Family in Transition FM

Family in Transition

FIFTEENTH EDITION

Arlene S. Skolnick

New York University

Jerome H. Skolnick

New York University

Boston New

York San

Francisco

Mexico

City Montreal Toronto London Madrid Munich Paris

Hong

Kong Singapore Tokyo Cape

Town Sydney

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ISBN-13: 978-0-205-57877-1
ISBN-10: 0-205-57877-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Family in transition / [edited by] Arlene S. Skolnick, Jerome H. Skolnick.—15th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-57877-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-205-57877-2 (pbk.)
1. Family. I. Skolnick, Arlene S. II. Skolnick, Jerome H.
HQ518.F336 2009
306.85—dc22

2008023692

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 HAM 12 11 10 09 08

Credits appear on pp. 539–541, which constitute an extension of the copyright page.

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Contents

Preface ix

Introduction 1

PART ONE • The Changing Family 11

Families Past and Present 13

R E A D I N G 1

■

William J. Goode / The Theoretical Importance of the Family 13

R E A D I N G 2

■

Anthony Giddens / The Global Revolution in Family
and Personal Life 25

R E A D I N G 3

■

Arlene Skolnick / The Life Course Revolution 31

R E A D I N G 4

■

Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout / The Family in Trouble: Since When?
For

Whom? 40

Public Debates and Private Lives 57

R E A D I N G 5

■

Sharon Hays / The Mommy Wars: Ambivalence, Ideological Work,
and the Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood 57

R E A D I N G 6

■

Janet Z. Giele / Decline of the Family: Conservative, Liberal,
and Feminist Views 76

iii

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PART TWO • Sex and Gender 97

Changing Gender Roles 101

R E A D I N G 7

■

Robert M. Jackson / Destined for Equality 101

R E A D I N G 8

■

Kathleen Gerson / What Do Women and Men Want? 109

R E A D I N G 9

■

Andrew Greeley and Michael Hout / The Conservative
Christian Family and the “Feminist Revolution” 114

Sexuality and Society 125

R E A D I N G 1 0

■

Beth Bailey / Sexual Revolution(s) 125

R E A D I N G 1 1

■

Paula England and Reuben J. Thomas / The Decline
of the Date and the Rise of the College Hook Up 141

Courtship and Marriage 153

R E A D I N G 1 2

■

Lynne M. Casper and Suzanne M. Bianchi /

Cohabitation 153

R E A D I N G 1 3

■

Michael J. Rosenfeld / Alternative Unions
and the Independent Life Stage 164

R E A D I N G 1 4

■

Andrew J. Cherlin / American Marriage
in the Early Twenty-First Century 171

R E A D I N G 1 5

■

Arlene Skolnick / Grounds for Marriage: How Relationships
Succeed or Fail 192

Contents

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Divorce and Remarriage 203

R E A D I N G 1 6

■

Laurence M. Friedman / Divorce:
The “Silent Revolution” 203

R E A D I N G 1 7

■

Joan B. Kelly and Robert E. Emery / Children’s Adjustment
Following Divorce: Risk and Resilience Perspectives 210

R E A D I N G 1 8

■

Mary Ann Mason / The Modern American Stepfamily:
Problems and Possibilities 233

PART THREE • Parents and Children 251

Parenthood 255

R E A D I N G 1 9

■

Philip Cowan and Carolyn Pape Cowan / New Families: Modern
Couples as New Pioneers 255

R E A D I N G 2 0

■

Dan Clawson and Naomi Gerstel / Caring for Our Young:
Child Care in Europe and the United States 275

R E A D I N G 2 1

■

Nicholas Townsend / The Four Facets
of

Fatherhood 283

Childhood and Youth 293

R E A D I N G 2 2

■

Steven Mintz / Beyond Sentimentality: American Childhood
as a Social and Cultural Construct 293

R E A D I N G 2 3

■

Annette Lareau / Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race,
and Family Life 306

Contents

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R E A D I N G 2 4

■

Vern L. Bengston, Timothy J. Biblarz, and Robert E. L. Roberts /
How Families Still Matter: A Longitudinal Study of Youth
in Two Generations 318

R E A D I N G 2 5

■

Jeffrey J. Arnett / A Longer Road to Adulthood 328

PART FOUR • Families in Society 343

Work and Family Life 349

R E A D I N G 2 6

■

Arlie Hochschild, with Anne Machung / The Second Shift: Working Parents
and the Revolution at Home 349

R E A D I N G 2 7

■

Kathleen Gerson and Jerry A. Jacobs / The Work-Home Crunch 356

R E A D I N G 2 8

■

Pamela Stone / The Rhetoric and Reality of “Opting Out” 365

Family and the Economy 375

R E A D I N G 2 9

■

Lillian B. Rubin / Families on the Fault Line 375

R E A D I N G 3 0

■

Harriet B. Presser / The Economy That Never Sleeps 392

R E A D I N G 3 1

■

Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi / Why Middle-Class Mothers
and Fathers Are Going Broke 399

