Chapter 15 : The Family and Intimate Relationships

1. Explain how the greater participation of women in the labor force is altering the nature of marriage and domestic life in the United States and in other Western European societies.

2. Based upon your textbook's presentation, compare the structures and life-styles between contemporary white-non-Hispanic, Asian-American, Latino, and African-American families.

3. Identify the most important causes of divorce in the United States and discuss the impact it has on family members.

4. Increases in cohabitation and single-parent households suggest that marriage may be beginning to fall by the wayside in our contemporary society. However, your textbook claims that marriage and the family remain firmly established institutions in our society. Explain the rising patterns of cohabitation and single-parent households and show how these seeming paradoxical trends can be reconciled with the claims offered by your textbook.

5. Identify the myths that have been associated with family life in the U.S. over our history and consider what function those myths have served.

6. The text provides two different views of the future of the American family. Summarize each of these views and then consider which you think is more valid, given current trends and challenges among families today.

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