{"id":2383,"date":"2019-02-06T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2019-02-05T11:48:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T17:48:46","slug":"cross-class-marriages-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2019\/02\/06\/cross-class-marriages-and-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Class Marriages and Families"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo of a wedding cake topper, where the bride is dragging the groom. Photo by Erich Ferdinand, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Valentine\u2019s Day quickly approaches, many couples will be deciding — and in some cases, disputing \u00a0— how best to celebrate their love and commitment to one another. Because people\u2019s beliefs about marriage and family are shaped by social class conditions early in life, most people marry partners with income, education, and occupation levels similar to their own. While partnering with someone from a similar upbringing cannot prevent all marital strife, it may head off some of the challenges that are confronted by mixed-class couples. Such relationships exemplify the influence of class on experiences and understandings of family. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu explains how the life-long influences of class background can affect what couples value in terms of money, work, and household chores. Because of these divergent values, partners raised in different social classes may argue about marriage and the family, even if they rarely recognize their upbringing as the source of their contention. For instance, research indicates that partners from middle-class backgrounds heavily emphasize long-term planning and saving while their upwardly mobile partners may have a more \u201chands off\u201d approach to finances and careers, taking advantage of opportunities when they came along but not proactively seeking them out.<\/h5>\n