Changing Families : Relationships In Context, Third Canadian Edition Lecture Notes

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Table Of ContentsPrefacexCHAPTER 1:Introduction to Family Studies1Instructor's Introduction1Additional Class Material on Methods1Surveys1Observations2Experiments3Evaluative Research4Content and Secondary Analysis and Historical Research4Help with Analytical Questions5Suggested Videos6Suggested Light Readings6Short Essay Questions6Chapter 2: History and Cultural Diversity of Canadian Families7Instructor's Introduction7Additional Class Material on the History of American Families7Multiple Historical Roots7The Colonial Period8Families Become more Diverse and Stratified9Industrialization and New Social Definitions9The Twentieth Century10Additional Class Material on Italian-Canadian Families10Help with Analytical Questions14Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers14Suggested Weblink15Chapter Linkages15Chapter 3: Contemporary Changes in Family Life16Instructor's Introduction16Additional Class Material on Individualism17Chapter Linkages18Help with Analytical Question18Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers18Suggested Reading18Short Essay Questions19

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Chapter 4: Effects of Economic Changes and Inequalities onFamilies20Instructor's Introduction20Additional Class Material20Chapter Linkages20Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers21Suggested Media21Suggested Reading22Short Essay Questions22Chapter 5: Impacts of Neighbourhoods and Housing Conditionson Family Life23Instructor's Introduction23Additional Class Material on the Home Office23Chapter Linkages24Help with Analytical Question24Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers25Short Essay Questions25Chapter 6: Roles of Educational Institutions and ReligiousParticipation in Family Life26Instructor's Introduction26Chapter Linkages27Help with Analytical Questions27Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers28Short Essay Questions29Chapter 7: Couple Formation and Sexual Relations30Instructor's Introduction30Chapter Linkages30Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers30Suggested Media31Short Essay Questions31Chapter 8: Patterns of Family Formation and Planning32Instructor's Introduction32Additional Class Material32Adoption and Reunion with Birth Parents32Reproductive Technologies--Cloning33Postpartum Depression—A Sociological Critique of the Research33

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Chapter Linkages35Help with Analytical Questions35Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers36Media Options36Short Essay Questions37Chapter 9: Spousal Relationships38Instructor's Introduction38Chapter Linkages38Help with Analytical Questions39Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers39Short Essay Questions40Chapter 10: The Parent-Child Relationship and ChildSocialization41Instructor's Introduction: Gaps in the Current Literature41Additional Class Material41The Parent-Child and Spousal Relationships Compared41Effects of Adolescent Part-Time Employment42Chapter Linkages43Help with Analytical Question43Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers44Short Essay Questions44Chapter 11: Sibling Relationships and Situations45Instructor's Introduction45Additional Class Material45More on Behaviour Genetics45Adopted Children47Twins as Persons48Chapter Linkages48Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers48Short Essay Questions49Chapter 12: Divorce, Widowhood, and Remarriage50Instructor's Introduction50Additional Class Material50How to Measure Divorce?50Stepparents' Rights and Responsibilities50

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Chapter Linkages51Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers51Short Essay Questions52Chapter 13: Family Violence, Abuse, and Neglect53Instructor's Introduction53Chapter Linkages53Help With Analytical Question54Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers54Media Options54Short Essay Questions55Chapter 14: FAMILY FUTURES AND SOCIAL POLICIES56Instructor's Introduction56Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers56Short Essay Questions56

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Chapter 1Introduction to Family StudiesINSTRUCTOR'S INTRODUCTIONThe two distinctive features of this chapter reside, first, in the broader range of theoreticalperspectives presented compared to other textbooks. All the theoretical perspectives presented in thischapter are highlighted at some point in the text. Second, as explained in the Preface of the textbook,the themes provide the threads that link various topics together, often leading to matters of socialpolicies affecting family life. The themes present the text's “voice,” “flavour,” or perspective. Thisperspective comes from my own fieldwork as well as from readings that have particularly influencedme throughout the years. These themes are useful instruments of integrative analysis, social critique,and social policy building.ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON METHODSThe following class material is meant to accompany Table 1.2 on Methods in Family Research.Instructors may wish to return to this topic in a later lecture to avoid beginning the course withmethods. Although qualitative material is discussed, the emphasis is on quantitative methods. Thereason is that Canadian instructors in family studies, including myself, tend to have a greaterexpertise in qualitative methods. The additional material is intended to complement instructors’expertise whenever appropriate.Another suggestion: You may reserve these notes and the related pages from Chapter 1 and use themto accompany the Family Research inserts that appear in each chapter. Or these inserts may be puttogether along with Table 1.2 to create aModuleor special lecture on research methods in familystudies at a convenient point in your program.SurveysSurveys probably constitute the largest source of research information in the sociology of families.The results of many longitudinal surveys of large samples, including several generations within afamily, are becoming available. For Canada, one can think of Statistics Canada's General SocialSurveys and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth which began in the early1990s. In the U.S., one can think here of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the Panel Studyof Income Dynamics, and the National Survey of Families and Households--which are older than theCanadian survey of children and youth and include several generations within a same family. Familyresearch utilizing surveys has recourse to a multiplicity of "instruments" (i.e., questionnaires in thiscase), but a few prominent "scales" or questionnaires that have been extensively tested are usedrepeatedly throughout family studies. One can think here of the Marital Adjustment Test for MaritalSatisfaction developed by Locke and Wallace in 1959, the Conflict Tactics Scale to measure the

