Annotated Bibliography: The Nuclear Family
Astone, Nan Marie. McLanahan, Sara S. “Family Structure, Parental Practices, and High School Completion.” American Sociological Review, JSTOR. June 1991, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2096106.
This source focuses on explaining the main five types of family structures focused on in sociology. It also offers many statistics based on single parents versus nuclear households. The main statistic it focuses on is high school completion. It focuses on some of the reasons for the lack of high school completion from children of single-parent homes. For example, the economic positions of parents, how parenting type differs between single families and nuclear families, how school practices affect the children of nuclear
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Family dynamics change as the race, gender, socioeconomic status and structure changes. It also focuses on black family dynamics because when it comes to variation in family structure, African-American families have some of the most variety. It focuses how gender, race, and socioeconomic status all intersect when it comes to power dynamics.
It’s important to look at all aspects and how they relate to dynamics because those also eventually begin to affect the power structure of society and the power structure inside families in general. This also relates to my topic because it while it does focus on only one group of people, it offers lots of insight that could be applied to all groups of people.
Washington, Jesse. “Blacks Struggle with 72 Percent Unwed Mothers Rate” NBC News, NBC. 7 Nov 2010, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39993685/ns/health-
Many families have different relationships and feelings towards each other. Depending on the patterns of interactions among each other, or through their roles and relationships that they have helps to form their interactions. Family experiences can be different for each member and they may have different perspectives. Family dynamics can be helpful and healthy, and also can take unhelpful and unhealthy forms.
This is thoroughly summed up by Skloot, saying, “But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized at later stages of their illnesses than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medications, and had higher mortality rates” (Skloot 64). Ann M. Simmons agrees by stating that the United States is behind in maternal care, and the maternal morality for African-American women is higher than many third world countries. Simmons says, “A woman in the U.S., where the maternal death rate more than doubled between 1987 and 2013, is more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than in any country but Mexico” (Simmons). The maternal death rates in the United States has increased, while the rest of the world is decreasing.
Consequently, the issue of Black Maternal health not only impacts the mother’s well-being, but the family as a whole. As I have learned in various human development courses, declining health in one family member may impact the family’s roles and a shift may occur. Additionally, if it were a case of Black Maternal mortality, this may affect the family’s emotions and younger children may not understand the process of
Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Univ of California Press. In a country that is known for its equal opportunity for all, this research revealed the ways in which children are not given equal chances to be successful throughout their childhood.
Health disparities is not only a Clayton County issue but a national issue as well. Consequently, Healthy People 2020 initiated a decisive goal to reduce health disparities among all Americans by the year 2020. One of this goals of Healthy People 2020 is the reduction of infant mortality rate among Americans to a target goal of 6.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.1 In 2015, infant mortality rates for black non-Hispanics were 2.2 times that of white non-Hispanics. As it relates to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) black non-Hispanics mothers were 2 times greater than that of white non-Hispanics mothers.
Moreover, this is because, “women are more likely to have a relational orientation than men” (Campos, Aquilera, Ullman, & Schetter, 2014, p. 192). Women are usually the ones that maintain the family bonds and benefit more of the closeness and support from the family. Nevertheless, women still feel more compromised of keeping the bond, and if an issue surges they are more likely to stress due to the conflict (Campos, Aquilera, Ullman, & Schetter, 2014). • Around the world, it appears familism is coming to an end. What are the economic, political and cultural implications of the changes underway in the traditional family unit?
An important determinant of the health of a society is infant health. Unfavorable outcomes of infant health can be premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects, and infant mortality (death of an infant before their first birthday) (Valley Public Radio 2015). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the infant mortality rate in 2015 for non-Hispanic black infants was 11.3. When compared to the lowest infant mortality rate in 2015 of Asian/Pacific Islander infants at 4.2, a substantial national disparity exists. The disparity of black infant health is one that persists.