Dimensions of Diversity 419

R E A D I N G 3 2

■

Ronald L. Taylor / Diversity within African American Families 419

Contents

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R E A D I N G 3 3

■

Maxine Baca Zinn and Barbara Wells / Diversity within Latino Families:
New Lessons for Family Social Science 443

R E A D I N G 3 4

■

Rona J. Karasik and Raeann R. Hamon / Cultural Diversity
and Aging Families 469

R E A D I N G 3 5

■

Judith Stacey / Gay and Lesbian Families: Queer Like Us 480

Trouble in the Family 503

R E A D I N G 3 6

■

Jeremy Travis / Prisoners’ Families and Children 503

R E A D I N G 3 7

■

Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas / Unmarried with Children 520

R E A D I N G 3 8

■

Michael P. Johnson / Domestic Violence: The Intersection of Gender
and

Control 527

Credits 539

Contents

vii

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Preface

Once again, this new edition of Family in Transition has three aims. First, we looked for
articles that help the reader make sense of current trends in family life. Second, we tried
to balance excellent older articles with newer ones. Third, we have tried to select articles
that are scholarly yet readable for an audience of undergraduates.

Among the new readings are the following:

Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout

•

analyze Census Bureau statistics on Ameri-

can family life across the entire twentieth century. They find that many widespread
worries about today’s families are based on mistaken understandings about history
and overly simple impressions of family demographic change.
Kathleen Gerson

•

reports that 18- to 30-year-old “children of the gender

revolution”—both men and women—would prefer to balance work and family in
an egalitarian way. But today’s workplace realities don’t support such arrangements,
so young women and men choose different “fall back” strategies.
Andrew Greeley and Michael Hout

•

report some surprising findings about the

attitudes and beliefs of people who belong to conservative (or “evangelical”) Prot-
estant denominations. Although they prefer the more “traditional” breadwinner–
homemaker division of labor in the home, they are not as opposed to the gender
revolution as their leaders.
Two readings report on the dramatic changes in recent decades in the transition

•

from adolescence to adulthood. Michael J. Rosenfeld argues that what he calls “the
independent life stage” has made it easier for people to form “alternative unions,”
such as marrying across racial lines or choosing a partner of the same sex. Jeffrey J.
Arnett describes a new life stage, “emerging adulthood,” an unsettled period when
young people explore different possibilities in work and relationships.
Andrew J. Cherlin

•

describes the economic and cultural forces that have trans-

formed marriage in America in the past few decades. But he also finds that Americans
value marriage more than people in other modern countries, and the two-parent
family remains the most common living arrangement for children.
Laurence M. Friedman

•

shows that the “divorce revolution” of the 1970s—when

many states passed no-fault divorce laws—did not spring up suddenly out of no-
where. In fact, legal reformers proposed no-fault divorce to remedy what they saw
as a mockery of the law in the old system.
Annette Lareau’s

•

ethnographic studies of racially and economically diverse fami-

lies reveal striking class differences in childrearing styles. Middle-class families,

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regardless of race, practice what she calls “concerted cultivation”; working and
lower-class parents practice “natural growth.”
Pamela Stone

•

examines what has been called the “opt-out” revolution—the wide-

spread notion that highly educated women are leaving the workplace in droves
because they find that motherhood is their true calling. She finds instead that when
women leave professional jobs, the reasons have more to do with inflexible work-
places and unhelpful husbands than simple mother-love.
Rona J. Karasik and Raeann R. Hamon

•

remind us that America is graying as

well as becoming more diverse. They discuss what is known about the intersection
of ethnicity, race, and aging, and suggest that researchers and clinicians practice
“cultural humility.”
Michael P. Johnson

•

proposes a solution to the debate about whether women are as

violent as men in their intimate relationships. He finds that there are three types of
partner violence, and in only one type are women as likely to be as violent as men.

We would like to thank all those who have helped us with suggestions for this edi-

tion, as well as past ones. Thanks to Pamela Kaufman, an NYU doctoral candidate who
helped to review the family research literature, and to Janelle Pitterson, who helped with
proofreading. Also, many thanks to the reviewers who offered many good suggestions for
this edition: Yasemin Besen, Montclair State University; Margo Capparelli, Northeast-
ern University; Rebecca Fahrlander, University of Nebraska–Omaha; DeAnn D. Judge,
North Carolina State University; Edythe Krampe, California State University; Scott M.
Myers, Montana State University; Daniel Romesberg, University of Pittsburgh; Brooke
Strahn-Koller, Kirkwood Community College; and Kathy Westman, Waubonsee Com-
munity College.

Preface

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