SOC Exam#4

Tensions that test a family's emotional resources

• Community Factors:
• poverty and associated factors such as overcrowding
• low social capital - lack of institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity f a community's social interactions
• weak community sanctions agains t intimate partner violence (such as oikuce being unwilling to intervene)
• Societal Factors:
• traditional gender norms that suggest, for instance, women should be submissice or stay home and not enter workforce
• power differentials

The psychological condition of having low-self esteem, feeling helpless, and having no control that is cause d by repeated abuse.

• Blaming the bictim
• Inducing shame
• Lowering self-esteem
• Creating financial dependency
• Isolating the victim
• Threatening retaliation
• Exploiting love and hope
• Exploiting commitment to the relationship
• Creating fear of abandonment

A recognized psychological condition, often a subcategory of post-traumatic stress syndrome, used to describe someone who has been the victim of consistent and/or severe domestic violence

The rate of intimate violence among same-sex couples is similar or even higher than heteosexual couples, around 25-30 %

• Neglect
• Physical acuse
• Sexual abuse
• psychological or emotional maltreatment

• Abuse leaves approximately 18,000 children permanently disabled each year
• Some long-term emotinoal scars are left - children who experienced abuse have some difficulties in educational, behavioral, or emotional domeins caried greatly, and one in five children may do poorly in one domain but excel in another.nightmare, depression, panic disorder, and suicidal thoughts

abuse of an elderly person that can unclude physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychologial abuse, financial or material exploitation, and neglect

• Micro-level:
• (1) intergenerational transmission of violence: a cycle of violence that is passed down to dependents. However, not all people who experience abuse and/or violence become perpetrators.
• (2) stress explanation: the more family has stress, the more people are more likely to abuse others.

• Macro-level:
• (1)Patriarchy: violence is more likely to occur when men are considered dominant and have control over women and children.
• (2)Cultural norms support violence
• (3) Norms of family privacy

show behaviors and privileges that batterers use to dominate and control their partners and/or children

• Domestic violence shelter: a temporary safe house for a woman (with or without children) who is escaping an abusive relationship.
• Treatment programs for abusers: make abusers aware of his pattern of violence and to learn techniques for using nonviolent behaviors.

• Micro-level Factors: parental divorce, age at marriage, abusence of children, nonmarital childbearing, sex of children, race and ethnicity
• income, degree of similarity, the couple's age

Macro-level Factors: level of socioeconomic development, religion, devorce laws, women's status abd employment, attutydes tiward divorce

The interrelated emotional, legal, economic, co-parentsl, community, and psychic dimensions of divorce, which together attempt to capture the complexity of the divorce experience.

A custody agreement where one parent has the legal authority to make imoprtnat decisions concerning the children after a divorce, such as where they will go to school, in what community or state they will reside, or who will be notified in case of a health emergency or school problem.

• a dramatic decline of income during the divorce year
• 1 in 5 becom impoverished
• only 80% of men's income in the 1st year
• 85% in second year

employment opportunities are more restricted.

Short-term effects are increasing of intimacy between parent and children if she could turn to them for confort and support. Also some problems like decline of children's academic performance and lower level of psychological well-being

Long-term effects are like plagued by depression or other behavioral problems.

In marriages wirh a high degree of conflict, children may be better off if their parents divorce. Inmariages with less conflict between spouses, which comprise the majority of divorce situations, it may be better for the children if their parents stay married.

One large stufy of unhappily married people followed them over five years and found that those who divorces were no happier than those who remained married. For example, divoce did not reduce or eliminate feelings of depression, raise self-esteem, or increase a sense of mastery/ This was the case regardless of income, race, sex, or age. Second, the researchers also found that two-thirds of those who stayed married over the five years reported that their marriages had improved. Interestingly, those who were in the least happy marriages at the time of the first interview reported the most dramatic turnaround.

Not all dicorces represent the same degree of crisis and disorganization. For example, when both parents make a concerted effort to get along and co-parent, the negative effects of divorce can be reduced considerably or even eliminated.

Many studies show that custodial parents are often closer to their children and have a more peer-like relationship after divorce. People are also generally pleased after they divorce andfeel that overall, they have made the right decision.

it is depends on how effectively the custodial parent -usually mother- functions as a parent.

The 1st months or years after a divorce are a difficult time. One of the most pressing issued is the downward mobility that many women face. Most divorced women underestimate the amount of financial hadship that they and their children may confront.

Younger people are more likely to begin dating again because they could find partner easier than olders. Some use online dating sites.

• Men are more likely to remarry than are women, and they do so more quickly. And their ages are related to the remarriage rate.
• -Men tend to have more experience initiating contacts.
• -There is a ouble standard of aging.
• -The pool of eligible partners is larger for men than it is for women because of cultural norms.
• -Women are more likely to have children living with them.

Remarried relationships can be fragile. Typically, women feel that they have more power in their relationship regarding financial and other decisions. However, overall subsequent marriages are not necssarily happier than first marriages, and remarried couples are more likely to be depressed than are couples in their first marriage. The rate of divorce is higher among remarriages.

A family that may consist of stepparents, stepsiblings, or half-siblings. Blended family or reconstituted family is other terms of stepfamily.

• Stepfamilies come about because of a loss through death or divore.
• The parent/child relatinship jas a longer history than the new couple's relationship.
• A biological parent lives elsewhere.
• Children in stepfamilies hold membership in two households.
• The model for stepparenting is ambiguous and poorly defined.
• No legal relationship exists between stepparents and stepchildren.
• The children in stepfamilies have additional sets of relatives.

• How stepparent should relate to stepchildren: distant relative, teacher, friend, stepparent, aquaintance, advisor, boss, parent, aunt/uncle, abd enemy.
• Friend seems to be most appropriate through research.

• Expectations, obligations, and rules for stepfamily members are bague and confusing.
• Stereoutypes are negative, such as the evil stepmother.
• Stepfamily members may each have different expectations.
• Relationships between stepfamily members have little or no legal standing.

Many studies address this issue, forcusing on the academic achievement, psychological well-being, and behavioral problems of children living in stepfamilies, Results of these studies usually indicate that, on average, children growing up in stepfamilies have an increased chance of negative outcomes compared to children growing up in biological two-parent households.

• Usually, stepmother is noncustodial; she is viewed as outsider.
• Moreover, she might have to make financial adjustments and learn to accept the alimony and child support payments go towards maintaining his previous wife's life.

Many self-help books are available to help stepfamilies thrive. Some general tips include keeping open lines of communication; eliminating criticism of the ex-spouse; nurturing the couple's relationship; developing a support system; and participating in a formal stepfamily education program.