Choua Yang - Soc 111 - Family Quiz Submission

Choua Yang

580 words

 

Family Quiz

 

"Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006" (314 words)

 

            This study attempts to see if marital happiness is dependent on gender and race, specifically looking at white husbands, white wives, black husbands, and black wives. To answer this question, the study relies on data collected from the General Social Survey between 1973 and 2006. The measurement of marital happiness, the dependent variable, is based off a question that asks how married respondents generally feel about their marriage, whether they are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. The study made sure the respondents were unique and not married to each other. Along with race and gender, the independent variables included work status, divorced or not, if there are children under 18 currently living in the home, employment status of spouse, age, education, income, and religiosity. To see trends, there was a grouping of the data into decades.

            What the study found was that marital happiness was highest for white husbands, followed by white wives and black husbands, and ending with black wives with the lowest happiness. The trends also showed that marital happiness has steadily declined over the years for white husbands, white wives, and black husbands; however, surprisingly, black wives are becoming much happier in their marriages, and this occurred between the 1990s and 2000s. Many explanations were given for these findings. One explanation is that the average decline in the marital happiness of male husbands (white and black) is due to increases in unemployment (decreases in employment). Because of this and the increasing number of women in the workforce, male husbands are beginning to feel less important in the marriage. Although white wives' happiness has also declined, possibly due to having house duties on top of work, the explanation for the increase in marital happiness of black wives, possibly due to their enjoyed employment status, requires further research. Regardless, there is a convergence of marital happiness among all four groups.

 

"The Independence of Young Adults and the Rise of Interracial and Same-Sex Unions" (266 words)

 

            Using microdata from the US Census, the authors tested to see if the increasing rates of interracial and same-sex unions was due to young adults and their social independence. To measure independence, geographic mobility was used as a proxy. Geographic mobility was based on whether someone moved from their original state or community. One hypothesis was that parental and community pressure may push individuals to relocate to new and usually urban environments to pursue interracial and same-sex relationships.

            The findings show that geographic mobility was highest for same-sex, interracial, cohabiting couples. As young adults exert their independence and move away, the rate of interracial and same-sex unions increase. In addition, these findings suggest that large urban centers provide individuals with a higher chance to meet other races and pursue non-traditional relationships. Also, they are more liberal and accepting when compared to rural communities. The study also found that higher education was a predictor of interracial and same-sex unions because as young adults moved away for college, they were able to explore new relationships outside of their parents' influence. Again, this relates back to geographic mobility; the physical distance provided for the necessary social distance for these non-traditional unions to flourish. However, as time passes and acceptance of these unions increases, geographic mobility decreases (people don't have to move away to form such unions because their communities are already more accepting of them). The authors did note that the study relied on the US Census, which had only recently added these new categories of race/ethnicity and unions; therefore, further studies must be completed to validate these findings.

Family Quiz

Jessica Helm Family Quiz

Jessica Helm 401

            The two articles Explaining Race and Ethnic Variation in Marriage: Directions for Future Research and Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006 both discuss marriage with an emphasizes on race. Both articles discuss the effects of gender and race and the influence those independent variables have of marriage. Research that was done to better understand the American trends and variation within marriages, and what can be done to explain American marriages.

            Explaining Race and Ethnic Variation in Marriage: Directions for Future Research provides new ways of looking at race trends of marriages. Although marriage is not as financially secure as it used to be, the article explains that a couple financial situation is not the main source in marriage variation. The article suggests new explanations for the marriage variation patterns, for example institutional influences impacts marriage and an explanation for race and marriage trends differs between the social classes.

            Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006 uses the data from the General Social Survey (GSS) from 1973-2006 it discusses effect of gender and race on martial happiness, a total of 24,455 married participants were interviewed. The study suggested that White husbands (41% of people interviewed) are the happiest in their marriage, on the other side of the spectrum Black wives (4.6%)are the least happy. Although black wives were the least happy their position on the spectrum has been steadily increasing in recent years suggesting that Black wives are becoming happier, while other group remained in the same positon or even a slight decrease. The study also stated that the happiest marriages are between people who are 75 years or older.                