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behaviours of people during a situation of conflict which was developed by Straus in 1979, and thePsychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory developed by Tolman in 1989, which is aself-report questionnaire for men.Online questionnaires are now the least expensive survey method followed by phone interviews.Face-to-face interviews are the most expensive forms of surveys. The latter, however, particularlywhen combined with a self-administered questionnaire, including some open-ended questions forqualitative data and interviewers' observations, provide a far richer and textured set of data orinformation than mail or phone surveys and, so far, even online surveys.In order to generalize to the rest of the population, surveys have to use arandom sample. A randomsample gives an equal chance to all the members in a category of people of being selected. When atargeted sample includes a small minority of the population, for instance lesbian couples who givebirth, researchers often turn to other sampling techniques that are not random. They may askcolleagues for names of persons who would be willing to be interviewed and, in turn, these personsmay provide additional referrals. This is at times called the "snowball sampling technique." Otherresearchersplaceadvertisementsoncampusesforstudentvolunteersoradvertisementsinnewspapers or magazines. The people who respond to these ads are then interviewed. While thelatter methods may be useful to explore a topic, they do not necessarily yield generalizable data orinformation. Why? Because respondents areself-selected.For instance, fathers who respond to an adseeking subjects for a study of father-daughter incest may be those fathers who feel truly guilty fortheir actions, who have maintained a good relationship with their daughter, or who may not haveengaged in sexual intercourse with them. In contrast, fathers in denial may not respond and neithermight fathers who are unrepentant. Thus, the study will not reach the entire spectrum of types offather-daughter incest and consequences.Surveys have several limitations. First, they can focus on only a limited number of topics and canask only a limited number of questions. Therefore,this presents a problem for secondary analyses.That is, researchers who later have recourse to these large data banks for their own topics may havevery limited material at their disposal, such as only one question (indicator) for, say, maritalhappiness. This is often too little. Second, multiple-choice questions do not offer respondents thechance to express the magnitude of their experience or feelings. The latter are better obtainedthrough open-ended questions that yield in-depth qualitative data. Third, surveys often ask questionsthat respondents have never thought about before or questions that do not address respondents'current preoccupations, joys, and problems. In contrast, in-depth interviews or questionnaires canavoid this pitfall as they are in great part driven by respondents. The students' autobiographies in thetextbook are an example of an in-depth questionnaire that allows respondents to choose which oftheir own life experience and preoccupations they will use as the basis of their responses. Thus,qualitativesurveys yield richer data but they are time consuming and expensive to analyze. Theyalso require great analytical skills and extensive theoretical linkages.ObservationsObservers may simply record what they see or they can do audio and now videotapes that areanalyzed later by independent coders. Coders are persons hired to give a name to the behaviour theyobserve on the video by segments of a few seconds at a time. A code number is generally assigned to

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each type of behaviour so that statistics can be derived. For instance, a child who smiles at hismother while she speaks to him may be coded as "warm response" and receive a score of 5 on a5-point scale. Such codings often take place with the help of a computer already equipped with keyscorresponding to the observed categories: The coders then simply press the key corresponding to"warm versus cold behaviours" and then press the number or code 5 in the above example.Indirect observations, combined with a form of instant (or “live”) surveys, are also used. Forinstance, families can be given a pager or their members can be “beeped” on their cell phones atrandom times during a day. At that point, all family members are asked to check multiple-choicequestions (the same for all members) in order to gain a more holistic picture and also to compare theperspective of each family member with that of the others. For example, parents’ answers can becompared to each other, to their children’s, or siblings to each other. Questions generally ask wherethey are at the time of beeping, what they are doing, with whom, and what their mood or feelingsare, etc.Observation studies can be designed to include a great deal of qualitative information in addition tothe statistical one. Observation of families in their natural settings is a very difficult enterprise toundertake for many reasons. Families may be reluctant to participate, they may alter their dailyactivities to look better in the observer's eyes, or they may not have enough space at home toaccommodate the observer. Naturalistic observations in public places are also possible, such as whenparents and children are playing together in a park or are talking in a restaurant.ExperimentsAt times, fieldwork can include a level of experimentation, particularly when it takes place in alaboratory setting. One can think here of the research whereby various instruments are attached tothe respondents' skin to measure heart rate, pulse, perspiration levels (as in a lie-detector test), andeven draw samples of blood to examine chemical changes in response to happiness or stress, forexample. Couples interact around assigned tasks and the researchers can follow chemical andorganic changes that take place when a stressor is introduced, when a couple disagrees, or when acouple is affectionate.Real experiments generally include at least two groups: The experimental group that is given aspecific stimulus such as the possibility to watch a violent or an erotic video; also needed is a controlgroup similar to the other one which does not receive the stimulus or the treatment in medicalresearch. The two groups are measured on various dimensions derived from the researcher's theoryboth before and after the stimulus. For instance, along these lines, it has been found that parents whowere asked to interact with a child who had been trained by researchers to behave in an oppositional-conflictual manner tended to drink more alcoholic beverages after the session than similar parentswho had interacted with the same child who had played a very cooperative and prosocial role withthem. These children who are trained by researchers on how to behave are called "childconfederates."Naturalistic experiments are those that involve, for instance, the study of family functioning before amother is diagnosed with breast cancer and after the diagnosis or even the surgery. Such families canbe observed or interviewed. Their level of warmth toward each other, of help to the mother, and so

