Sociological Implications of Americas High Divorce Rate Discussion Questions

child development theories: Discuss the historical development of child development philosophies. What were the major historical changes that brought about the development of these various theories/philosophies? Who were the major theorists/groups of people associated with these changes in our views on childhood development?

divorce: Discuss the sociological implications of America’s high divorce rate. Should it be harder to get a divorce? If so, why? If not, why not? What are the pros and cons associated with no fault divorce? What do you think are the effects of divorce on American Society?

Child Development  Definition:  Change in the child that occurs over time. Changes follow an orderly pattern that moves toward greater complexity and enhances survival.  Periods of development:  Prenatal period: from conception to birth  Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years  Early childhood: 2-6 years old  Middle childhood: 6-12 years old  Adolescence: 12-19 years old Domains of Development Development is described in three domains, but growth in one domain influences the other domains.  Physical Domain:  body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor development, perception capacities, physical health.  Cognitive Domain:  thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention, memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic and everyday knowledge, metacognition, and language.  Social/Emotional Domain:  self-knowledge (self-esteem, metacognition, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral reasoning, understanding and expression of emotions, self-regulation, temperament, understanding others, interpersonal skills, and friendships. Theories  What is a theory?  Orderly set of ideas which describe, explain, and predict behavior.  Why are theories important?  To give meaning to what we observe.  As a basis for action — finding ways to improve the lives and education of children. Historical Development of Child Development Theories 6th – 15th centuries Medieval period  Preformationism: children seen as little adults.  Childhood is not a unique phase.  Children were cared for until they could begin caring for themselves, around 7 years old.  Children treated as adults (e.g. their clothing, worked at adult jobs, could be married, were made into kings, were imprisoned or hanged as adults.) 16th Century Reformation period  Puritan religion influenced how children were viewed.  Children were born evil, and must be civilized.  A goal emerged to raise children effectively.  Special books were designed for children. 17th Century Age of Enlightenment  John Locke believed in tabula rasa  Children develop in response to nurturing.  Forerunner of behaviorism www.cooperativeindividualism.org/ locke-john.jpg 18th Century Age of Reason  Jean-Jacques Rousseau  children were noble savages, born with an innate sense of morality; the timing of growth should not be interfered with.  Rousseau used the idea of stages of development.  Forerunner of maturationist beliefs 19th Century Industrial Revolution  Charles Darwin  theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest  Darwin made parallels between human prenatal growth and other animals.  Forerunner of ethology 20th Century Theories about children’s development expanded around the world.  Childhood was seen as worthy of special attention.  Laws were passed to protect children, Beliefs focus on the formation of personality. According to this approach, children move through various stages, confronting conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. Sigmund Freud Psychosexual Theory  Was based on his therapy with troubled adults.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

 He emphasized that a child’s personality is formed by the ways which his parents managed his sexual and aggressive drives. Erik Erikson Psychosocial Theory  Expanded on Freud’s theories.  Believed that development is life-long.  Emphasized that at each stage, the child acquires attitudes and skills resulting from the successful negotiation of the psychological conflict.  Identified 8 stages:  Basic trust vs mistrust (birth – 1 year)  Autonomy vs shame and doubt (ages 1-3)  Initiative vs guilt (ages 3-6)  Industry vs inferiority (ages 6-11)  Identity vs identity confusion (adolescence)  Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood)  Generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood)  Integrity vs despair (the elderly) Beliefs that describe the importance of the environment and nurturing in the growth of a child. Behaviorism  Developed as a response to psychoanalytical theories.  Behaviorism became the dominant view from the 1920’s to 1960’s. John Watson  Early 20th century, “Father of www.psych.utah.edu./…/Cards/Watson.html American Behaviorist theory.”  Based his work on Pavlov’s experiments on the digestive system of dogs.  Researched classical conditioning  Children are passive beings who can be molded by controlling the stimulus-response associations. B. F. Skinner  Proposed that children “operate” on their environment, operational conditioning.  Believed that learning could be broken down into smaller tasks, and that offering immediate rewards for accomplishments would stimulate further learning. Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura  Stressed how children learn by observation and imitation.  Believed that children gradually become more selective in what they imitate. Belief that heredity and innate biological processes govern growth. Maturationists: G. Stanley Hall and Arnold Gesell  Believed there is a predetermined biological timetable.  Hall and Gesell were proponents of the normative approach to child study: using age-related averages of children’s growth and behaviors to define what is normal. Ethology  Examines how behavior is determined by a species’ need for survival.  Has its roots in Charles Darwin’s research.  Describes a “critical period” or “sensitive period,” for learning Konrad Lorenz  Ethologist, known for his research on imprinting. Attachment Theory  John Bowlby applied ethological principles to his theory of attachment.  Attachment between an infant and her caregiver can insure the infant’s survival. Beliefs that describe how children learn Jean Piaget Cognitive development theory  Children “construct” their understanding of the world through their active involvement and interactions.  Studied his 3 children to focus not on what they knew but how they knew it.  Described children’s understanding as their “schemas” and how they use:  assimilation  accommodation. Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stages  Sensori-motor  Ages birth – 2: the infant uses his senses and motor abilities to understand the world  Preoperation  Ages 2-7: the child uses metal representations of objects and is able to use symbolic thought and language  Concrete operations  Ages 7-11; the child uses logical operations or principles when solving problems

