Deck 8: Kith and Kin: Creating Families in Communities

Question 1

"Kith" refers to:

A) Familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives.
B) Kin.
C) People to whom we are related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
D) The web of people with whom you share ancestry and to whom you consider yourself related

Answer 1

Familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives.

Question 2

The term "forgotten kin" refers to:

A) Ancestors.
B) Extended kin, such as aunts and uncle.
C) Family members who suffer from dementia.
D) Relatives who are gone (e.g., dead) and forgotten.

Answer 2

Extended kin, such as aunts and uncle.

Question 3

Patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian refer to patterns of:

A) Descent and inheritance.
B) Kin associations
C) Power and authority.
D) Residence.

Answer 3

Power and authority.

Question 4

Incest taboos:

A) Exist to reduce the frequency of genetic abnormalities.
B) Increase the chance of role conflict in families.
C) Insure that economic and political power is retained within the group.
D) Prohibit marriage among closely related individuals.

Question 5

A study based on wedding announcements appearing in the New York Times suggests that in the 21^st century, _____ American women take the name of their husband's family upon marriage.

A) few
B) half of
C) perhaps 8 out of 10
D) almost all

Question 6

The royal families described by Schacht are:

A) Black families in a subculture in New Orleans.
B) Composed of street people who "adopt" one another and set up complicated households that can be described as "kingdoms."
C) Institutionalized forms of gay and lesbian kinship.
D) Members of the House of Windsor, England's ruling monarchy.

Question 7

Families by design include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) Accordion households.
B) Elder orphans
C) Military families who develop non-kin social networks in response to frequent relocation, separation, and reunions.
D) Stack's fictive kin.

Question 8

Cohousing:

A) Attempts to blend privacy and community.
B) Is a 21^st extension of hippie communes of the 1960s.
C) Is at odds with the high value Americans place on neolocal residence.
D) Seems to work only when residences share similar attitudes and beliefs.

Question 9

All of the following statements are true concerning fertility in the United States EXCEPT:

A) Fertility remains highest among women in their 20s.
B) The fertility rate dropped dramatically from 1980 to 2009.
C) The median age at which women have their first child has increased steadily over the past 40 years.
D) The percentage of births to the oldest mothers has increased steadily over the past 40 years.

Question 10

The cost of raising a child born in 2009 to age 17 has been estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be approximately:

A) $76,500.
B) $175,000.
C) $286,000.
D) $1,000,000.

Question 11

Approximately ___ American couples experiences clinical infertility.

A) 2 in 100
B) 1 in 10
C) 1 in 6
D) 1 in 2

Question 12

Adoption:

A) Has been bound by secrecy in many Western societies.
B) Is a relatively recent social invention.
C) Includes a half million children in the United States today.
D) Results in negative outcomes for most children.

Question 13

Of the alternative pathways to parenting, _____ is perhaps the one most clouded by role strain.

A) Adoption.
B) Foster parenting.
C) "Natural" (biological) parenting
D) Surrogacy.

Question 14

Single parents:

A) Are raising over half the children in the United States today.
B) May be married, separated, divorced, or widowed.
C) Are less likely to be teens in the United States than in any other industrialized country.
D) Both B and C

Question 15

The quality of the relationship between step-parent and stepchild:

A) Appears to depend at least in part on whether only one spouse or both has children from a previous relationship.
B) Affects over 40 million children in the United States today.
C) Is exaggerated by the 'step-mother myth.' Step-parenting differs little in quality for other forms of parenting.
D) Is unaffected by whether or not the step-parent chooses to raise the child as her or his own.

Question 16

Which of the following best describes the quality of relationships between lesbian mothers and their children?

A) Lesbian mothers do a better job of parenting than do gay fathers.
B) Lesbian mothers are similar to heterosexual mothers in terms of maternal feelings, but differ dramatically in parenting behaviors.
C) Lesbian mothers face insurmountable hurdles in parenting in this society.
D) No major differences exist between children of homosexual and heterosexual parents.

Question 17

Regarding the transition to parenthood:

A) Happy spouses make for unhappy parents.
B) Most parents make the transition smoothly.
C) Sleeping, eating, and leisure patterns are radically shifted with the arrival of a child.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 18

Raising children in the United States today includes all of the following EXCEPT:

A) Complications of the sandwich generation.
B) A continued de-emphasis on fathers.
C) More, involvement by grandparents
D) A tradition toward "compulsory motherhood."

Question 19

Which of the following is true concerning the effects of parents and family culture on children?

A) Children who grow up in a conflict-habituated family, even if it is a two-parent family, exhibit more aggression, more withdrawal, and poorer academic and social skills than other children
B) Evidence falls overwhelmingly on the side of children growing up with two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.
C) Regardless of race, most parents have similar values, discipline strategies, and perspectives on parenting.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 20

Child care in the United States is:

A) Associated with harsher discipline and authoritarian parenting.
B) At its best when the staff-child ratio is low and the director emphasizes letting the staff run the day-to-day operations.
C) Generally in adequate supply and is affordable for most American families.
D) May be seen as part of the responsibility of the "village" discussed in this chapter.

Question 21

How does the information introduced in this chapter affirm that families traditionally by "default" are increasingly by "design"?

Question 22

Do you see elements of the comparative variations in kinship in American families?

Question 23

Outline the changes in fertility rates by age of mothers. In which age categories do we find changes with regard to the variations in parenting noted in this chapter?

Question 24

As this chapter discussed factors related to responsible fathering, can you develop a model of the same for responsible grand parenting?

Question 25

What does the phrase "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child" imply for family life educators?