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on, is measured before and after a natural situation (or stimulus) occurs. Naturalistic experiments arenot frequent because researchers rarely have the opportunity of knowing in advance of positive ornegative changes that occur in a family. But longitudinal surveys often do catch changes, such as adivorce, and are able to compare a family's behaviour years before and even after, and also comparesuch a family with one in which divorce does not occur, or before and after a natural disaster.Experiments can be combined with indirect observations mentioned above.Evaluative ResearchEvaluative studies may involve a quasi-experimental design whereby researchers test parents,children, or families before a treatment or a social intervention is initiated and re-test them after.Generally, a control group is involved. The goal of evaluative research is to appraise the success orfailure of an intervention or of several interventions which are being compared to see which is themost effective. For instance, researchers recently compared two programs designed to lower levelsof wife abuse. They used pre- and post-measures as is generally the case in a well-designedevaluative study.Welfare initiatives are often evaluated but one has to be very careful and closely examine theprocedures involved in the evaluation, particularly when a government agency evaluates its ownprogrammes (self-evaluation). For instance, after WorkFare for people on social assistance wasintroduced in Ontario, the government reported a sharp decline in the welfare caseload of assistedfamilies. This was touted as proof of success for this initiative. Yet, independent researchers foundthat only one third of the former welfare recipients had actually exited poverty. The rest were still aspoor as before. At the same time, food banks were noticing an increase in the utilization of theirresources by families. Obviously, what was needed was a methodology whereby WorkFare families(generally mother-headed) were followed up carefully to see how many were still employed,whether they were still poor or if they were worse off than when they were socially assisted.Reliance on just one statistics, such as a drop in the welfare rolls, can be very misleading whenevaluating the success of a programme. (Evaluative research is mentioned in the textbook in Chapter14 as it is very important with respect to outcomes of social policies.)Content and Secondary Analysis and Historical ResearchSecondary analysis refers to the very widespread practice whereby researchers utilize the datacontained in the various surveys discussed earlier and analyze some segments of it. These analysesare secondary because they come after the original design of the surveys has occurred. Theresearchers who design a survey and analyze its data engage in a primary analysis: They haddesigned the survey to answer certain specific research questions. Researchers who engage insecondary analyses fall into two categories. Those who are knowledgeable in a field and are testingspecific hypotheses derived from their theoretical perspective or are searching for an answer to aresearch question that has not yet been analyzed. These researchers know that a given surveycontains relevant information. Then there are those who are simply in search of "publishablematerial" and take the data in the survey and analyze it until they find what are called "statisticallysignificant differences" or, yet, correlations. The latter researchers are not guided by knowledge ortheory and may try to find a theoretical perspective that explains what they have found after the fact,so to speak.

