Summary:
The previous chapter talked about divorce and separation of the family; Chapter 16 discusses remarriages and the creation of stepfamilies. The median time between a divorce and a new marriage is almost 4 years, 12 percent of men and 12 percent of women had been married twice, and 5 percent of all married couples have three sets of children. With these statistics in mind, it is obvious to note that divorce is becoming more common, and it is becoming more popular to have large families. Cohabitation often results after a divorce, and it is a common factor towards predicting remarriage. By definition, a stepfamily is a household in which two adults who are biological or adoptive parents with a child from a previous relationship elect to marry or cohabit. Again, remarrying is a common practice; with ages 50 and younger, women are more likely to be married twice than men. However, with ages 50 and over, men are more likely to be married 3 or more times. By ethnicity, whites are the most likely to be ever married, as well as most likely to be married twice. Some factors that can serve to predict remarriage consist of age and gender, race/ethnicity, social class, and the presence of children. There are different types of remarriage and aspects that need to be dealt with, such as emotional, psychic, community adjustments, parental adjustments, economical, and legal factors. Some key differences between first marriages and remarriages are differences in family composition, role expectations (between stepchildren, stepsiblings), changes across the life course (different family stages in life), and differences in stress and resources. Some myths that promote dangerous stepfamily expectations are the nuclear family myth, the instant love myth, and the rescue fantasy. 60 percent of remarriages, compared to 45 percent of first marriages, end in divorce; remarriages are more likely to end in divorce. There are different types of stepfamilies, consisting of mother-stepfather families (children are biological of the mother and stepchildren are of the father), father-stepmother families (children are biological of the father and stepchildren are of the mother), and joint stepfamilies (at least one child is the biological child of both parents, and at least one child is the biological child of only one parent and the stepchild of the other parent). Complexity, uniqueness, and high stress and conflict are common parts of stepfamilies. Other parts that define a stepfamily consist of family integration (over years, not months), the ending of important/significant relationships (i.e. parental), less cohesion (compared to nuclear families), and constant transitions and adjustments. Some characteristics of parenting in stepfamilies consist of distributing economic resources, development of stepparent-stepchild relationships, and intergenerational relationships.
New Material Learned:
Before reading the chapter, I didn’t know that the divorce rate among people married twice was as high as 60 percent.
Questions:
Why is it that women are more likely than men (among people under 50 years of age) to be remarried, while men are more likely than women (among people over 50 years of age) to be married three or more times? Why is there this drastic difference around the age of 50 in determining differences in marriage rates among men and women?
It probably at least partly has something to do with what's culturally desirable. Older men who are financially established are still desirable because of how "distinguished" they are, often independent of looks.
ReplyDeleteBut looks matter a lot more for a woman, at least when compared to men, and affect her if she decides to search for a new partner.
Of course, this also depends on other factors. Older men are not automatically more attractive than older women. Not all older men hold status in society, and that may not make up for his other bad traits. If the divorced couple had children, it may also depend on which spouse has custody.