(Coleman et al., 2006) there are more significant differences between race and ethnic groups in beliefs about intergenerational assistance than are expected by chance the differences are not large. As expected, White European-Americans perceive that less help should be given to older adults than is true of African-Americans and Asian-Americans. Unexpectedly, European-Americans and Latinos rarely differ in their beliefs about intergenerational assistance. When differences exist among the three minority groups, it is typically because African-Americans and Asian-Americans perceive that more help should be given to older family members than Latinos. The family plays a unique role in forming and sustaining intimate relationships; however, there have been notable changes in the family in the past 50 years. As marriages are being delayed, birth rates are decreasing, and maternal employment, divorce, cohabitation, and births to single mothers are increasing, the course of intimate relationships is becoming more diverse and less stable and predictable. (Hetherington, 2003)
Although marriage has been associated with a number of positive benefits (e.g., health, income, child achievement), it appears that maintaining a marriage is a difficult task for many Americans. Analyses of data from the National Survey of Family Growth revealed that 20% of first marriages end in divorce within 5 years, 33% end within 10 years, and 43% of marriages break up within 15 years of marriage (Bramlett & Mosher, 2001). Although the rates of marital dissolution are high for all ethnic groups, the rates among African-Americans compared with European-Americans are even more pronounced. For example, whereas 32% of European-American marriages end within 10 years, 47% of African-American marriages do so within this same period. Coupled with the high divorce rates among African-Americans is the fact that African-Americans are less likely to enter into marital relationships than are European-Americans, which makes their marriages less normative and more fragile. Thus, marital researchers need to understand marriage within the context of race. (Goodwin, 2003)
As evidenced by marriage and divorce statistics, race definitely appears to affect how one experiences and maintains marriage. However, very few studies have fully explored the effects of race in marriage. The majority of studies on marriage have been conducted using racially homogenous samples consisting mainly of European-Americans from which findings are generalized to the entire American population (Bean, Crane, & Lewis, 2002; McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, & Wilson, 2000). By conducting research on racially homogeneous samples and generalizing the findings, researchers assume that factors explaining European-American marriages are the same as those explaining African-American marriages.
Studies have begun to emerge, however, that suggest that African-Americans may conceptualize marriage differently from European-Americans. For example, Veroff, Douvan, and Hatchett (1995) concluded that "Black couples interpret their marital experiences in the context of their social worlds, their communities and kin, their economic situations, all within a backdrop of institutional racism" (p. xii). Other researchers have also found evidence of the effects of race and ethnicity on marital experiences. For example, Chadiha, Veroff, and Leber (1998) found that African-American couples were more likely to focus on couple relations and religion when interpreting their newlywed experience, whereas European-American couples were more likely to focus attention on achievement and work themes. Researchers have found that factors that appear to be common to both African-American and European-American marriages are often manifested in very different ways. For instance, having a supportive wife was found to be a benefit to the stability of both African-American and European-American marriages. For European-American marriages, however, having a supportive wife meant having a wife who was cooperative, whereas for African-American marriages it meant having a wife who was collaborative (Goodwin, 2003; Orbuch, Veroff, & Hunter, 1999).
From comparative studies, we know that African-Americans consistently evaluate their marriages less positively than their European-American counterparts. (Goodwin, 2003) We also know from numerous studies on marital instability what some of the antecedents of divorce are. Missing from the literature is research that examines the factors related to sustaining positive and satisfying marriages within the context of race. Thus, the goal of the current study is to examine the predictors of marital well-being for both African-American and European-American women. Researchers have recommended that the construct of marital well-being include global and...
Divorce can have a tremendous effect on the lives of children and the parties that are getting the divorce. More than half of all marriages in America end in divorce. It is believed that the people that are affected the most by divorce are children, over a million of them experience divorce in their families each year. During the decade between 1990 and 2000 about 15 million children, under the
Family Structure Evolution in America Family structure in the United States is definitely evolving. This fact is demonstrated by an analysis of several different aspects of the family structure as defined within the National Council on Family Relations. The specific forms of evolution within the family structure studied within this paper pertain to dating, marriage, and gender roles. By conducting a literature review of articles related, respectively, to each of these
Stereotyping effects not only other people image of an ethnic group but it can also influence the self-image of that group. [Tatum, 1999] describes a discussion with her children while driving them to school. A drove past a Black teenager running down the street." Why is that boy running?" my son asked. "I don't know," I said absentmindedly. "Maybe he stole something." I nearly slammed on the brakes. "Why would you
Not all physical force can be characterized as violence, and not all violence is created equal. There are numerous controversies regarding definitions of violence and abuse and no clear consensus among researchers on how to characterize acts as one or the other. Presumably, there should be commonalities among different types of violence so that all can be characterized first as violence, and yet some violence is socially approved and so
More of them end up in mental health clinics and hospital settings. There is earlier sexual activity, more children born out of wedlock, less marriage, and more divorce. Numerous studies show that adult children of divorce have more psychological problems than those raised in intact marriages." (Kupelian, 2005) it is reported in the work entitled: "Reflections on Distressed Couples Contemplating Divorce One Study of the Structured Separation Process" that
This article is of extreme importance in this research study. It adds to the other articles mentioned by discussing the importance of protective factors in detail and urging caution when espousing a correlative relationship between cause and effect in divorce and the reaction of children. Leon, K. (2003). Risk and Protective Factors in Young Children's Adjustment to Parental Divorce: A Review of the Research. Family Relations, 52(3), pp.258-270. In this article, Leon
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