8.3.3: Family Life

 8.3.3: Family Life 

Social class also makes a significant difference in our choice of spouse, our chances of getting divorced, and how we rear our children. 

Choice of Husband or Wife Members of the capitalist class place strong emphasis on family tradition. 

They stress the family’s history, even a sense of purpose or destiny in life (Baltzell 1979; Aldrich 1989).

 Children of this class learn that their choice of husband or wife affects not just them but the entire family, that it will have an impact on the “family line.” 

These background expectations shrink the field of “eligible” marriage partners, making it narrower than it is for the children of any other social class. 

As a result, parents in this class play a strong role in their children’s mate selection. 

Divorce 

The more difficult life of the lower social classes, especially the many tensions that come from insecure jobs and inadequate incomes, leads to higher marital friction and a greater likelihood of divorce.

 Consequently, children of the poor are more likely to grow up in broken homes.

 Child Rearing

 Lower-class parents focus more on getting their children to follow rules and obey authority, while middle-class parents focus more on developing their children’s creative and leadership skills (Lareau 2011). 

Sociologists have traced this difference to the parents’ occupations (Kohn 1977; Stephens et al. 2014). 

Lower-class parents are closely supervised at work, and they anticipate that their children will have similar jobs.

 Consequently, they try to teach their children to defer to authority.

 Middle-class parents, in contrast, enjoy greater independence at work. 

Anticipating similar jobs for their children, they encourage them to be more creative. 

Out of these contrasting orientations arise different ways of disciplining children: Lower-class parents are more likely to use physical punishment, while the middle classes rely more on verbal persuasion.

 Among the customs of the rich, sometimes called the monied class, is ostentatious philanthropy. 

Shown here are women at the Frederick Law Olmsted lunch, a charity event in New York City.

 The women try to outdo one another with hats created for this event. Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/The Image Works