Middle Income Families

A family going through a divorce finds comfort on their families and friends. With their support and care, studies have shown that these stronger ties have helped in mitigating the effects of divorce on the family. For this last part, I will do a comparison of the contributions the middle-income and low-income families’ social networks. A divorce usually entails a lengthy process that requires economic and emotional resources. Lareau (2000) found that middle-income families have a higher chance of easily transitioning or going through a divorce because of their social networks (p. 748). A family that came from a middle-income class background have social networks that are similar to them and likewise with the lower-income families. Middle-income …show more content…
Another importance of a middle-income social network is that they are likely to have information regarding divorce, child custody or any legal process (Haythornthwaite, 1996, p. 324). Based from the findings stated above, children are the most vulnerable when a family is going through a divorce. The children often exhibit these negative behaviours in schools where they misbehave and act in unusual ways. Most middle-income families have connections in schools such as their children’s teachers and even counsellors. These social networks of the middle-income parents provide them with information about their child’s schooling and behaviour (Lareau, 1987, p. 81). In addition with this finding, Lareau (1987) also found that social networks of middle-income class provide the family with options outside school premise such as involving their children in community based organizations that will strengthen their social ties with others and their community (p. 82). According to Rook et al., (cited in Fingerman et al., 2015, p. 846), having stronger social support increases the likelihood of better psychosocial and physical