Sociological Implications of Americas High Divorce Rate Discussion Questions

 Formal operations  Ages 12 up; the use of logical operations in a systematic fashion and with the ability to use abstractions Lev Vygotsky     Socio-Cultural Theory Agreed that children are active learners, but their knowledge is socially constructed. Cultural values and customs dictate what is important to learn. Children learn from more expert members of the society. Vygotsky described the “zone of proximal development”, where learning occurs. ced.ncsc.edu/hyy/devtheories.htm Information Processing Theory  Uses the model of the computer to describe how the brain works.  Focuses on how information is perceived, how information is stored in memory, how memories are retrieved and then used to solve problems. The belief that development can’t be explained by a single concept, but rather by a complex system. Urie Bronfenbrenner Ecological Systems Theory  The varied systems of the environment and the interrelationships among the systems shape a child’s development.  Both the environment and biology influence the child’s development.  The environment affects the child and the child influences the environment. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model  The microsystem – activities and interactions in the child’s immediate surroundings: parents, school, friends, etc.  The mesosystem – relationships among the entities involved in the child’s microsystem: parents’ interactions with teachers, a school’s interactions with the daycare provider  The exosystem – social institutions which affect children indirectly: the parents’ work settings and policies, extended family networks, mass media, community resources  The macrosystem – broader cultural values, laws and governmental resources  The chronosystem – changes which occur during a child’s life, both personally, like the birth of a sibling and culturally, like the Iraqi war. Outline of 20th Century Theories  Psychoanalytical Theories  Psychosexual: Sigmund Freud  Psychosocial: Erik Erikson 