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Content analyses of, for instance, television programmes, websites, YouTube, social media, andmagazine articles can be very useful to pinpoint trends that can influence children's behaviours (i.e.,violence) or family relations (i.e., portrayal of parents or of the maternal or paternal role).Historicalfamily research utilizes, in addition to public statistics, the content analysis of personal documentssuch as diaries, family genealogies and marking events, marriage and baptism records in churches ofpast centuries, advice books written for parents, advertising in old magazines and newspapers, oldnewspapers' accounts that pertain to family life, biographies, ledgers and bookkeeping records offarms, estates, and plantations, ship manifests and captains' logbooks, to name only the main sourcesfor content analysis. Novels can also be content analyzed for portrayal of family. Paintings of familygroups can also be examined, a method that Philippe Aries has used to demonstrate that children inearlier European centuries were part of the adult world at a relatively young age. Poetry, oraltradition, and written songs can also be sources of insight into family lifestyles and preoccupationsof a given period.HELP WITH ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS(located at the end of chapter in the textbook)Question 1. Possibilities: Some instructors, for ideological reasons, see families as a "traditional"concept. Others like to emphasize that the element of choice and intimate relations seem to fulfillthis perspective. However, not all family members are involved in intimate relations; some mayactually be strangers but still recognize that they belong to the same family (as illustrated in a quotein the Student’s Guide and in a question also in the Guide). The emphasis on intimate relations willnot cover such family members. As well, one can have intimate relations outside the family and withindividuals who pass through one's life for only a brief period of time, and who never penetrate one'sfamilial circle. Thus, families and intimate relations are two separate concepts that overlap in someinstances but cover different realities in other instances.The concept of intimate relations misses thenotion of institution, the intergenerational aspect of families, and the reality of extended families. Aswell, it is not a concept that is well adapted to the situation of many new Canadians.Question 3. Linkages of themes to theories:●Social inequalities can be linked to political economy theories, structural functionalism, rationaltheory (capital), and feminist theories. They can also be linked to behaviour genetics in the sensethat social inequalities limit individuals’ development of some of their abilities, particularly atthe intellectual and personal control levels.●Gender inequalities and roles originate from feminist theories and are also linked to politicaleconomy theories and to social constructions of reality. They can be linked to the developmentalaspects of a family (as, for instance, one sees the continuation of the nurturing role of womenthroughout the stages of family development) as well as to social exchange theory and eveninteractional theories.●Family diversity can be linked to structural functionalism or as a critique of its originalconception; to political economy theories; to feminism; to social constructionism.●Familyresponsibilitiescanbelinkedtopoliticaleconomytheories,socialstructuralfunctionalism, feminism, social constructionism (the constructs of the roles of mothers, fathers,and children, for instance). They can also be linked to rational theories (families provide capital)and to developmental theories (responsibilities are continued, added, and transferred as familiesgrow, shrink, and parents age).

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●Effective community is itself derived from rational theory but can also be linked to interactionaltheories as well as behaviour genetics.●Cultural context is related to social construction; feminism can also present a critique of ourcurrent cultural context.●The interactional theme is linked to symbolic interactionism, interactive-transactional theories,developmental and behaviour genetics perspectives (in the latter case, there is an interactionbetween nature and nurture, between the shared and nonshared environments, and betweengenes and these environments which form nurture). It can also be linked to political economytheories as an explanation of the context of inequalities and its effects on family relations.SUGGESTED VIDEOSwww.youtube.com probably still offers Jean Kilbournes’Killing Us Softly—Advertising’s Image ofWomen. This video comes in several segments. It is related both to feminism and socialconstructionist perspectives and can also be used to illustrate what is meant by content analysis (ofthe media, in this case).Sut Jhalby’sThe Codes of Genderalso offers an analysis of advertising that includes elements ofsymbolic interactionism, particular Goffman, as well as feminism and social constructionism.TheOprah Showhad an interesting hour onSister Wives, an ideal polygamous American family,around October 13-14, 2010.SUGGESTED LIGHT READINGSThe two historical novels by Bernice Morgan, situated in Newfoundland, provide a very goodexample of family as an institution lasting throughout a century:Random Passage(1992) andWaiting for Time(1994), St. John’s, NF: Breakwater. These two books provide a realistic depictionof the situation and are equally suggested for Chapter 3. A miniseries also resulted.SHORT ESSAY QUESTIONS1.Discuss polygamy from a feminist perspective or even social exchange theory.2.How are social constructionism and feminism related in the study of families?3.Present a case study of an age-gapped family (or an age-condensed family) focusing on theconsequences of this situation both for parents and children within a developmental perspective.4.Useanthropologicalmaterialtoillustratesomeofthedifferentsocialconstructionsofmotherhood that exist throughout the world.5.Link the concept of the shared environment in behaviour genetics to symbolic interactionism aswell as interactional-transactional perspectives.

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Chapter 2History and Cultural Diversity ofCanadian FamiliesINSTRUCTOR'S INTRODUCTIONThis chapter presents a chronological narrative of the changes that have taken place among the firstthree groups of founding families: the First Nations, the Québécois and their predecessors in France,and then the British, and how the latter two have particularly affected Aboriginal families. Thischapter then illustrates the increasing diversity of origins of Canadian families as new Canadiansarrive in Canada from a broader spectrum of nationalities and religions. The focus is on blackCanadian families, Chinese- and Indo-Canadian families.ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FAMILIESAs a comparative note, and because some overlap and similarities exist between the two societies, abriefhistory of families in the U.S. follows. This section presents the broad strokes or, if you wish,the general outlines of the history of American families. (Not only are there similarities and parallelsbetween Canadian and American history but also with Australia, for instance, and New Zealand. Allinvolve British conquests and colonial rules as well as subjugated Aboriginal groups.)Multiple Historical RootsChronologically, the first set of civilizations belonged to the Natives: they were quite diverse bythe time the first colonists arrived. In the south, some Native nations had already been in contactwith Spaniards. In the northeast, other nations had been trading and even intermarried with theFrench. Much later on, in 1867, Alaskan Natives were included after having been under Russianrule; to this day, many still carry Russian surnames. The second set of historical roots lies inProtestant Europe, particularly England of the seventeenth century. These British Europeansbecame the dominant group in American society. A wide spectrum of African societies, whosemembers were brought to the American shores in chains, formed the third influence on Americanfamily life. The Latinos, ranging from Puerto Rico and then Florida to northern Mexico, in thelatter case what became the American southwest, represented the fourth early cultural group inthe formation of the American family.These diverse Latinos were already in place long before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Butit is only much later that their territories were annexed by the U.S. It is also only toward the end ofthe nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that other immigrant groups, largely from Europe, begancontributing to the landscape of American families. For their part, Hawaiians chronologicallyconstitute one of the last indigenous cultural root of family life in the U.S., although their influencehas remained largely isolated, both because of conquest and long distance.