            Explaining Race and Ethnic Variation in Marriage: Directions for Future Research explains many theories however there is no data to confirm the information. In Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006 when discussing race the authors grouped all other races other than White and Black, in one group ignoring other races and their marriage trends.

            In conclusion, both of the articles are very interesting they provide an outlook on the statistics of marriage, influences on marriages based on race/ethnicity. Marital happiness differs between race and gender, there still is a sizable gap between White and Black martial happiness. There are many explanations, old and new, for the variation of race in marriages that suggest many factors can influence marriages. 

Parinav Kanwar, Sociology 111 Family Quiz

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Parinav Kanwar, 455  words

Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006

This research article focused on studying happiness among married couples along a time span. This article used General Social Survey data. The data was randomly drawn and included English speakers living in non-institutional setting in United States. The dependent variable for the study was martial happiness. The responses were measured from very happy, pretty happy and not too happy. The independent variable of the study was a special variable used as a measure of social location such as race particularly white and blacks. Another variable was work status, age of the child in home, employment status, age, education, income, religiosity. The results indicate that white husbands had higher level of martial happiness and Black women had lowest level of martial happiness. It was found that males reported higher happiness than females. However, the level of black women has been experiencing an increase in happiness level. The results could be attribute that White have higher power, stats and importance from their workforce participation which could have resulted in these data trends.

Black/White Interracial Marriage Trends, 1850-2000" Journal of Family History

This research studied the first partners of women and husbands across many different racial lines. The study used 1995 data from National Survey of Family Growth, of 10, 847 women. The sample was nationally representative of the United States population. The independent variables of the study were racial and ethnic group including mixed race, parent's education, religious affiliation, nativity born place, geography, factors affecting marriage timing such as birth cohort etc. The dependent variable of the study was first partner different race for men and first husband different race. It was found out that Non-Hispanic Asian, Hispanic whites and Hispanic Asian Indian have higher odd of having interracial interaction relationship compared to non-Hispanic white. Non-Hispanic blacks do not differ significantly from non-Hispanic white's women from having interracial first partners. The results could be due to multiple factors like race group, impact of region of birth and proficiency in English and parent's education.

The two articles differ in significant way. The first article studied the happiness level among blacks and whites whereas the second article focused on interracial marriages among various groups. The first research article was limited as it did not include several groups such as Asian, Hispanic American Indian in the research study. The sample the first study was large it included about 24,455 people whereas the second study only had about 10,847 people but a nationally represented sample which the first study lacked. It should be noted that the level of the happiness recorded in first study could also depend on other factors such as domestic violence, abuse cases etc. and could be affected by response bias. AN important factor to consider in the second study is the economic status level of individual. 

SOC 111 (MonWedFri 10AM) - Marriage and Family Quiz Response - Alexander Ray Salmeron

Alexander Ray Salmeron - 570 words (without titles)

This week I read two articles, "Recent Changes in the Trends of Teen Birth Rates, 1981–2006" by Phyllis A. Wingo, Ruben A. Smith, Heather D. Tevendale, and Cynthia Ferré and "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006" by Mamadi Corra, Shannon K. Carter, J. Scott Carter, and David Knox. Both articles deal with the topic of marriage and family issues.

In "Recent Changes in the Trends of Teen Birth Rates, 1981–2006", Phyllis A. Wingo, Ruben A. Smith, Heather D. Tevendale, and Cynthia attempt to assess the hyperactive imprint of race and gender on marital happiness over the course of nearly four decades. Data from this study was provided by the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS provided researchers with a sample of English-speaking U.S. citizens over the age of 18. The data observed derived from the years between 1973 and 2006. A single GSS questionnaire question(including responses) which prompted respondents to describe their marriage served as the dependent variable of this study. Answers such as "I do not know" were not used as measurable responses. Linear regression models were calculated and observed. A social location measure distinguished four groups including White husbands, White wives, Black husbands, and Black wives. Other independent variables included employment status, divorce rates, total number of children in household, religion, age, employment status of spouse, education level of respondents. Age was categorized as a continuous variable and was dispersed into six age ranges (from ages 18-74). Employment status was categorized as an ordinal variable. Findings of this study show that the main groups reporting outstanding happy marriages were all Whites and Black husbands. The groups who reported unsuccessful marriages were Black spouses.

