Discussion 357 16 Jan wma Audio recording started 11 10 AM Thursday January 16 2014 Discussion 357 16 Jan Thursday January 16 2014 11 09 AM Is the family in decline 1 Arguments FOR and AGAINST a F Divorce rate is at its highest i Tech is tearing away interaction ii Single parent households are on the rise iii People are getting married later and having less children iv Economic downtime has caused more v Mobility People travel more and are exposed more to different environments away from families etc vi Women in workplace increases options when problems arrives 1 Also challenges traditional roles in our society b A the ID of family is changing i Technology on the contrary allows for distant connection 1 Co viewing a The social interaction between parents and children when and what they are watching Now notes on arguments 1 Arguments FOR a Divorce rate is at an all time high and it is increasing i Inaccurate yes its higher than the 50s 60s 1 BUT it is not at an all time high and it is not increasing a By mid late 80s it has just leveled out i Arguments even that it dropped some in the 90sboom in the economy b Most rates hover in 47 51 percent c Now its more at like 48 2 The divorce for 1st time marriages is lower a People who get divorced once are more likely to get divorced again b This is why the divorce rate is so high the overall rate includes these multi divorcees 3 High divorce rate means that kids will live in a one income family 4 Some of these kids will also experience multi divorces due to the trend mentioned in 2B ii Children who grow up in not intact family 1 parent and step parent 1 Are at risk for a Not doing well in school b Behavior issues c Less successful as adults overall d More likely to live in poverty 2 Over all don t do as well iii Our values about families have changed 1 Beliefs of what makes up a family a Not necessarily in need f mom and dad i We are more accepting of divorcees etc 1 The days of shunning are practically over b More accepting of childcare because more women are in the workforce c We are more accepting of cohabitation before marriage 2 Artificial reproductive technologies 3 More accepting of pre marital sex iv Advantages of 2 parents in the household not necessarily having to be M and F we have fewer than these 2 parent households 1 Having a Dad in the household is a HUGE Variable a Boy role model adolescent age b Girls less likely to be sleazy laymen terms 2 The parental coalition is really good for discipline 3 Attention given to kids 4 Different attributes and strengths given by each parent to contribute to raising kids 5 Economics a Less likely to be in poverty than single parent household 6 Having the coming and going of multi adults single parent dating can screw a kid up 2 Problems concerns with those arguments a Some of these studies are old and don t have a comparison group i Different cultures intact VS non intact etc ii Inappropriate comparison groups 1 For ex intact kids vs divorced intact families a You need to specify in that group individually and then compare i Intact happy vs unhappy within and compare ii Non intact family must be compared within the group 2 UNIDIRECTIONAL CAUSALITY Assuming one direction results a Because we have more divorces everyone is happy with it i These arent necessarily true b Kids are acting up bc parents arent on the same page i Kids acting up can also cause parents to have issues 1 All these are why one direction arguments are bad 3 Assuming that acceptance if something means we feel positive about something a Homosexuality i Not necessarily positive but WE ARE ACCEPTING about it ii It s still not positive necessarily by society b Cohabitation before marriage i More accepting but not positive c Viewing technology by kids i accepting of but not positive 4 Assuming that the most important variable that we should be talking about in regard to family is STRUCTURE a Living together vs not living together intact v not intact etc STRUCTURE i Relationship with parents is showing to be more important than structure 1 A balance of the two is most awesome