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The cultural groups other than Europeans are now minorities; their trajectories are unique as theyhave often been marked differently than the British-majority group by the same historical events. Forinstance, the Civil War carried different implications and consequences for African Americanscompared to whites. Furthermore, the life courses of minority families have been deeply affected bydevelopments among majority families. For example, the historian Franklin (1993) discusses the rolethat white males have played during slavery in African-American families and in the formation ofblack masculine identity. Although, southern white women were affected by this reality even asmothers, overall, the historical causality flowed from white to minorities.The Colonial PeriodThe 20,000 Puritans who arrived from England between 1620 and 1640 brought with them thetraditional, nuclear family of father, mother, and children. Their dream was to establish a Godlyfamily based on the teachings of the Bible. Families raised six or seven children who learned to readthe scriptures at home and worked together as a unit of production. As the years went by and thecolonists aged, grandparents co-resided with one of their adult children. But this extended familysystem at the household level never constituted the main form of family structure. The reason lies inthe fact that life expectancy was low: Relatively few elderly parents survived until all their childrenwere married. Further, elderly parents had many children, so that, when they lived with one, all theothers constituted separate nuclear families. (The parallels with Quebec are evident here.)In terms of gender stratification, the colonial society was a masculine one and women weresubordinate to men, particularly their husbands and fathers. Fathers were responsible for the moralcharacter of their children as well as their families' honour. They were the primary parent, althoughmothers were the main caretakers and it is only in the eighteenth century that they replaced fathers inthe area of religious instruction. Sexual relationships outside marriage were condemned butnevertheless occurred and frequently led to legal proceedings. When the early moral standards of thesmallcohesivecommunitieserodedsomewhat,masculineinfidelitybecamerelativelymoreacceptable and, in the south, common between white men and slave women. Widowed women couldreceive some land and manage their families: They were seen as replacing their deceased husbands.Divorces were granted on a very limited basis. Fathers typically retained custody of children, as wasthe case in England.In the period roughly bounded by the years 1620 and 1780 before industrialization, adults andchildren used to participate in the household economy. Families wereunits of productionand muchof what they needed was produced at home or in the vicinity. Everyone was involved and childrencontributed from an early age. Children were regarded as useful and responsible members of thefamily economy. Skills were acquired in one's immediate environment; children observed what theirparents or host families were doing and learned by imitation as well as direct teaching. Familiesformed an integral part of their communities and many functions fulfilled by various social agenciesin the twentieth century were taken care of at home, particularly education and social control.Fathers were responsible not only for their children's behaviours, but for that of their live-in servantsas well as slaves. Thus, households, especially in the south, were more extensive than Canadian onesat the same time. Religion was a constitutive element of the family dynamics of these earlyAmericans and was largely a masculine domain.

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Families Become More Diverse and StratifiedAs the conquest of the country moved southward and westward, families began to diversifydepending upon the geographic location of settlement and the nature of their work. Small citiesbecame stratified, as was the ca se in Canada, alongsocial classlines that later extended into thecountryside. Social classes then largely consisted of three broad categories of families: importantmerchants and large plantation owners at the top, then artisans, and at the lowest rung were thelabouring segments of the population. At the bottom of this stratification system were the slaves.After 1780, with the advent of industrialization, the merchant and large landowner class wasenlarged by entrepreneurs, and the artisan class by various types of clerical workers as well as armypersonnel. The lower class of workers was exploited for its labour. American families werebecoming more socially diversified and rigidly stratified, their economic base was evolving, andtheir lifestyles were becoming more varied.In the eighteenth century, children often left home by the age of ten, particularly in poor families, tobecome apprentices or even servants. They were incorporated within their host family, and, in thelate nineteenth century until World War II, lodgers became part of the households of the poor whileservants lived in the homes of the more affluent. Thus, while the European-American family hasalways been predominantly nuclear rather than extended, the household unit often containedadditional, unrelated persons.While the seventeenth and eighteenth century family formed an economic unit, generally workingtogether on a farm, the nineteenth century family, although still predominantly agricultural, becamemore diversified as production gradually shifted outside the home to an urban landscape of factoriesand office jobs. Around 1820, America witnessed the development of a middle-class ideal where thefamily became a site of comfort. A distinction was made between the home as a private domain andthe public sphere of work, the economy, and politics from which women and children wereexcluded. The role of the father became less intimate and more externally oriented toward the publicdomain.Industrialization and New Social DefinitionsWith the rapid growth of industrialization and urbanization in the nineteenth century, the conditionandsocial definition of childhoodbegan to change. The new economy no longer needed childlabour and concerns grew about the working conditions of poor children who toiled twelve hours aday in unsanitary environments. Moreover, romantic definitions of children as naturally innocentcombined with the movement to control idle youth in urban areas resulted in a perception of childrenas needing protection and education. A consequence of these social developments taken togetherresulted in child and adolescent schooling becoming the norm. Farm children as well as manychildren of immigrants escaped this rule for a long time: They were needed to help their familieseconomically. Thus, the social reconstruction of children did not reach all social classes or all ethnicgroups simultaneously.The new attitude toward children as objects of emotional gratification rather than coworkers as wellas the generally declining birth rate among the white middle class occurred concurrently with a newideology of domesticity. It was characterized by an emphasis onintensive motheringand the