In "Recent Changes in a Trend of Teen Birth Rates, 1981-2006", Phyllis A. Wingo, Rubén A. Smith, Heather D. Tecendelle, and Cynthia Ferré attempt to identify repetitive trends in annual teen birth rates by observing demographics. Researchers examined every birth from the years 1981-2006. Only U.S. residents and individuals within the 10-20 year old range were observed. Data was gathered from the branch of National Vital Statistics System within the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. The core variables of the study included race, education level, marital status, political party, and age of the teenage mothers observed. The racial backgrounds observed included White, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic Blacks, non-Hispanic Whites, and Hispanics. Birth certificates were analyzed in order to obtain the race and origin of birth givers. The birth certificates displayed that race and origin were mutually exclusive for all racial backgrounds except Hispanics. Joinpoint regression analysis allowed researchers to observe changing trends in birth rates over the course of four decades (1970-2000's). Trends were identified by annual percentage changes (APC). The education level of each mother was obtained only by states which used the 1989 model of the U.S. birth certificate in 2006. Birth rates were defined as the number of live births per 1,000 females. Findings show that the top number of live births happened in 1990 with over 530,000 births. The lowest number of of live births happened in 2003 with 420,000 births. There was a vast decline in teenage birth rates declined from 1973 to 2003, with an APC of 8.03% for 10-14 year olds. There was also a decline in tonnage birth rates from 1991 to 2004, with an APC of 2.37% for 18-19 year olds. Whites and a Pacific Islanders within the 18-19 year old age range also saw a decline throughout the years. The only race group which saw an increase in teenage birth rates were Hispanics.

Katerina Davila Family Quiz

Katerina Davila

Word Count 401

In the article Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006, it focuses on the attitudes and opinions people have about how happy their marriage is. The Methods used to conduct this was by surveying married individuals through the GSS. They only focus on two races in this survey, white and black, as well as separated by sex, husbands and wives. They also considered factors such as age, work status, if they have been divorced, and if they have children. The finding of the survey show that White husbands show the most marital happiness apposed to all of other interviewees and Black wives showed the least marital happiness. This could be because men can sometimes see themselves as being superior and they deserve to be happy while the wife does the cleaning and taking care of the children. The race aspect of it could be that White's have greater opportunity for better jobs which lead to more money which can lead to a happy life. Black's may already live hard live and being a wife is just more responsibility put on her shoulders. Their are some other factors that are significant to why someone may be happier in their marriage like the more they work and if there are children at home. 

In the next article Black/White Interracial Marriage Trends, 1850-2000"  Journal of Family History, we learn about the pattern for interracial marriage between Blacks and Whites. The methods used to find out how many interracial marriages there have been was a small scale Census survey over a long period of time. We see rises and falls in these kinds of marriages that corresponds to times where things like Jim Crow law were made. We see that different factors play an important key to the peak and low seasons of interracial marriage. Education, year, where you were born, sex, and where you lives were the factors that we look at. The findings show us that the year and what was going on during that time played the most important role in interracial marriage. After the Emancipation of slavery there was a decrease in people of different races wanted to be around someone of a different race must less marry them. It wasn't until the 1940s when interracial marriages were more common to find. The sex of the husband and wife also changed during the time they are in. After the 1960's these marriages usually consist of Black males and White females. 