Behavioral & Social Learning Theories  Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning – John Watson & Operant Conditioning – B.F. Skinner  Social Learning – Albert Bandera  Biological Theories  Maturationism: G. Stanley Hall & Arnold Gesell  Ethology: Konrad Lorenz  Attachment: John Bowlby Outline of 20th Century Theories  Cognitive Theories  Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget  Socio-cultural: Lev Vygotsky  Information Processing  Systems Theories  Ecological Systems: Urie Bronfenbrenner CHAPTER TWELVE THE PROCESS OF DIVORCE DIVORCE IN THE UNITED STATES • Divorce is a common occurrence in the United States. About one-third of people who have ever been married have also been divorced. • How Common Is Divorce? It Depends on How We Measure It • The crude divorce rate (the number of divorces per 1,000 people in the population) is a better way to understand divorce than a perceived measure. • However, the crude divorce rate is problematic. Many people are not married, so why should they be included in the divorce statistics? It makes more sense to focus on how many married people get divorced. Therefore, another method of measuring the frequency of divorce is the refined divorce rate, or the number of divorces that occur per 1,000 married women ages 15 and older. • The refined divorce rate provides a one-year snapshot of how many married women divorce. What is unknown is just how high chances of future divorce are. HiHistorical Trends • Historical Trends • Although legal divorce was rare and difficult to obtain before 1850, married couples in troubled relationships separated or deserted one another. • An early study of marriage and divorce conducted in the mid-1800s, examined 29 cases of divorce on the grounds of “cruelty.” In almost every case, the wife committed the “cruelty” by attempting to break out of her traditional subordinate role in one way or another. • By the mid-19th century, the divorce rate began to rise as it became easier for women to initiate and obtain a divorce. During the five years from 1872 to 1876, 63 percent of all divorces initiated and granted to women were on grounds of cruelty, desertion, drunkenness, and neglect. • The divorce rate rose steadily between 1860 and 1940, though it dropped somewhat during the Great Depression of the 1930s. • After the Depression and World War II the divorce rate rose quickly, and by 1946 it peaked at nearly 18 divorces per 1,000 married women, higher than today’s rate. • After the rush of divorces following World War II, the divorce rate dropped considerably to around 9 per 1,000 married women during the 1950s. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the divorce rate began to rise again, peaking at nearly 23 divorces per 1,000 married women around 1980. Since then, the divorce rate declined to 17.9 in 2009, but appears to have increased in recent years to 20.9 in 2011. However, methods of calculating the divorce rate have changed WHY DO PEOPLE DIVORCE? • Micro-Level Factors • Parental Divorce. People whose parents have divorced are also more likely to divorce themselves. This pattern is known as intergenerational transmission of divorce. • Age at Marriage. Couples who marry at a young age are in one of the highest risk categories for divorce. • Parental Status. Couples who have children—particularly young children—or who have many children are less likely to get divorced. • Nonmarital Childbearing. Couples that bear or conceive children prior to marriage have higher divorce rates than do other couples. • Sex of Children. Couples who have sons are less likely to divorce than are couples who have daughters. • Race and Ethnicity. Different racial or ethnic groups vary in their tendency to divorce, with Hispanic and Asian groups least likely to divorce and Blacks most likely to do so. • Education. On average, people with lower levels of education are more likely to divorce than those with higher levels of education. • Income. Divorce is more common among people with lower incomes than those with higher incomes. • Degree of Similarity between Spouses. Spouses are less likely to divorce when they share characteristics such as age, religion, race, or ethnicity and are more likely to divorce when these characteristics differ. • The Couple’s Ages. The likelihood of a couple divorcing rises during adulthood and then declines as the couple ages. MACRO-STRUCTURAL FACTORS • Read the Document: A Comparison of Civilian and Enlisted Divorce Rates During the Early All Volunteer Force Era on MySocLab. • If we want to know why divorce occurs, instead of looking only at micro-level factors of the individual, we should also pay attention to cultural macro-level factors such as (1) the level of socioeconomic development; (2) the dominant religion practiced; (3) the divorce laws; (4) the status of women, including their employment situation; and (5) the general attitudes towards divorce. • • • Level of Socioeconomic Development. Generally, less developed countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Middle East have significantly lower divorce rates than do developed counties in North America and Europe. Most people cannot support themselves on their own in less developed countries, and families are of the utmost importance. Religion. A second factor that influences the rate of divorce in a country is the level of religiosity and the most widely practiced religion of its citizens. Divorce Laws. Divorce laws certainly help predict the likelihood of divorce and they are quite different through the world. • • • • In many parts of the Middle East, men can divorce their wives for almost any reason, often by simply declaring “I divorce thee.” The U.S. divorce laws have shifted from “at fault” to “no fault” in the 1960s, which means that a divorcing couple can go before a judge without one party having to blame the other. Women’s Status and Employment. Divorce laws tend to be more restrictive in patriarchal societies where women have fewer legal rights or economic opportunities. In many countries, laws regarding child custody and spousal support are designed to perpetuate patriarchy. Attitudes toward Divorce. In many parts of the world today, women who divorce are stigmatized. Until recently in the United States, in fact, the term “divorcée,” which applied to women only, had sexually suggestive connotations. • • • • • Over the past 50 years, divorce has become less stigmatized. Unhappy couples now consider it an appropriate way to end their relationship. Interestingly, more people now oppose divorce and believe that it should be more difficult to obtain than in the previous generation. It is younger adults, rather than older adults, who want divorce to be more restrictive, perhaps because many of them experienced divorce as children. An intriguing change has occurred in attitudes towards divorce among women. In the past, researchers found that the more education women had, the more likely they were to support easier divorce. In recent years, however, women with college degrees are the most likely to say that divorce should be more difficult to obtain, while women with less than a high school diploma hold the least restrictive views about divorce.

