Htet Lin

Professor Ghazarian
Sociology 001
 Family exist in society as one of the most important institutions.
Family institution is created through bonds such as blood and marriage.
The characteristic of what forms a family are:
Nuclear family - A couple and their dependent children.
Extended family - Beyond a nuclear family that includes relatives who lives near.
Single parent family - A person raising a child without their partner.
 There are many roles that families are expected to perform for each other.
Some of the roles include:
Generating or reproducing new members.
Socializing their children to comply norms, values, and culture.
Watching out for one another.
Giving company or showing affection.
Paying attention to behavior.
 Families are the first people we learn from, they are also our support.
Families support us by:
Structuring who we are and who we become.
Giving their best support in times of difficulty.
Providing comfort and emotional support.
Helping with financial and other materials.
Educating important lessons throughout life.
Improving on how we develop our norms.
 From family performance, we can see that families are better when they are
together as a whole and not when they are on their own.
A nuclear family consist of both partners who can give full support to their child.
A single parent family only consist of one parent that may not be able to fulfill the
support their child need.
In 2016, the rate of divorce in U.S. was 1-2 divorces for each 500 person.
The overall divorce rate for 2016 was 21% for men and 22% for women.
The participants of divorce rate consist of every adult in U.S. that has been married.
 The chart shows number and rate
of divorces starting from the year
1980 to the year 2010.

In this chart, we can see that the

number of divorces are between
30,000 and 60,000.

The chart also shows us the crude

divorce rate that ranges mostly
between 2 to 3.
 Research shows that 50-60% of people who get married the first time will end up
being divorced.
It is also estimated that people who get married the second time have a 10% more
chance of getting divorced than those getting married the first time.
Factors that leads to divorce are:
Failure to communicate with each other.
Showing no commitment towards each other.
Marriage at a young age.
Verbal and physical abuse.
Short temper that leads to arguments.
 Members that are included in the divorce are:
The parents
A father role is to protect the child and provide shelter.
A mother role is to look after the child and care for them.
The children
Children are affected by the divorce of their parents.
As they are still growing up, they will need support from both parents.
 Society view divorce as a negative factor on children with divorced parents.
The affects from divorce on children include:
Emotional and physical awareness.
Inappropriate behavior at school.
Effortless from not having support.
Difficulty towards learning and productivity.
Although divorce includes both parents and children, it is known by researchers
that children are the members in divorce who are affected the most as they are still
learning and adapting.
 This chart shows that children
are most positively developed
when both biological or two
adoptive are together and
present.
However, the chart also show
that children are less or least
positively developed when
only one biological or
stepparent is present.
 At times, parents are heavily focused on their divorce and they forget about how it
affects their children.
Parents also stress about how they put their selves and their children through
divorce.
Most fathers feel as they are needed for their child.
Fathers also believes their children does not receive enough attention.
Most mothers are easy on their child because they feel that the divorce has been
rough on the child.
As children are not obtained strictly by their mother, they feel as they can behave
however they want, which leads to other issues.
 Divorce rates have decreased in the current years.
In the past year of 1990s, the divorce rates have raised by 25%.
But in our earlier graph for the years up to 2010, we can see that the crude divorce
rates have decreased.
According to the data, reporters have also predicted that divorce rates will
continue to decrease in the future.
This shows that either there are less marriages, stronger marriages, or partners
choose not to divorce for their children.
 As the divorce rates decrease, children are still continuing to suffer from the
divorce of their parents.
There are many reasons divorce causes stress for children.
They are at a young age and does not understand the process of divorce.
They will not know how to behave when reacting to divorce.
They may feel certain emotions as they have to choose between parents.
They may not have enough support to get things done.
Parents need to take caution towards children on divorce.
Parents should avoid arguing around their children.
Parents need to calmly make sure children understand their divorce.
 Most societies believe that men have dominance and authority over women.
They choose to be on the side of patriarchal instead of matriarchal.
Women suppose that being married to their husband means giving him everything
including herself and children.
This gives authority to her husband as she is not aware of herself and handing her
life to him.
The conflict theory is brought up in divorce when the two partners have to split
their property and materials.
Both partners will fight in court for their most valued properties.
This shows that the social order is upon their materials rather than their selves.
 Families are a significant structure in society.
They are the ones that teach us how to socialize with children and meet their needs.
A functionalist theorist would view divorce as a good factor towards the partners
being divorced and society.
If both partners are unhappy in a marriage and stays together, it would only cause
more stress for the household.
If children are around, the unhappy parents will end up arguing one way or
another.
With divorce, both partners will get to be happy by moving on with their lives and
there will be less families that are unhappy.
California and United States Divorce Statistics | California Divorce Guide. Bohm
Wildish Family Law, www.cadivorce.com/california -divorce-guide/divorce-
resources/united-states-divorce-statistics/.
Trost J. What Holds Marriages Together? Acta Sociologica (Taylor & Francis Ltd)
[serial online]. December 1986;29(4):303-310. Available from: Academic Search
Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 24, 2017.
Rogers, Simon. Divorce rates data, 1858 to now: how has it changed? The Guardian,
Guardian News and Media, 28 Jan. 2010,
www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/divorce-rates-marriage-ons.