Caitlynn Toste Marriage Quiz

Caitlynn Toste, Word Count:468

This week's topic was Marriage and Family. The first article I read for this topic was "Trends in marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 10973 to 2006" this was the required article for the week and was an analysis to assess the interactive impact of race and gender on marital happiness over time. This analysis was composed of data from a General Social Survey or GSSS between 1973 and 2006. The data compared the marital happiness of four subgroups; white husbands, white wives, black husbands, black wives. The participants for this survey were randomly drawn nationally representative sample of English speaking adults with an age of eighteen or older and were living in constitutional settings in the United States. The dependent variables used in this study was the question, Taken things all together, how would you describe your marriage. This question could have the following answer; very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. The independent variables that were used were; social location measure, delineating the four groups, work status, divorced or not, have a child under 18 currently living in the household, spouse employment status, age, education, income, religion. Work status was treated as an ordinal variable indicating varying levels of work such as full-time, part-time, or unemployed. Within this study there were 24,455 married respondents where 11,606 were husbands, 41.4% being white and 4.2% being black and 12,849 were wives, 46% being white and 4.2% being black, and the remain 3.8% of respondents were categorized as other races. They found that white husbands generally reported higher levels of marital happiness, and black husbands and wives had consistently lower levels of marital happiness than white counterparts. Overall the findings indicated that race and gender both have independent and statistically significant effects and further research is needed to verify the causes of change in marital happiness within black and white husbands and wives.

            The second article that I read for this week's Marriage and Family topic was "Are Same-Sex and Single Adoptive Parents More Likely to Adopt Transracially? A National Analysis of Race, Family Structure, and the Adoption Marketplace". This article looked at the different types of households that were used for adoptive households.  This study looked at a sample of 63,681 adoptive households, these households were white married, single, divorced, and same sex couples to see what the significance was between the relationship status and choosing a transracial child to adopt. They used a bases of family dynamic and race of the adoptive families. The study found that most transracial children were adopted by the more "untraditional" families like same-sex couples and single parents whereas white families generally are more likely to adopt Hispanic or Asian children. These findings showed us that there is a significant difference in family units that affect even adoption selection by a "market force".

family quiz

 

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

Cristian Rodriguez

Cristian Rodriguez 571 words

The first article was Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006, where the data that was collected was from the General Social Survey, in order to see the type of impact that has been made on marriage when it comes to race and gender. This study was split into four different groups, white husbands, black husbands, white wives, and black wives. At the beginning of the study, around the 70s, it was reported that married women are more likely to be unhappy with their marriage as well as having emotional problems than men who are married and women who are single. After women began to enter the workforce more, it seems that more issues have arisen, such as the added pressure of having to go home after work and having to do housework. Although there has been an increase in husbands sharing some of the responsibility, it has yet to be significant enough to reduce the strain on the woman, since the wives still perform a disproportionate amount of housework compared to the husband. This type of responsibility that women have taken also did not fare well for men, since at the beginning of the study, men were more happy with their marriages. After the increase of women in the workforce, there was a decline in male happiness with their marriages, which could be because, since the 1970s, there has been declining wages, underemployment as well as wives contributing more to the households, husbands seem to be losing their grip on being the dominant group. Another factor that has been considered is race, where blacks have a totally different view on their marriage as opposed to whites, where black wives are the least happy. Black marriages are reported to have much less marital happiness as opposed to whites, and this could be for the lack of economic opportunities that blacks have. Black women have the biggest effect on marriage happiness though, considering they have had higher employment, even more than white wives, as well as being the ones to look for a suitable partner, thus lowering the marriage rate altogether.

                The second article was Do Highly Paid, Highly Skilled Women Experience the Largest Motherhood Penalty? This article explores the effect that childbearing may have on women, and which factors may affect the penalty most; skill, wage, race? The data that was collected from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, from 1979 to 2010. The data showed that white women have been seen to have the biggest disadvantage when having a child, especially since white women are also the most highly skilled and highest paid. The possible reasoning behind this observation may be that white women lose work time because they either leave or only work part-time to take care of the child. As a result, these women lose out on any kind of possible experience as well as possible lowering of wages. The case is different when it comes to black women, where they see less penalties based on skill or wage. This may be because of the fact that white women get higher paying jobs with higher skill requirements than black women, which in turn may lead to white women essentially having more to lose than black women. Even after this penalty that white women face, they are still usually better off than black women because they will have the cushion of possibly either being married to a man who earns a lot as well, or they still earn more in general regardless of the penalty they take. 

