: accessibility versus cultural-motivational.
Abstract: The application of the culture-of-poverty concept to family planning is reviewed. Two approaches to program development are contrasted: accessibility versus cultural-motivational. Experience appears to support the accessibility approach which seeks to create services where none exist or to remove obstacles which make services inaccessible (distance crowding eligibility and fee practices scheduling lack of information and depersonalized delivery). Yet the cultural-motivational view dominates the thinking of many health and welfare professionals and is employed to rationalize slow progress. This anomaly is analyzed as an example of the resistance of institutions to change and in terms of its historical antecedents in upper-class biases about lower-class fertility. The implications for public policy are explored particularly the potential use of the culture-of-poverty concept to justify selective compulsory fertility control if health and welfare agencies continue to lag in developing voluntary programs. (authors)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the issue of order and disorder with respect to the conjugal family from the standpoint of the four elements of family organization and interaction suggested by Bell and Vogel.
Abstract: The issue of order and disorder withirt the conjugal family is examined from the standpoint of the four elements of family organization and interaction suggested by Bell and Vogel. A sample of existing marriages is compared with a sample of dissolved marriages over economic-, community-, authority-, and ideological-type variables. Existing marriages were characterized by greater convergence over economicand community-type variables and lesser conflict and greater compromise than dissolved marriages. There was similarity between the two groups in terms of ideological factors. The study is exploratory in nature, and its conclusions are to be considered hypotheses for further testing.
TL;DR: For example, this article applied bargaining and strategic models to the resolution of spouse-wife conflict in a kinship group and found that relative power in the family is a function of each person's control of relevant resources.
Abstract: STUDENTS of the family have largely left the exchange-theory approach to family interaction unexplored. Since Waller's elaborate formulation of the bargaining process between the sexes,1 only scattered works have appeared, these being exclusively concerned with the husband-wife relationship. For example, Blood and Wolfe and D. M. Heer have suggested that relative power in the family is a function of each person's control of relevant resources.2 Such variables as husband's occupation and the couple's comparative education are thus relevant, as they indicate differential access to money and knowledge. Further, Jessie Bernard has applied bargaining and strategic models to the resolution of husband-wife conflict.3 Though the literature of social anthropology is richer in exchange analyses than that of sociology, such works are for the most part studies of the reciprocal exchange of material goods and women between kinship groups.4 There has been little or no attempt to apply such notions to the internal dynamics of kinship groups. Not only have family sociologists tended to ignore exchange theory, but exchange theorists have not seen fit to analyze family interaction as exchange relationships. For example, Homans' book on elementary social behavior is almost
TL;DR: In this article, the authors contribute toward the explanation of why some people do and others do not engage in extended familism, i.e., participate in the network of their kinsmen.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to contribute toward the explanation of why some people do and others do not engage in extended familism, i.e., participate in the network of their kinsmen. First, we shall take recourse to two independent variables familiar to the sociologist: the rural-urban continuum and ethnicity. Then we shall see whether or not we can make the observed correlations disappear when we control for socioeconomic status and for migratory status.
TL;DR: Only the abolition of compulsory pregnancy will solve the erroneously conceived "abortion problem," as the experience of Scandinavia indicates that women do not accept bureaucratic management of their unwanted pregnancies.
Abstract: The problem of abortion is usually seen as one of justifying a particular surgical operation on the assumption that great social loss is incurred by it. This approach leads to intractable administrative problems: rape is in principle impossible to prove, the paternity of a child is always in doubt, the probability of defective embryos is generally low, and the socioeconomic predicament of the supplicant has little power to move the men who sit in judgment. These difficulties vanish when one substitutes for the problem of permissive abortion the inverse problem of compulsory pregnancy. The latter is a special case of compulsory servitude, which the Western world has agreed, in principle, has no valid justification. Unfortunately, state legislatures are now in a process of setting up systems for the management of compulsory pregnancy. The experience of Scandinavia indicates that women do not accept bureaucratic management of their unwanted pregnancies; therefore we can confidently predict that the reform bills now going through our legislatures will have little effect on the practice of illegal abortion. Only the abolition of compulsory pregnancy will solve the erroneously conceived "abortion problem."
