Isolation, Function, and Beyond: American Kinship in the 1960's.
About: This article is published in Journal of Marriage and Family.The article was published on 1970-11-01. It has received 91 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Kinship.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, a "astonishing consensus" exists among academic social scientists concerning the impact of the alleged separation of ownership and control in large corporations on the class structures and political economies of the United States and similar countries.
Abstract: An "astonishing consensus" exists among academic social scientists concerning the impact of the alleged separation of ownership and control in large corporations on the class structures and political economies of the United States and similar countries. The question is whether this separation is a "pseudofact," which has, therefore, inspired incorrect "explanations," "inferences," and "theories," namely, that the presumed separation has either transformed or eliminated the former "capitalist class" and therefore rendered inapplicable a class theory of the division of the social product, class conflict, social domination, political processes, and historical change. If the separation of ownership and control has not occurred, then "managerial" theories are without foundation. The discrepant findings of numerous studies are reviewedand problems of method and measurement discussed, concluding that the empirical question is quite open. Critical questions are posed for research into the internal differentiation...
538 citations
TL;DR: To minimize the harmful effects of divorce on children, single mothers need institutional support, particularly to mitigate the economic liabilities associated with divorce and to ensure high-quality childcare when mothers are working.
Abstract: This paper examines changes in marriage as an institution for rearing children in the United States. It reviews the effects of marital instability and living arrangements on children's welfare, and focuses on how children's economic, emotional, and social needs are met when parents separate. The review shows that changes in marriage and childrearing have different consequences for women and men. For women, marriage and parenthood are distinct institutions. Women provide for children's needs, whether or not the women are married to their children's fathers. For men, marriage defines responsibilities to children. At divorce, men typically disengage from their biological children. When men remarry they may acquire new children whom they help to support. The review describes the effects on children of divorced mothers' and fathers' varying commitments to childrearing. It considers the difficulties that divorced parents experience when they try to continue to share responsibilities for children after separatio...
327 citations
TL;DR: In this article, differentials in patterns of exchange of aid and assistance between elderly American parents and their non-coresidential adult children by marital status and other components of family structure using data drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households.
Abstract: This article documents differentials in patterns of exchange of aid and assistance between elderly American parents and their non-coresidential adult children by marital status and other components of family structure using data drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households. Descriptive results show that overall levels of giving and receiving support between elderly parents and their adult children are not especially high. However, these patterns vary considerably by marital status of the aging parent and of their adult children, with widowed and divorced parents less likely to provide support to their children. In contrast, widowed but not divorced parents are significantly more likely to receive support. Even with controls for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the parents and availability of adult children, parents who are widowed or divorced give less to their children, although there are few marital-status differences for reception of support. The marital status of children ...
248 citations
TL;DR: The findings indicated that most people use informal help only, or they use informal and professional help together, and gender, age, income, and problem-type were significantly related to the different patterns of illness behavior.
Abstract: Most studies of professional help use among black Americans fail to describe this group's relationship to blacks experiencing distress but not requesting professional help, and generally ignore the salience of informal social support processes. A more comprehensive understanding of black help-seeking behavior would come from an approach which describes both the users and nonusers of formal helping services, and examines the benefits derived from the interpersonal relationships that comprise black friend- and kin-based networks. These analyses focused on four patterns of informal and formal help use in the National Survey of Black Americans. The findings indicated that most people use informal help only, or they use informal and professional help together. In addition, gender, age, income, and problem-type were significantly related to the different patterns of illness behavior. The implications of these findings for help seeking in the black community were discussed.
222 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the social structures illiterate adults create and their relationship to notions of dependence and independence, and found that illiterates contribute a range of skills to their networks and see themselves as interdependent.
Abstract: This study explores the social structures illiterate adults create, and their relationship to notions of dependence and independence. In-depth unstructured interviews and participant-observation were used with 43 adults in a medium-sized northeastern urban setting. Analysis shows that illiterate adults create social networks that include readers and are characterized by mutuality. Illiterate adults contribute a range of skills to their networks and see themselves as interdependent. Networks are related to the extent to which illiterate adults are involved in the larger society; this ranges from extensive, for cosmopolitans, to minimal for local adults. Dependent adults have networks that are characterized by asymmetrical relationships. Literacy programs must learn to respond to adults-in-networks.
207 citations
Cites background from "Isolation, Function, and Beyond: Am..."
...Conjugal relations, migration and mobility, kinship, and exchange are the general foci of social network research (Adams, 1970; Bott, 1971; Young & Willmott, 1957)....
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, each member of 70 pairs of middle-class grandparents was interviewed at length regarding relations to grandchildren, and the data were analyzed for degree of comfort in the grandparent role, significance of the role, and style with which the role is enacted.
Abstract: Each member of 70 pairs of middle-class grandparents was interviewed at length regarding relations to grandchildren, and the data were analyzed for degree of comfort in the grandparent role, significance of the role, and style with which the role is enacted. The Fun Seeker emerged as a frequent pattern, one in which the grandparent-child relationship is characterized by "fun morality." This pattern and the Distant Figure pattern, characterized by discomfort and psychological distance from the child, were more frequent in grandparents who were under 65 than in those over 65. Grandparenthood merits further study as a phenomenon of middle age and from the perspective of adult socialization.
385 citations
367 citations
TL;DR: The hypothesis that extended family relations can be maintained in an industrial, bureaucratized society despite differential rates of geographical mobility is presented in this article. But the authors do not consider the effect of geographical distance on families.
Abstract: The hypothesis is advanced that extended family relations can be maintained in an industrial, bureaucratized society despite differential rates of geographical mobility. This is so because institutional pressures force the extended family to legitimize geographical mobility, because technological improvements in communication systems have minimized the socially disruptive forces of geographical distance, and because an extended family can provide important aid to nuclear families without interfering with the occupational system. In support of these views, data are presented from a survey of 920 wives in the Buffalo urban area.
342 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed data on the relatives children were named after as an empirical index to the subjectively salient inner core of kin in a sample of 347 urban middle-class mothers and found that boys are more apt to be named for kin than girls, and kin-naming declines sharply with each higher order of birth.
Abstract: Data on the relatives children were named after are analyzed as an empirical index to the subjectively salient inner core of kin in a sample of 347 urban middle-class mothers. Kin are the major source of the personal names chosen for the 951 children of these women. Boys are more apt to be named for kin than girls, and kin-naming declines sharply and uniformly with each higher order of birth. The kin for whom children were named consist largely of consanguineal lineal kin, one or two generations removed from the child. Analysis shows a trend over the past 40 years away from naming sons for their paternal kin and daughters for their maternal kin, suggesting that while a structural symmetry has long existed between the nuclear family's two families of origin, an affective social symmetry between them is only now in the making.
105 citations