family quiz

Megan Dudley soc 111 family quiz

Megan Dudley, 460 words

The article entitled, "Race, Ethnicity, and the Changing Context of Childbearing in the United States"  basically shows that overtime there has been a large decrease in  child bearing particularly in the  Unites States. This is consistent when looking at different age groups across the board. There really is only some variation when looking at the older age groups. Generally, in the U.S. younger people are having significantly less children than possibly in prior years, because they want to have a stable job as well as income before having children. When looking at families, there is still a substantial difference among ethnicities. For example there is still a large gap between whites and blacks having babies before the age of twenty. Fertilely rate is twice as high in black and hispanic women than white women. There is also a big difference in marries hispanic and white women increasing their child bearing rates in both races. There is also a change in people living together and having aa child without being married. In both ethnicity, white and hispanic, have increased. The authors looked at possible explanations of why this is occurring including things like contraceptive use, economic disadvantages, availability of birth control, relationships, etc. 

  The next article discusses more about marriage. The article, "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006" really emphasized the question of "How would you describe your marriage?" with answers including: Not too happy, happy, etc. The authors looked at a general social survey done during the years 2000-2006.  The authors ultimately looked at subjects' race and gender, work status, whether they have been divorced, whether they have kids in the home that are under eighteen. They also looked at religion, education, age, income, spouse income, as well as the year the survey was conducted.this study shows that white husbands are the overall most happy in their marriages, or that they have high rates of happiness in their marriages. In other words, they are satisfied, or content. The pattern follows with white wives below the white husbands, next would be black husbands, followed by black wives, being at the low end of the happy scale. There is a small decrease overtime, people are becoming less happy throughout the years. This excludes black wives, as they are becoming more happy. Essentially the results are starting to even each other out. Black husbands, white wives, and white husbands generally get less happy with balances the black wives becoming increasingly more happy. The authors analyze that race, gender, work status,and education proved to be very important in the explanation of why certain people are more happy in their marriages than others.Usually, if you are unemployed you are happier, also children often can make impacts on marriages and make it harder to work out issues, as well as religion can have an affect.

Family Quiz

This week the topic to dig deeper in and see how races effect was families. One of the articles I chose was, Are Same-Sex and Single Adoptive Parents More Likely to Adopt Transracially? A National Analysis of Race, Family Structure, and the Adoption Marketplace. This study looked over a sample of 63,681 adoptive households. These households were white married, single, divorced, and same sex couples to see if there was a significance between relationship status and choosing a transracial child to adopt. They based it off of a reading on child adoption to see if family dynamics and race of families are taken into consideration in the pairing within the adoption process. This study found that the more "untraditional" family setting such as same-sex couples and single parents are the most likely to adopt a transracial child. Transracial meaning a child who is not white. Although white families generally are more likely to adopt Hispanic or Asian children, overall white single and same-sex parents are the most likely to adopt an African American child. The findings showed how significant different family units are affected even in adoption selection by "market forces". The second article I read for this week was titled, "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race". This article was to measure marital happiness over time in regards to race and gender. They compared the happiness between four groups; white husbands, white wives, black husbands, and black wives. In order to evaluate the study they had a random sample of 24,455 English speaking married adults to take a survey asking questions that took answers of levels of happiness, such as very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. Within these questions they were able to find out many other factors in these recipients lives such as age, education, income, and spouse occupation all things that can factor into a couple's happiness. When looking at the breakdown of the respondents there was a much higher percentage of white opposed to black. They found that blacks overall were less happy than the white couples. In the mean white husbands showed to have the highest level of marital happiness. Sadly on the other hand they found that black wives showed the lowest level of marital happiness. The findings showed that both race and gender played a part in the significance of marital happiness. They hope to see in other studies maybe the reasonings behind the data found from this survey, but the researchers are sure that over time the findings from this survey's results will change not only by race but also by gender because of the natural changes in nature and structure of marriages.

