Rocio Chavez

Rocio Chavez, 583 Words

Soc. 111

30 April 2017

                                                   Family Quiz

"Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race 1973-2006" By Mamadi Corra and Others

                In the article, it was found that Black wives and Black husbands are much more likely to have a lower level of marital happiness than White husbands and wives. The biggest contributor for this seemed to be a lack of economic opportunity for Black males. On the same note, the employment for Black women during the given years increased allowing more Black wives to contribute to their homes financially, but at the same time lessening the Black husband's sense of masculinity. Resulting in lower marital happiness levels. White working wives reported feeling less support in the home than Black wives. It seems that Black marriages have always shared household chores resulting in more equality for the women but hurting the male's sense of power. As for White husbands and wives, marital happiness was quite stable having higher a level of happiness. This was found to be the result of higher income and higher levels of education. A big contributor to lower marital happiness among White marriages was unequal household duties. White working wives reported feeling less support in the home than Black wives.

This article was based on previous researched conducted using the General Social Survey and The National Opinion Research Center observing trends from 1973 to 2006. One issue that I found with the overall article was that it only focused on Black and White respondents. It was an easier way to compare between two races but the research would have been more interesting if it involved other races as well.  Another factor that could have enhanced the credibility of the study would have been if the respondents were married to each other because they were not. Also, the respondent's answers were only observed if the answered if their marital happiness was "very happy," "pretty happy," or "not too happy".

 

"Recent Changes in the Trends of Teen Birth Rates, 1981-2006" By  Phyllis A. Wingo Ph. D and Others

An emphasis was put on Hispanic teen females from 1981-2006 throughout the study. After observing the collected data, it was determined that the year with the highest teenage pregnancy rates overall races was 1990. The races that were included were White, Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic origin.  Every other race group was compared to Hispanic teen rates and Hispanic teens had the highest statistical increase three times throughout the study. This peak was in the 18 and 19-year-old Hispanic females between the time frame of 1998-2006.  Another change that was found in the study was that the teen females continued to have children but the age of when it occurred increased by a couple of years and there were more first-time mothers rather than reoccurring births. In the end of the study, it was discovered that teen pregnancy rates for all observed races including those of Hispanic origin decreased substantially.

                The information used for this study was gathered from all teenage mother birth certificates from 1981-2006 using the National Vital Statistics System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Once this information was collected, it was also broken into three age groups of the mothers ranging from 10-20 years old. In addition, all females were residents of the U.S. The information held birth rates from all over the country by age, race, and by Hispanic origin.  A statistical method used for the study was measuring live births over 1,000 females from the specific race groups.