Assignment 7: Divorce

1. The article I chose is called How are the Children of Divorce Doing? by Donald T. Saposnek. It first discusses the information found about divorce from an article found in Time Magazine called Does Divorce Hurt Kids?. The data from the two authors of that article are mentioned and it is explained how both authors came to different conclusions about children of divorce. One of the researchers concluded that a minority of children have permanent scars which can linger into adulthood and the other researcher was able to give statistics to back up her findings. Wallerstein's study used a small sample of children who were individually interviewed. Hetherington on the other hand studied the objective records of several thousand children and then based her findings on statistically analyzed groups. The article then goes into explaining the various reasons as to what can impact how a child deals with divorce. In order to fully understand how a child is effected by divorce there need to be various questions asked and then predictions can be made.

2. The main statistic that the article examines is the fact that 25% of children from divorce do have serious social, emotional, or psychological problems. In families that are in tact there, only 10% of children suffer from these same issues. The majority of children of divorce (75-80%) show very little long-term damage. Within two years of the divorce the children are doing better and 70% of divorced parents are living happier than before. The chapter by Rutter examines in more depth the research of Hetherington. "There is a comparative rate of distress among children: while 10% of children have behavioral or school related issues, 20-25% of children from divorced families have these problems. Then again there are also 80% of children who do not suffer any problems. The information provided from Hetherington and the article match up because they both show that about 25% of children exhibit distress from a divorce. What Hetherington saw most in her studies was the resilience of children of divorce.

3. The overall results of the research seem very accurate and useful. They are the results of studies from long periods of time and I think the families observed had to go through many trials and tribulations for the research to come to the right conclusions. After reading the text, I can see that Hetherington and Wallerstein's findings were not just thrown into an article because they are mentioned more in depth in Rutter's reading.

4. I do not think there can be any improvements made to the research. It was extremely thorough and large numbers of people were tested in order to get the most accurate results. Both of the researchers spent 25-30 years examining the families and although they came to different conclusions, I think the research was conclusive.

Assignment 6: Marriage

1. One example of the ancient marriages that stood out to me was from Tibet. In these marriages brothers shared one wife. It is currently still happening in southwestern China where people live in sibling clusters rather than in couples. Groups of brothers and sisters together raise children conceived by the women during evening rendevous with visitors. This is different from the "one man, one woman" idea of marriage because there is no set person that does work. It is also not a relationship between only a man and a woman, but one woman and many men or the other way around. I do not feel that a marriage actually exists when there are that many people involved. It is more about sex for the people of Tibet than love and happiness.

2. I think postponing marriage has become most likely between poor and middle class couples who want to establish a career and become somewhat settled before beginning a new life with someone else. These couples want to make sure that they are situated for themselves before starting over with someone new. There is also this fear that their partner will change for the worst once marriage becomes an option. According to the text, "With poor women there is a fear of economic dependence both within a marriage and in the event it should end." There is also a need to have economic success for a lot of people before entering into marriage.

I was able to find a clip of the wedding reception, but not the actual wedding. Some of the traditions that were portrayed in this clip were:
1. The bride wearing a white dress.
2. A reception after the wedding ceremony.
3. The wedding party sits together at the front of the room.
4. A toast is given by the best man and maid of honor.
5. The bride throwing the wedding bouquet.

The tradition that I chose to research was the bride throwing the bouquet at the wedding reception. The idea of throwing the bouquet was started in the 14th century and considered good luck. It originally began with the single women grabbing at the bride's gown in order to gain pieces of the "good luck." An alternative form was created when the bouquet and garter were thrown. It is said that the woman who catches the bouquet will be the next to marry. I would definitely keep this tradition when I get married. One thing I read was that women have a disposable bouquet to throw so they can preserve the real bouquet. This is something I would consider doing when I eventually get married.

(Source: http://www.hudsonvalleyweddings.com/guide/customs.htm)