Ashley Meneses: 444

Alexis Abdulian

498

            The first article is titled "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race 1973 to 2006" by Mamadi Corra, Shannon K. Carter, J. Scott Carter, and David Knox. The data used in the study was from the General Social Survey. The surveys were conducted from 1972 to 1994 and from 1973 to 2006. The dependent variable in this study is a question about how the person views their marriage. The responses they could give were not too happy, pretty happy, or very happy. They got a score depending on what their response was. The independent variables of the study were social location measure, employment, divorced or not divorced, whether the person has a child under 18, age, education, income, and religion/how religious someone is. Their study compares the marriage of whites versus blacks. The first figure shows that both white wives and white husbands reported a higher happiness level with their marriage compared to black husbands and wives. White husbands had the highest happiness rate, followed by white wives. Black husbands also reported more happiness than their wives. The first table shows that if they have a higher work status and have a child in their home that the status of marital happiness is a lot lower. Those who had higher incomes, educated spouses, and went to church often had a high level of marital happiness. The 75-and-older age group reported high marital happiness, and the highest marital happiness age group was 18-24. They concluded that race and gender have a high effect on marital happiness.

            The second article is titled "A Path Toward Interracial Marriage: Women's First Partners and Husbands across Racial Lines" by Rosalind Berkowitz King. This research was done using the data form the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth. The sample was of women from the ages of 15-44. They selected the race groups that had a minimum of 100 people observed. The races used were: White, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic American Indian/Alaskan Native, Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, and Non-Hispanic White. For those who responded that they were mixed race they received a 1, and those who said they weren't received a 0. They were asked about their first sex partner's race and their first husband's race. Other variables were parent's education, religious affiliation, how well they know English, and nativity. Age was another factor looked at, as well as geography. There are two dependent variables focused on in this study. The first variable was if their first partner was of a different race than they are. The second was if their first husband was a different race than they are. Non-Hispanic White women are one of the highest rates to marry within their own race according to the article. They also found that women that had college-educated parents are almost equally interracially married and never married, 30% and 31%. Those who married their first partner are two years younger than those women who married within their race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Corra, M., Carter, S. K., Carter, J. S., & Knox, D. (2009). Trends in marital happiness by gender and race, 1973 to 2006. Journal of Family Issues,30(10), 1379-1404.

King, R., & Bratter, J. (2007). A PATH TOWARD INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE: Women's First Partners and Husbands across Racial Lines. Sociological Quarterly, 48(2), 343-369.

Savanna Pacifico

Word Count: 498

Soc 111 MWF 10_10:50 am

Family

In the article "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender & Race, 1973 to 2006", a team of researchers, Corra, Carter S., Carter J., and Knox, wanted to find out what kind of an impact gender and race would have on couple's marital statuses from the years 1973 to 2006 (Corra, Carter J., Carter S., & Knox, 2009). They gathered their data through the General Social Survey. While the research team focuses much of their attention on the race and gender of their participant they also found that church attendance, income as well as education was also a contributing factor in marital happiness through time (Corra, Carter J., Carter S., & Knox, 2009). Their result showed that white husbands reported the most happiness in their marriage compared to white wives and black wives and husbands. The black wives described the lowest reports of marital happiness. From the beginning of this study in 1973 to the conclusion of this study in 2006 the black wives' responses of happiness significantly increased, narrowing the gap between all the genders and races of participants. Whereas white wives' responses of marital happiness showed a progressive decrease from 1970 to the 2000's (Corra, Carter J., Carter S., & Knox, 2009). My perspective of white wives reporting a decrease in marital happiness may be greatly influenced by historical events that have occurred between 1970's to 2000's. Looking back on America, white women were generally confined to the household. It was believed that their duty was to their husband, and if their husbands were happy then they were too. Much has changed since then, women strive for independence and are more likely to speak their minds. I would assume that a woman this day and age is more open to addressing the imperfections in their marriage than they would have 20 years ago, but only additional research can accurately prove this.

Furthering the research on race and marriage, in their article "A Path Toward Interracial Marriage: Women First Partners and Husbands Across Racial Lines", researchers Rosalind King, and Jennifer Bratter, wanted to discover the relationship between the race of women's first sexual partner as well as the race of their future husbands (King & Bratter, 2007). In doing so, King, and Bratter gathered their data through the National Survey of Family Growth. Responses from 9,216 women ages 15-44 were used in this study (King & Bratter, 2007). They examined the female participant's race, religious affiliation, parent's education, and region of birth to help determine the potential influence on their marital partners' race. They found that Non-Hispanic Asian, Hispanic white, Hispanic American Indian women we more likely to have intimate interracial relationships, whereas Non-Hispanic white and Non-Hispanic black women were not. NHB women were more likely to marry the same race as their first sexual partner, but least likely to intermarry. Overall, they found that those who interracially married had experienced other sexual partners, whereas those who married their first sexual partner were least likely to intermarry. The idea behind this research is that women who have sex with someone of a different race share an accepting perception on race and international relationship, and would be more acceptable to the idea of themselves being in an interracial marriage (King & Bratter, 2007). 

