The Dynamics of Family Functions in the US

Marriage, Divorce and Family Functions

Define the Institute of Marriage and identify the important cultural functions

Marriage encompasses a broad definition of the interpersonal unions established between partners granting them familial bond based on legal, social, and religious grounds. Further, marriage grants partners mutual conjugal rights. The family as a social unit functions to ensure the cooperation of its members based on aspects of child rearing and managing reproduction. Cultures endeavor to dictate the marriage patterns among other aspects. Cultures define the types of marriages such as monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry. On the economical aspect, cultures dictate dowry, bride wealth, and service.

Limitations

Different societies have set different limitations on marriage. For example, some societies practice polygamy, especially African cultures whereas Westerners shun it and prefer monogamy. In the U.S., partners cannot enter into a new marriage arrangement without coming to a close on the previous one.

Love and marriage in America

A majority of Americans believe that love occurs as the foundation of marriage. Love occurs as a vital stimulus in fostering lifelong commitment and companionship between partners. Unlike the old days, today, financial stability occurs as a factor of consideration in marriages. Reasons also attuned include having children, financial stability, companionship, and lifetime commitment.

Stages of Marriage

The five stages of marriage include the following:

I. The romance stage: entails courtship and may last for periods between two months and two years. The romance builds in this stage as partners focus on commonalities and either partner cannot get over the other.

II. The disillusionment stage: It marks the stage where reality dawns in the lives of the partners. At this stage, partners start to realize each other's flaws and shortcomings.

III. The power struggle stage: Shortcomings and flaws of partners may intensify at this stage as partners may start to pull away from one another.

IV. The stability stage: The stage depicts reconciliation where couples resolve most of their differences to reach a common ground.

V. The commitment stage: In this stage, partners have a clear notion of which their partners are their faults and weaknesses. Formal commitment in the form of marriage ensues at this point.

Apply why family is an important institution

Family leads to procreation that reciprocates to care, provision, and love attuned to children. Families share happiness among the members: this is essential during times of sorrow. From a Biblical perspective, the family was ordained by God thereby central to His plans for the lives of its people.

Role of power in marriage

Power dictates several aspects in the marriage setting including how family function, management of finances, parental practices, educational and occupational chores, amongst other aspects. In a marriage setting, power governs marital relationships, duties, and relationships of the partners.

Identify important historical forms and family institutions

Families have existed for a long time as they form the basis of procreation and bringing individuals into the society. Vital family institutions include nuclear families, single-parent families, foster families, never-married families, extended families, cross-generational families, and same-sex families. Out of these, nuclear and extended families occur as the prominent forms of a family setup.

Identify the change in the form of family

Families can change due to factors such as divorce, legal separation, the death of an eligible family member, and the end of a domestic partnership (Brown & Lin, 2012). All these factors may lead to single-parenthood creating single parent families from a nuclear one or other forms of families (Vespa & Painter II, 2011).

Identify key patterns

Single life: It depicts a solitude statue in which one is not married or in a relationship.