PSY 3123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Systems Theory, Sociological Perspectives, Foster Care
28 Apr 2018
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January 31, 2018
Children - Yes or No?
Why have children?
Want to have children:
-Companionship
-Give back
-Pass on their genes
-Think it will be fun
-Pressure from family
Do not want to have children:
-Selfish - don’t want to share my time
-Pain of childbirth
-May negatively impact career
-Finances - kids are expensive
-Fear of passing on bad genes within the family
Enlarging the Family Circle
Various reasons, both personal and social, for having children
Having a child results in change in status and is a marker event
Over the past 50 years, significant drop in Canadian fertility rate
-1959: 3.93 children per woman
-2000: 1.49 children per woman
-2009: 1.7 children per woman
Reasons the fertility rate has declined:
-Birth rate
-People are starting families later - window for reproduction is narrowing
-Lower child mortality rate - no longer need to have many children in order to ensure at least one will survive
Still a great deal of social pressure to have children, or to follow the social script
-Myth of motherhood: frames motherhood as an instance that can fulfill a woman in a way no other experience can
-Another part of the myth is the importance of having a child of each sex
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January 31, 2018
-Some unmarried women in their 30s and 40s hear their “biological clock” and choose to have children, some
without a long-term partner
Sociological Perspectives on Having Children
Structural functionalists: having children is a necessary function of families in perpetuating society
Development theorists: having children is a developmental task of most families
Conflict theorists: the social pressure to have children is a reflection of the prevailing ideology
-May also look at the social advantages given to families with children
System theory: the decision to have a child creates different subsystems that affect the family dynamic
Ecological approach: will look at how the wider social context influences a family’s decision to have children, and also
determines the experiences of families with children
Symbolic interactionists: focus on the personal reasons for having or not having children
Feminist theorists: study child-bearing as an issue reflecting women’s control over reproduction
Value of Children (VOC) framework): attempt to systematically describe reasons for having children
-Three satisfactions (values) of having children: instrumental assistance (help in old age), rewarding interactions
(companionship, love), and psychological appreciation (living through children)
-Four costs of children: financial costs, child-rearing demands (emotional strain and pregnancy), restrictions on
parents (being tied down), and costs to social relationship (marital strain)
Fertility Rates in Canada
Although pressure on couples to have children is a strong as ever, size of the Canadian family has been shrinking
In order to replace the population, each woman must have 2.1 children
-Canada has been below this level since 1977
-Population has been maintained instead through immigration
Crude birth rate: the number of births per 1000 population in a given year
Total fertility rate: average number of births per woman per course of her reproductive life
-In Canada, it has been stable since 1996 at about 1.6 children
From one generation to the next, a decrease in fertility at the youngest ages and an increase among older women
-Postponing births into their 30s doesn’t make up for the drop in fertility in their 20s
Births out of wedlock are becoming more common - increasing in common-law partners
-In the past, such children were often born to single mothers not living with the father of the child
-Now, the majority of children born “out of wedlockk” now have both parents present
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January 31, 2018
Teenage pregnancy is generally seen as a social problem requiring preventive efforts
-Teen pregnancy rate in Canada has declined from 44.2 per 1000 in 1996 to 27.9 in 2006
-Canadian teen birth rate decreased from 22.1 per 1000 in 1996 to 13.7 in 2006
-Many teens who become pregnant choose abortion
-Changes in teen pregnancy rates reflect:
•More effective contraceptive use
•Greater access to reproductive health services
•High-quality sexual health education
•Shift in social norms
Why is the Canadian family shrinking?
Medical advances
-Infant mortality declined steadily in Canada since 1960s - no longer necessary to have large number of children to
ensure the survival of two or three
-Contraception has become more convenient and effective since the birth control pill became available in 1961
Changes in law
-Until 1969, contraception and abortion were illegal
•Birth rate showed its sharpest drop following legalization of birth control
-1988: Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion
•Make it possible to avoid having children after birth control fails
-Many couples have turned to sterilization once they have as many children as they want
•Among Canadian married couples where the wife is over 35, nearly ⅔ are protected by sterilization
Economic trends
-More women are entering the workforce - fertility rate declines due to the role strain of being both an employee and
a mother
-Since education is more important for employment than in the past, many women postpone child-bearing until out
of school and financially stable
-Even when people are economically successful, the cost of raising children is so high in terms of lost career
opportunities that having more than two children becomes undesirable
-Including housing and daycare, families spend from 10% (Quebec) to 15% (Ontario) of their income on the first
child
•Raising a child to age 18 cost nearly $167 000 in 2004
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Document Summary
Sel sh - don"t want to share my time. Fear of passing on bad genes within the family. Various reasons, both personal and social, for having children. Having a child results in change in status and is a marker event. Over the past 50 years, signi cant drop in canadian fertility rate. People are starting families later - window for reproduction is narrowing. Lower child mortality rate - no longer need to have many children in order to ensure at least one will survive. Still a great deal of social pressure to have children, or to follow the social script. Myth of motherhood: frames motherhood as an instance that can ful ll a woman in a way no other experience can. Another part of the myth is the importance of having a child of each sex. Some unmarried women in their 30s and 40s hear their biological clock and choose to have children, some without a long-term partner.