Jessica Vang

Jessica Vang Words: 378

One of the article I choose was "Black/White Interracial Marriage Trends." In this article the methods I found was that the author uses a 5 percent sample from the latest census and with that he identifies the marriages within the household. Marriage license were not a must, so it was difficult to identify each marriage or trace the marriages. On table 1 you can see age limit are separated and identify by the year. Out of the census sample you can see in 1850 about 1 percent of the sample has about 6,775 only 4 were interracial marriage. Compare that to 1920 we can see same percentage sample of 35,969, 14 were interracial marriage. Now compare that to 2000 the sample percentage raised to 5 percent and about 203,018, over 3,570 are interracial marriage which is a total difference from the 1850 to 2000. This is only the age range of 20 to 30 years of age we are talking about. Overall, we can see that the large sample size has a very small number of interracial couples.

Another article I choose was the "Hispanic Families: Stability and Change." In this article I found that they focus on the three issues that focuses on their analysis. Hispanic origin, Hispanic subgroups, and changes over time. One of the issue is the shift of self-identification for the determination of Hispanic descent. Another issue is the changes over time in the birthrates for Hispanics. In 1980 in 22 states, 90 percent has an origin of Hispanic mother birth certificate. As we can see on Table 1, the last column shows a percentage of 1980-2000 in early marriage of 20-24 that has been declining in all groups, including the subgroups of Hispanics. Overall the Hispanics experienced weak declines in fertility in the teen years over the past two decades than any other groups. Then as we proceed to the 2000s there are high teen birthrates for Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, according to the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth that possibility they're going to give birth before the age of 20 for Hispanics. In conclusion Hispanic families in the United States have changed throughout the year and there are more subgroups that helps identify more than just Hispanics. 

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Jessica Vang

Sara Greenlee

Family Quiz

The required article this week, was entitled, "Trends in Marital Happiness by Gender and Race, 1973 to 2006" by Mamadi Corra, Shannon K. Carter, J. Scott Carter, and David Knox. This article evaluates marital happiness from 1973 to 2006, and whether or not gender and race are big determinants in how happy married couples are. The methods used to evaluate marital happiness included looking at data from the General Social Survey, ranging from the years 1973 to 2006. All data surveyed 18 or older, English speaking participants in the United States. The dependent variable included asking participants to describe their marriage, with responses for the question being very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. The independent variable being that of participants' genders and races, specifically looking at White husbands and wives and, Black husbands and wives. As for the results of this article, the authors concluded that males are happiest in their marriages, while Black wives are the unhappiest. The authors also found if participants have these factors in their marriage, their happiness levels are highest: high incomes, highly educated, and attend church frequently. As for the article of my choosing, I chose to evaluate, "Whom Do Immigrants Marry? Emerging Patterns of Intermarriage and Integration in the United States" by Daniel T. Lichter, Zhenchao Qian, and Dmitry Tu.

"Whom Do Immigrants Marry? Emerging Patterns of Intermarriage and Integration in the United States" evaluates the whom exactly do immigrants marry, specifically looking at the United States, and its patterns of intermarriage and integration. To evaluate who immigrants marry, the authors of this article looked at data from the ACS, ranging from the years 2008-2012, specifically looking at 86, 124 native and immigrant couples in that time frame. The results of this article being that marriages between U.S. natives and immigrants has increased over time, with gender and race playing a key part in this. An example of this would be that most native born Asian men marrying Asian women, whereas most native born Black men marry outside of their race. For women, Blacks chose to marry foreign Blacks, while native born Hispanic men were more likely than native born Black men to marry White women.  Overall, it was concluded that in today's society, a large share of U.S. marriages results in marrying immigrants, roughly one in six.