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privacy of the family. Mothers were seen as naturally endowed to pursue the moral education oftheir children and to nurse their sensitivities. Women's role in life was to invest their energies intothe care of their children. As a reflection of these social reconstructions, after 1860, children weremore frequently placed in their mother's custody following divorce.The Twentieth CenturyHusbands' and wives' emotional relations and companionship had become more important aspects ofmarriage by the early 1900s. The division of labour by gender solidified, particularly among themiddle class: Mothers were relegated to thedomestic spherewhile fathers became the exclusivebreadwinners and their families' representatives in the public domains. But again these developmentsoccurred unevenly throughout the social class system: The working class could not exactly afford tolive without the wife's economic contribution. Nor could African Americans. Boarders became morecommon in cities, particularly in immigrant households until the 1940s, in order to supplementfamilies' income. Thus, the separation of the domestic sphere from the public domain was at first awhite middle-class phenomenon.Asthenineteenthandtwentiethcenturiesunfolded,mostfamilieshadbecomeunitsofconsumption: Productivity took place elsewhere and basic necessities had to be purchased. Familyheads worked outside for wages or occasionally had an office or business attached to their home.Working-class children and particularly adolescents continued their contribution to the familyeconomy as wage labourers until the 1920s and on farms until much later. White women entered thework force in great numbers during World War II in order to replace men who went abroad assoldiers. But when the war was over, women were encouraged to stay home. This situation lasteduntil the 1960s after which point their labour force participation continued to rise to this day.However, African-American women had long preceded their white counterparts in this respect asover 40 percent were employed already in 1900, and this figure is probably an underestimate.Then, in the 1970s, adolescents re-entered the work force in part-time jobs in the service sector, inorder to acquire discretionary spending money. By 1990, 61 percent of tenth graders and 90 percentof eleventh and twelfth graders worked at some time during the school year. By the close of thetwentieth century, the requirements of the labour market in terms of education had given rise to twonew life stages. First, that of young adulthood--which stretched adolescent dependence on parentslonger. Second, that of preadolescence, largely the result of consumerism and media influenceswhich sold lifestyles to children. Thus, children became more differentiated along age lines andmore isolated from other age groups, including adults.ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON ITALIAN-CANADIAN FAMILIESBy coming to this country to pursue new lives and find new opportunities, immigrant groupsother than the French and British have transformed the Canadian social and cultural mosaic.Italian Canadians provide a telling example of an older immigrant group with unique culturaltraditions and family structure that, over time, has melded into Canadian society while retainingmany of its traditions and adhering to the importance of family. Italians began to arrive insignificant numbers in the late 19th century. Between 1870 and 1900, Italian immigration to

