Family Relationships During The Empty Nest

In the article McKay states, “Divorce is a time of tremendous upheaval in families. Given the disruption, should the divorce process occur at a point where the child’s attachment style is not fully developed, it stands to reason that the likelihood of secure attachment…is reduced.” This shows that in order to provide for the child they need to create a balance between them where the child can grow to have a more stable environment, even if both parents aren’t in the same living quarters. Then he begins to go through the multiple stages of a child and their styles of attachment to their parents. According

The film, Precious, is a powerfully charged story that delves into the family dynamics of a 16-year-old girl and her struggles to survive an onslaught of treacherous experiences. Throughout the film, the viewer is enveloped in a dramatic web of extreme situations, experienced by the main character, and those to whom she is close. The themes of domestic violence, rape, incest, drug addiction, gambling, poverty, social justice, social services, housing and education are laced together throughout the story. Particularly poignant attention is paid to various systems that help shape the experiences of the characters. The social services industry, and its associated workers, educators and administrators, set the foundation for the social themes that are highlighted by this film.

My cousin who came from a very religious Catholic background had married a Jewish man. The family was not so much angry but surprised mostly by the procedure of a Jewish wedding. The family worried about the issue of children and what their religion would be. The couple decided that when they had children, they would leave it up to them to choose what religion they wanted to be. The family didn’t treat him or her any differently and accepted them with open arms.

Married with Children aired between 1987 and 1997. The comedy television show was based on a dysfunctional American family featuring Ed O’Neill, as Al Bundy, and Katey Sagal as Peggy. In the episode, Married without Children, Al and Peggy enjoy a weekend getaway while their neighbors babysit their children, Kelly and Bud. The episode displayed some communication technologies available at the time. The Bundy’s and their neighbors had rotary phones, but cable was not available to them. A 21st century version of Married with Children would be very different than the original because of changes in technology and the way in which people communicate.

The family issue I will be analyzing is interfaith marriage. Interfaith marriage is simply marriage between two people who belong to or identify with different religious groups. However simple the definition may seem, the reality of interfaith marriage can be far more complex. For most of human history it has been a social taboo to marry outside of one 's faith. However, in recent years it has become much more acceptable, even to the point of seeming to essentially be a non-factor as far as society is concerned. Nevertheless, with the inevitable differences in customs and beliefs, and despite social acceptance, interfaith marriages can still cause major conflict in the household. This paper will explore seven different sociological theories, and attempt to explain how they can decipher the effects of interfaith marriage upon the family.

Most of the historians and papers look at the United States after the Civil War in order to trace the impetus for economic growth, people imagine the Civil War as a major force to unite and to move forward to an economic expansion. But, in reality, the important era of the economic development was prior 1790 to 1860 or the era prior to the Civil War. The western expansion provided with natural resources to stabilize and fuel the industrial growth. The strictures, which were existed in the theocracy of New England, were extinguished by 1790 ("APUSH-Wiki-Marlborough-School - Life in the North from 1790 - 1860", 2016).

Attachment styles influence relational patterns between a married couple and their children. These attachment relational patterns known as anxious, avoidant, and secure base styles are a product of the interactions experienced in early childhood with their caregivers. It affects people’s intercommunication with others all through their life span. Individuals’ attachment style involves a systematic pattern of relational assumptions, emotions, and behavior that develop from the subjective constructs definitive of attachment experiences throughout their lives. Negative relational patterns increase the likelihood of marital violence in the home. When experiencing stress related life issues, conflicts may arise due to substandard communication skills leading to physical violence, aggressiveness, resulting in harsh spousal disputes. A positive upswing in marital and family harmony occurs when healthy communication skills develop along with secure based attachment characteristics, such as, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness of self and others. These characteristics provide coping mechanisms that establish a positive self-identity and healthy social interaction with others. As the anxious and avoidant relational styles exercise these positive characteristics, in time, they develop a positive view of self and others while learning to work through life stressors, which benefit the marriage and family.

For the first five years of my childhood, I was raised in a single parent home. My mother would have to work harder to provide anything that was needed for me and my other siblings. But that changed when my father came back into our lives when I turned six. From that point on our family structure took a drastic change for the better. My mother didn't have to work as long as before, so we were able to see her more often. Having two parents at home caused the quality of our lives become better than it was before when only one parent supported us. For many households, however the reality is that only one parent during their upbringing. This does have a rather big effort on them in the life of the child and the parent who is raising the child. A single parent household harms the parent and the child.

Divorce is becoming all too popular in our society today. When a couple experience tough times or have one too many arguments, they automatically think divorce. Despite its prevalence couples are not prepared for it’s long, drawn out, hurtful process. Divorce does not only hurt the individuals involved, it also affects the children tremendously. While many people don’t think divorce is a bad thing. Hollywood makes divorce look cool and uneventful. When in all reality, it is disruptive. Some people would say that divorce is a lazy way out of a marriage; the cowardly thing to do when a situation presents itself. Divorce is not the only answer to marital problems, in most cases.

In a sociological perspective, family is interpreted as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties or a combination of all three. The sociological theories the connect to this concept are functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. First, functionalism states that the family socializes children, it provides emotional and practical support for its members, and it provides its members with a social identity. Secondly, conflict theory states that members create disagreements, and create emotional support and comfort. Finally, symbolic interactionism claims family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis. "Families are defined as a relationship by blood, marriage, or affection" (Seccombe 5).

In the last two decades divorce has increased substantially leaving couples single and families broken. Divorce is the reality for many families as there is an increase in divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families. Divorce cannot be overlooked as it negatively affects and impacts youngsters for the rest of their lives. Although it is the decision between two parents’s children are hurt the most in the process. The concept of divorce is extremely difficult for children to understand as there are many unanswered questions and uncertainties. “Will my mom or dad remarry and who will I live with?” are concerns children express while going through divorce. Many

During the years, single parent families have become a more common thing. This is starting to become a problem, because family dynamics can really influence a child’s life. According to studies it affects not only the child but the parents too.

Why did they not discuss this issue before they got married or did they think the other one would change after saying their wedding vows? Marriage is not about changing someone; instead, it is about loving your partner for his or her beliefs.

According to a recent study from CBS, the United States has the highest divorce rate of any country at 45%. Due to this high rate of divorce, many families find that there is an imbalance of family roles in these newly created single parent households. Being a single parent has its own set of challenges for the individual and creates challenges for the family such as, spending smaller amounts of time with your children, having an excessive work load and disrupting the wellbeing of the children.

Throughout this course I have learned about sociology and certain sub-categories. Some of these include social institutions, social hierarchy, and socialization, these are relevant to an educational socialization. But, the sociology that I am going to focus on is related to family. Status, role and reference groups are classified in the sociological studies of family. For reasons that I am focusing on family, is that family is extremely important to me and the bonds that we had is unlike most families. It is a bond that has been broken and I am slowly trying to mend it back together.