When examining why infant mortality rates were higher among black women, researchers initially thought this was due to the general statistically lower socioeconomic status of black women. Although this may have accounted for these rates partially, these statistics were still reflected in the experiences of high-income, educated black women living in healthy communities. After some time, it was determined that the systematic racism and subsequent stress experienced by this minority was affecting their health
Without a doubt, the minority family has changed dramatically over the past few decades due to changes in laws and technology. These legal and technological advances have changed the family on both the individualistic and familial levels. These advances are multi-layered because they affect both the family and individual in different areas of life which include stress, physical punishment, and violence. The stress landscape that the minority family faces have changed over the past decade. The main reason behind this change is the technology aspect it has made life more convenient for everyone.
The impact that residential segregation and health disparities among African Americans have is minorities become sicker and die more often because they lack medical insurance or have unhealthy lifestyles. Minorities receive unequal treatment from the medical system, regardless of economic status and insurance coverage. These researchers say segregation’s negative impact on health is true particularly for African-Americans, who studies consistently show are most likely to live apart from other racial-ethnic groups. Blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have the highest overall death rate in the country. The rate of high blood pressure among African-Americans is highest not just in the nation, but also in the world, the American Heart Association reports, as is the percentage of black men who contract prostate
Racial and ethnic disparity in teen pregnancy rates abound. The National Campaign (2014), observed that African American female teens are twice in danger of getting pregnant than white teenagers; about four out of every ten of them would have gotten pregnant by their 20th birthday, and that as at 2010, the pregnancy rate for this racial group already stood at 99.5 out of every 1000 for female teens aged 15 to 19. Further studies suggest that the Hispanic/Latino minority group is not far behind, with rates greater than the national average (Shoff & Yang, 2012). The economic costs are enormous and multifaceted; educational, health, occupational, economic, and so on.
Family structure talks about family arrangement and composition which includes the roles and interactions (Edelman, 2014). According to Minuchin (2012), the family structural theory emphasis on the important of the family structure and its changes that occurs and how the individuals in the family relate collectively over time to put up and accept each other. Minuchin says further that a well-functioning family will choose how to solve and handle the family experience with a positive outcome. The goal of a structural family is to express the strengths in each other in critical moments, and helping each other through it. Developmental theory is the methods used as the viewpoint of family tasking and development through phases of life (Edelman, 2014).
According to Cohen and MacCartney (2004: 181), inequality is related to families and their compositions, because family compositions may be the cause or consequence of various forms of inequality. This paper will touch on four forms of inequality linked to families and their compositions. Firstly, families reflect inequalities, because within society, there is an unequal distribution of various resources ranging from economic, social and political, which can ultimately affect the accessibility of some family forms (Cohen & MacCartney, 2004: 181). For instance, low incomes increase the likelihood that underprivileged people will live with extended families (family group that includes parents, children, relatives, in-laws, friends and other individuals who share an emotional bond), even when they would prefer the privacy of a more secluded group of members, such as those experienced by higher income families and households (Cohen & MacCartney, 2004: 181; Extended family, n.d.:1). Hence, the accessibility of resources varies across families and households, with some having access to more resources in relation to others, which is why inequality has the ability to adversely affect families and households.
The family is well educated which provides better education to the children (Guryan, Hurst & Kearney, 2008). Both parents style of parenting is very authoritative as both parents, especially Mrs. Yau displays a high degree of nurturance In the family, both parents are noted to be in high SES as they both are well respected doctors and have a respectable background in the family history. Studies showed that high SES families can afford their children services, toys and goods, family outings and social connections which could benefit to the child, whereas low SES families could have lack of access to similar resources (Bradley and Crowyn, 2002). A study by DeGarmo and colleagues (1999) also found that income, education and occupation were associated with better parenting, which positively affected school achievement with skill-building activities and behavior in school. This can explain how Alexander has good behavior in class.
American Families Today The American family has undergone many changes since the 1900’s. More so, in the past 40 years, the nuclear family seen dramatic changes and has been described as deteriorating. There has been a dramatic rise in divorce, single parent households and child poverty. Studies have shown that children growing up in poverty-stricken single parent households are more likely to be affected well into adulthood. While this is the case, people are also living longer, and families are accommodating this change by living with relatives allowing for more bonding time then in previous generations.