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Canada was steady if unspectacular; by 1901, there were 10,834 Italian Canadians here. Between1900 and 1914, however, immigration exploded: By 1911, Italian immigrants to Canadanumbered 45,963. Although the First World War reduced immigration, once peace returned,Italian immigration resumed: The prosperous 1920s saw 26,183 new arrivals. In the 1930s, asimmigration was restricted to protect Canadian workers during the Great Depression, only 3,898Italians arrived. Then in 1940, Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, aligned Italy with NaziGermany, and Canada, as an ally of Great Britain, went to war against Germany and Italy. Theimmigration of Italians came to a halt.After the Second World War, Italian immigration to Canada resumed, and by 1981, over 500,000Italians had come to this country—an immigrant group second in size only to that from theBritish Isles. Since then, Italy’s economic situation has improved markedly via the EuropeanEconomic Community. Consequently, Italian immigration to Canada and the U.S. has declined.Still, despite lower immigration rates, Italian Canadians retain a significant presence in Canada,numbering over one million. Indeed, after the United Kingdom and China, Italy is the third mostcommon birthplace of immigrants to Canada.Italians have traditionally placed great importance on family life and especially on familysolidarity between all blood relatives, in-law relations, and godparents. “One’s personal identitywas derived from his family, and family membership was essential in terms of defining one’splace in society.... The strength of the norm of solidarity meant that the disgrace of one memberof the family affected everyone—a disobedient child was the concern not only of the parentsbut of the extended kin as well.” The extended family was headed by a malecapo di famiglia—usually the oldest married male member—who made the decisions about all family matters,including children’s education, dowries, and funeral expenses. Although the Italian family waspatriarchal, women were not without power. Even in Italy, a woman could own property andcontribute economically to her family by working part-time in the fields. She also retained herdowry after marriage, which gave her economic leverage and went to her children, not herhusband, upon her death.Many aspects of traditional Italian culture and family life were transplanted to Canada. Primarilyfrom poor and agrarian southern Italy, early Italian immigrants came largely as families.Unmarried Italian men who decided to stay in Canada soon contacted their families in Italy inorder to find wives. As Ramirez (1989:12) notes, early Italian immigrants brought with them “anotion of the family that rested on strict norms of authority, mutual responsibilities and honour.The family was viewed essentially as a cooperative enterprise whose material and emotionalwell-being was dependent on the specific roles that the various members were expected toperform.”Men’s responsibilities centred on providing for their families. Although the first waves ofimmigrants who reached Canada were largely peasants and farm labourers—and some Italianfarming communities were founded in places like Naples, Alberta—the majority of men workedin industrial jobs: mining, logging, and building and maintaining the railway. Women, on theother hand, were relegated to the domestic realm and were responsible for producing homemadearticles (both for their families and to exchange for other goods and services); processing andpreserving food; raising domestic animals; and tending their gardens. As in Italy, women alsocontinued to be responsible for maintaining kinship ties, particularly with female relatives, and

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for nurturing their children. “In a world where the family status was judged not by theoccupation of the father but by the signs of family well-being which emanated from thehousehold, the mother played an important role in securing that status.” The extended family wasstill evident in many Italian-Canadian homes after the Second World War. Although these first-generation immigrant Italian women were discouraged from entering the wage-labour force, itwas not unusual for them to take in boarders and thus contribute to the family earnings.At first, new immigrants brought with them Old World notions such as “pride in one’s village orregional origin”; identity as Canadians remained elusive. However, as they began to see Canadaas a land of opportunity, many second- and third-generation Italians conformed to the socialnorms of the English-speaking majority, pursued an education, and began moving into themiddle classes as restaurateurs, small business owners, and professionals. Migrating to cities—primarily Toronto and Montreal—they tended first to settle in areas with low real estate prices.Consequently, there emerged in every major city a “Little Italy” with Italian shops, restaurants,and a strong social life built around the Roman Catholic Church and social and culturalorganizations.Post-1945 immigration also says much about the cohesive nature of Italian-Canadian societybuilt around family, kinship, and friends. By 1950, the federal government’s more liberalimmigration policies allowed Canadian citizens to sponsor family members, including cousins,as new immigrants. In this way, and wanting to reunite their families, members of the establishedItalian-Canadian community brought family members from war-torn Italy to Canada, wherehousing and employment awaited them. In the post-war economic boom in Canada, labourerswere needed in construction and in the burgeoning industries in southern Ontario. Thus, if anItalian bricklayer brought his brother or a cousin to Canada, his brother or cousin would alsowork as a bricklayer. As these new Canadians became established, they in turn sponsored otherimmigrants to Canada. In his study on Italian immigrants in Alberta, Aliaga (1994) found thatfamily was a key factor in the decision to immigrate to Canada and to adjust to the newenvironment once they were here. More than 90 percent of all Italian immigrants who came toCanada between 1946 and 1967 were sponsored by a family member who was already residinghere. This enhanced the already existing notion that, despite social divisions in the working-,middle-, and even upper-classes, Italian Canadians constituted a distinct ethnic community inwhich family was central. Admittedly, the majority of new Italian Canadians settled in Torontoand its hinterland; but because of overall increased immigration, other Italian communitiesacross the entire country expanded proportionately.Italian immigrant husbands tended to be more educated than their wives, but both were lesseducated than the general Canadian population. This situation is indicative of the low levels ofeducation that Italians had when they immigrated to this country. As late as the 1980s, 50 percentof Italian-Canadian husbands had less than a Grade 9 education, compared to 22 percent ofCanadian husbands. Likewise, 56 percent of Italian immigrant wives had less than Grade 9education, compared to 21 percent of Canadian wives. However, only 8 and 10 percent of youngerItalian males and females, respectively, had less than a Grade 9 education, indicating thatsignificant improvements were being made in levels of education.Howell et al. (2001) reported from their study on ethnic groups in Toronto and Montreal that themajority of Italian men who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War were employed