Sociological Implications of Americas High Divorce Rate Discussion Questions

This trend is referred to as the “education crossover.” If women are unsure about the economic prospects of their partners, they will probably want to keep divorce as an option. In contract, women who have more education (and presumably higher incomes and jobs with more prestige) can be more selective about whom they marry. EXPERIENCING DIVORCE • Divorce is a process. This process may include a separation to provide the emotional distance needed to work on resolving marital problems—sometimes followed by reconciliation, but perhaps finally ending in a divorce. • The phases of separation • In the first phase of a marital separation, preseparation, one or both partners begin to think about the benefits of a separation. • During the early separation phase, couples face a series of issues as they separate. Who will be the one to move out? • In the mid-separation phase, the realities of daily living set in, such as maintaining two households, arranging visitation for children, and living on a reduced income. • Finally, during the late separation phase, a couple must learn to live as two single people. Not all separated couples divorce; many continue to work on the problems they faced as a married couple and then successfully reconcile. • They may file for a legal separation, a binding agreement signed by both spouses that provides details about child support. The Stations of Divorce • • The Emotional Divorce. Ending a marriage is extremely stressful. Divorced individuals, compared with those who are married, have more health problems, experience more depression and anxiety, and have a greater risk of mortality. Men and women often have different challenges following divorce. • • • • Women are more likely than men to have financial problems after a divorce. In contrast, men often have a more difficult time emotionally after a divorce. One reason for this is that men tend to have a weaker network of supportive relationships. Men are also more dependent upon a marriage, and those who have been in more traditional marriages may find routine household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping to be daunting. Legal Divorce. A legal divorce terminates the marriage contract by a court order of the state. Partners are then legally free to conduct separate lives and to remarry. Economic Divorce • Read the Document: Characteristics of Women with Children Who Divorce in Midlife Compared to Those Who Remain Married on MySocLab. • • • • • What happens to the financial well-being of men, women, and children after a divorce? During the divorce year, women and children’s income declines significantly, whereas men experience only slight declines on average. 1 in 5 women become impoverished, as compared to only 1 in 13 men. After a divorce, fathers become single, and mothers become single parents. This generally results in a significant income difference between fathers and mothers. Women who leave the workforce to raise children may have difficulty reentering the work force. Some spouses may request alimony, a (generally temporary) payment by one partner to the other, usually a husband to wife. Alimony is designed to support the more dependent spouse for a period of time. Alimony is not commonly awarded. Female-headed households in the United States would fare quite differently in many other developed nations, including most Western Europe, where the government intervenes ands assists divorced families to a greater extent than in the United States. Divorce and Children: Child Support • Noncustodial parents have a legal responsibility to support their children. For much of U.S. history, these payments were arranged privately between former spouses; the noncustodial parent (usually the father) negotiated a child support order with the mother, a legal document delineating the amount and circumstances of the financial support of noncustodial children. • Enforcement was minimal; usually the burden of attempting to collect overdue payments was left to the mother. • More recently, there have been efforts to improve the collection of child support payments. Congress passed laws to increase the proportion of children who were eligible for child support, to increase and standardize child support orders, and to improve collection rates. • Unfortunately, governmental efforts have sown little success. Only about half of custodial parents have a court order or some type of agreement to receive child support. Among custodial parents with an agreement in 2009, 29 percent received no child support payment, and another 30 percent only received a partial payment. WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN? • Watch the Video: Kathleen Gerson: Family Stability on MySocLab. • Short-Term Effects • One study found that, on average, children whose parents divorced had poorer academic performance and lower levels of psychological well-being, both before and after divorce. • In the crisis period, children generally face a number of situations that they must learn to cope with, including: parental conflict; (2) loss of a parent; (3) living with a reduced standard of living; and (4) adjusting to many transitions, possibly including a new home and a new school, or even a new stepfamily. • Parental Conflict. During and after a break-up, children have fewer health, emotional, and behavioral problems if their parents can cooperate or at least minimize overt conflict in front of them. • Loss of a Parent. During a separation and after a divorce, children most often live with their mothers and many children see their fathers only sporadically, if at all. Many fathers choose to ignore their children, but the residential parent (generally the mother) is a gatekeeper and she may also interfere with the relationship between father and children. • A Reduced Standard of Living. Given the severely limited budgets of most divorced families, consumption patterns must change drastically. Teenagers may need to work at after-school jobs to provide basic necessities for the family. • Adjusting to Transitions. A divorced brings many transitions into the lives of children and their parents. Sometimes the family home is sold, which may require moving to a neighborhood, attending a new school, and making new friends, leaving the familiar behind. Longer-Term Effects • Often, children continue to feel the effects of their parents’ divorce for years after the actual divorce. • Children whose parents divorce are more likely to become pregnant or impregnate others prior to marriage, drop out of school, use alcohol or drugs, and be idle or unemployed. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, experience depression, and have overall poorer health. • Age and Sex of the Child: Divorce may be most difficult for school-age children, who may experience a greater number of transitions with schools and friendships. Research about sex differences is inconclusive. Boys are more likely to do

Sociological Implications of Americas High Divorce Rate Discussion Questions

poorly in school after a divorce, but the effect on girls may manifest later, during adolescence or adulthood. • Which Is Worse for Children, Divorce or Marital Conflict? The answer to this is not easy because many factors are involved, including the severity of the conflict. Children do not fare well when the conflict is severe. This is true regardless of whether the parents divorce or remain married. SHOULD DIVORCE BE MORE DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN? • “Would I Be Happier?” • People who divorce do so because they believe they will be happier afterward. But this belief is not necessarily valid. Linda Waite’s research on divorce and happiness found that the divorced were no happier than those who remained married. First, divorce did not reduce or eliminate depression, raise self-esteem, or increase a sense of mastery. • While divorce eliminates some stresses, it creates new ones that can have negative consequences. These include the reactions of children; potential disappointments and aggravations in custody, child support, and visitation orders; new financial stress; or health problems. • Covenant Marriage • There is a growing marriage movement designed to promote and protect traditional marriage. Although much of this movement is rooted in religious communities, it has also produced political change. • In three states—Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana—a covenant marriage is now legal. This type of marriage demands premarital counseling, and an oath of lifelong commitment, and makes divorce more difficult to obtain by requiring counseling and offering only limited grounds for divorce, such as adultery, addiction, or imprisonment. While many people support these ideals in principle, only about 2 percent of new marriages in LA and fewer in AZ and AR, are covenant marriages.