TL;DR: A five-item Guttman scale of social heterosexuality was developed in a sample of 1,029 ten-, eleven-, and twelve-year-olds in Pennsylvania as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A five-item Guttman scale of social heterosexuality was developed in a sample of 1,029 ten-, eleven-, and twelve-year-olds in Pennsylvania. Since the theory of a sequence of developmental stages makes the same requirements of items as does a Guttman scale, it was suggested that these items represented a series of steps in the development of normal heterosexuality at these ages. The study was replicated with a sample of 610 children of the same age in Missouri, and the results supported the same conclusion.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship among physical disability, need satisfaction, and marriage satisfaction in 36 couples in which the wife was disabled and found that the physical condition of the disabled woman is not a useful predictor of need or marriage satisfaction.
Abstract: This study examines the relationship among physical disability, need satisfaction, and marriage satisfaction in 36 couples in which the wife was disabled. A Perception of Needs Scale and a Marital Satisfaction Scale were developed for this project. A Mobility Dimension Scale was adapted from one utilized in previous research. It was found that the physical condition of the disabled woman is not a useful predictor of need or marriage satisfaction in either member of the couple. The problem of role ambiguity complicated the picture in some important ways. Need satisfaction and marriage satisfaction were found to be highly correlated.
TL;DR: The authors found that the community value structure influences the use of the agency; the value strcture of one community depresses the rate of use at several socioeconomic levels while the vale structure of the other community raises the rates of use.
Abstract: Client family users of a Family Service agency are compared with random samples of families from the two communities using the Agency. Findings strongly support the hypothesis that the community value structure influences the use of the agency; the value strcture of one community depresses the rate of use at the several socioeconomic levels while the vale structure of the other community raises the rate of use. Fndings also indicate a general pattern of social isolation for clients, suggesting support for the anomia theory.
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of contact with Western civilization and urbanization on the structure and functioning of the Bantu family system in the Republic of South Africa is discussed and compared with the present day situation in urban areas.
Abstract: This paper attempts to show the effect of contact with Western civilization and urbanization on the structure and functioning of the Bantu family system in the Republic of South Africa. The traditional situation is set out and compared with the present- day situation in urban areas. Attention is given to marriage cus- toms, including the custom of lobola, interpersonal relationships within the family, sexual behavior, family composition, family disorganization, and changes in the structure and functioning of the Bantu family. in one empirical survey, but is based on and a synopsis of the research findings of several different empirical studies which were conducted by different researchers during the past 25 years in various urban areas in the Republic of South Africa. As these separate studies did not succeed in giving an overall pic- ture of the change taking place within the family life of the urban Bantu and as a need was felt for such a comprehensive picture, an attempt has been made in this study to construct and deduce such a broad and general pattern of change within the urban Bantu family by combining and comparing the findings of these individual studies. As these studies were done at different times in different places, there were at first misgivings as to the comparability of the material and the possibility of deducing such a general pattern of change. In studying these various reports, it, however, became clear that the main trends apparent in each of them were to a great extent similar and that the possibility of constructing a general pattern of change for the urban Bantu family could be realized.
TL;DR: The National Fertility Study as mentioned in this paper found that the proportion of Catholic wives using contraceptive methods other than rhythm increased since 1955 and became a majority by 1965 and that this type of nonconforming is related strongly and inversely to such measures of religiousness as frequency of receiving communion and less directly to measures of socioeconomic status and ethnic background.
Abstract: The data reported were derived from the National Fertility Study a probability sample of 5600 US wives surveyed in late 1965. The proportion of Catholic wives using contraceptive methods other than rhythm increased since 1955 and became a majority by 1965. This type of nonconforming is related strongly and inversely to such measures of religiousness as frequency of receiving communion and less directly to measures of socioeconomic status and ethnic background. There is an especially pervasive tendency for contraceptive nonconformity to be related to age at marriage independently of other measured variables. A comparison of data by birth cohort and age for comparable studies in 1955 1960 and 1965 reveals a systematic reduction and at progressively earlier ages in the proportion of Catholic women conforming to their Church Magisteriums position on birth control. The trend prevails for all socioeconomic subdivisions and degree of religiousness. Between 1955-60 those with less education showed the greater increase in use of methods other than rhythm; between 1960-65 those with more education showed the greater increase. This reversal may be associated with the advent of oral contraception and the publicity about the theological debates within the Catholic Church. (authors modified)