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in non-professional occupations that required long hours and backbreaking toil. Despite thesehardships and their lower educational levels, the majority of families were economicallysuccessful. Italian Canadians placed great importance on owning their own home and, althoughthey tended to be employed in lower status occupations and earned less than the generalpopulation, they were more likely than other Canadians to own their own home, even anexpensive one. As Ramirez (1989:14) notes: “This ancestral desire for a measure of economicand psychic security to be concretized in the possession of a house became part of Italianmigration folklore: during the post-World War Two era, one of the most popular songs in Italyspoke of ‘a little house in Canada which had a pool with fish inside, was surrounded by lots oflily flowers, and was admired by passers-by.’”The economic success of Italian immigrant families has been due in part to women’s economiccontributions. Given that Italian immigrant men earned considerably less on average thanCanadian men, women’s salaries in the post-1945 era were crucial to a family’s economic well-being. After the Second World War, large numbers of young Italian immigrant women enteredthe paid labour force, indicating greater gender equality among second and subsequentgenerations of Italian immigrants. Because of their lower educational levels, most Italianimmigrant women gained employment in the clothing, food, and light–manufacturing industries,and in service jobs such as cleaning. Whereas 52 percent of Canadian-educated females were inthe labour force, 63 percent of Canadian-educated Italian females were employed. In oneinstance, Aliaga (1994) found that 84.7 percent of married Italian women in Calgary were eitheremployed or had been in the workforce. Many employed Italian mothers relied on familymembers, friends, and neighbours to help with the children in their absence.Increased participation by females in the labour force is not the only change that has taken placeamongst Italian Canadians. Research indicates that, as early as the 1950s, second and subsequentgenerations of Italian immigrants increasingly detached themselves from traditional Italiancultural values and family structures and assimilated into the Canadian population. There hasbeen a steady increase in the number of Italians who speak English rather than Italian in theirhomes, and more Italian Canadians have married non-Italians. Where first-generation familiestended to be large, families of second and third generations have become smaller; though stillstrongly attached to the Church, younger women do not want the same kinds of domesticburdens that affected their mothers and grandmothers. Canadian-educated Italians, who aretypically second- and subsequent-generation Italians, are more likely to be single (never married)and to have lower fertility rates than foreign-educated Italians, who tend to be first-generationimmigrants.Evidence now suggests that as immigration has slowed and Italian Canadians have rejected largefamilies, the Italian-Canadian community has begun shrinking relative to the rest of Canada’spopulation which has been increased by new arrivals.Ethnic exogamy(marrying a spouse of adifferent ethnic origin) amongst Italian Canadians is also contributing to assimilation. Ethnicexogamy amongst Italian-Canadian men has increased from 19 percent in 1921 to 33 percent inthe 1990s. However, the percentage of ethnic exogamy amongst second and subsequentgenerations of Italian immigrants is even more telling—approximately 70 percent of Canadian-born Italians are married to a non-Italian spouse, compared to 20 percent for foreign-born ItalianCanadians. Often, these changes have created intergenerational conflict, as many first-generationItalian immigrants do not understand how their children and grandchildren can abandon the most

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cherished values of their culture. When first-generation immigrants were asked what they weremost troubled about, they tended to speak “of their worries about their children’s (andgrandchildren’s) marital prospects and adherence to Italian religion, language and culture.” Forthe most part, Italian parents hoped that their children would marry other Italians from goodfamilies or, at the very least, marry Catholics from good families. As two students explain it,“My brother made my parents very happy because he married a ‘good’ Italian girlwhereas my sister myself and my younger brother have been disappointmentshere.... Mind you we are all engaged or going out with persons of a better socialclass than us and this would make other parents happy but not mine.... My parentsdon’t even notice that my brother’s marriage is rather shaky....”“My parents are second-generation Canadian and it was impossible for them tomarry a person that was not Italian and my mother therefore did not marry theman she loved. But us three kids will marry as we wish even though I am fortunateenough to have met a nice and kind Italian fellow who on top of it all is a realhunk and my parents are happy with whoever we bring home provided they comefrom good families. But there are limits and even though I didn’t mind, when mybrother brought a girl from Jamaica home, this didn’t go over well....”Despite the many ways that Italian immigrants have assimilated into Canadian culture, they havealso preserved important aspects of Italian culture and the primacy of family. The daily activities ofchurches and community centres within Italian communities have been pivotal in keepingindividuals of Italian descent connected and in sustaining various cultural practices. Large Italianweddings also provide a means of ethnic solidarity. “Guest lists of four hundred to six hundredpeople, generous gifts to the bridal couple, elaborate meals and drinks, and entertainment at thereception have all become cultural expressions of Italian spirit in Canada” (Howell et al., 2001:138).The Italian-Canadian community remains a vibrant and cohesive ethnic group built around thefamily and a strong sense of culture and heritage.HELP WITH ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS(Located at the end of Chapter 2 in the textbook).The analytical questions for this chapter 2 are fairly straightforward and involve several options.SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION, PROJECTS, PAPERS1.Write a paper on other minority-group families in Canada with the help of the Internet/newspapers/magazines.2.Analyze the contents of newscasts or newspapers pertaining to non-white families. What factsare reported? How can these facts be explained (i.e., theories related to social inequalities, socialconstruction, social capital)? What conclusions could these facts lead to? What facts are notreported?

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