Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resources on your own before you bid. Main references come from Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017) and/or American Psychological Association (2014). Assignments should adhere to graduate-level writing and be free from writing errors. Please follow the instructions to get full credit. I need this completed by 03/22/2020 at 5pm.

Assignment – Week 4

Family Life-Cycle Stages

Although every individual experiences family life cycle transitions in unique ways, common challenges and experiences often arise at these transition periods. For example, many couples experience changes in their sexual relationship after they become parents. Likewise, adults’ understanding of what it means to have “positive” sexual functioning may differ at different stages in the family life cycle. It is important for counselors to pay attention to the unique needs of the individual clients they serve, while also keeping in mind these common challenges and experiences that may arise.

For this week’s Assignment, use the Sexuality in Adulthood Across the Family Life Cycle chart provided in this week’s Learning Resources to describe both:

· At least two common sexuality-related transitions or concerns at each stage.

· At least two examples of how research and theory characterize positive sexual functioning during each stage.

The family life-cycle stages you will consider for this assignment are:

· Single adulthood

· Committed, long-term relationships

· Becoming parents

· Divorce/relationship termination and remarriage/re-partnering

· Older adulthood

The Assignment (2- to 3-page paper):

For the five family life-cycle stages:

· Describe two common sexuality-related transitions or concerns at each stage.

· Provide two examples of how research and theory characterize positive sexual functioning during each stage.

· Briefly describe how you might intervene or use this information to assist clients.

Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Required Resources

· Course Text: Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

· Chapter 5, “Lifespan Development and Sexuality”

· Chapter 8, “Sexuality and Intimate Relationships”

· Article: Aalgaard, R. A., Bolen, R. M., & Nugent, W. R. (2016). A literature review of forgiveness as a beneficial intervention to increase relationship satisfaction in couples therapy. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(1), 46–55. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Brotto, L. A., Chivers, M. L., Millman, R. D., & Albert, A. (2016). Mindfulness-Based sex therapy improves genital-subjective arousal concordance in women with sexual desire/arousal difficulties. Archives Of Sexual Behavior, 45(8), 1907–1921. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Faircloth, C. (2015). Negotiating intimacy, equality, and sexuality in the transition to parenthood. SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 20(4). Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Handout: Sexuality in Adulthood Across the Family Life Cycle

©2019 Laureate Education, Inc.

Sexuality in Adulthood Across the Family Life Cycle COUN 6361/COUN 6361S: Human Sexuality

Family Life-Cycle Stage

At Least Two Common

Sexuality Related Transitions or Concerns

at This Stage

At Least Two Examples of How Research and Theory

Characterize Positive Sexual Functioning During This

Stage

How You Would

Intervene/Use This Information to Assist the

Family

Single Adulthood

Committed Long- Term Relationships

Becoming Parents

©2019 Laureate Education, Inc.

Divorce/Relationship Termination and Remarriage/Re- Partnering

Older Adulthood
1.1

1.2

2.1

Negotiating Intimacy, Equality and Sexuality in the Transition to Parenthood

by Charlotte Faircloth

University of Roehampton

Sociological Research Online, 20 (4), 3 DOI: 10.5153/sro.3705

Received: 9 Dec 2014 | Accepted: 12 Jun 2015 | Published: 30 Nov 2015

Abstract Whilst both ‘parenting’ and ‘intimacy’ have been explored extensively in recent social scientific research (for example, Lee et al 2014,Gabb and Silva 2011), their intersections in the context of family life remain curiously absent. This paper presents findings from on-going longitudinal research with parents in London, which investigates how the care of children, and particularly the feeding of infants, affects the parental couple’s ‘intimate’ relationship. In particular, as part of this special section, it looks at couples’ accounts of sex as they make the transition to parenthood, as a lens on the themes of gender, intimacy and equality. Far from being an easy relationship between them, as predicted by some scholars, this research shows that they are in fact, ‘uncomfortable bedfellows’.

Keywords: Parenting, Gender, Intimacy, Equality, Sex, Couples

Negotiating intimacy, equality and sexuality in the transition to parenthood Based on longitudinal work with new parents in London, this paper draws on research which investigates how the care of children, and particularly the feeding of infants, affects the parental couple’s intimate relationship. To that end, it brings together two (traditionally distinct) bodies of literature – one calling attention to a shift in British parenting culture towards a more ‘intensive’ and ‘child-centred’ form of care, the other, looking at changes to intimate relationships in an age of ‘reflexive modernisation’ and greater gender equality. Specifically, this paper focuses in on couples’ accounts of sex as they make the transition to parenthood, as a lens on the themes of gender, intimacy and equality.

Whilst intimacy itself can incorporate a range of different practices, as a vehicle for intimacy, sexual intercourse often serves as a barometer for couples in how they assess the quality of their relationship (Weeks 1995). In line with other papers in this special section, then, the research shows that far from being a straightforward correlation between gender equality and greater intimacy, (as predicted by Giddens et al 1992), the two are, in fact, ‘uncomfortable bedfellows’, particularly once couples become parents. The article briefly reviews the two bodies of literature, explains the policy context around parental leave and childcare in the UK, discusses the study methodology, and then presents findings, analysis and discussion by way of conclusion.

Theoretical background: Intimacy and parenting As Gabb and Silva (2011) note, the ‘conceptual challenge to researchers working in the field of family and relationship studies…is how to carry on building concepts and finding new methods to capture the vitality of personal relationships while keeping sight of the social contexts, patterns and practices of contemporary intimate life’ (1.1, 2011). Famously, work by Giddens (1992), Bauman (2005) Beck (1992) Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) and others has explored shifting patterns of intimacy in the contemporary age of ‘individualisation’. Broadly speaking, this body of work argued that, in the age of ‘reflexive modernisation’, there had been a shift away from traditional, patriarchal couple relationships, based on an inherent inequality between men and women, toward a more equitable, mutually fulfilling model, accompanied by the rise of a more ‘plastic’ sexuality in

http://www.socresonline.org.uk/20/4/3.html 1 30/11/2015

http://www.socresonline.org.uk/20/4/3/faircloth.html
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.5153%2Fsro.3705&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2015-11-30
2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

particular (Giddens 1992; this special section). Giddens argued that in the late twentieth century, in the place of traditional patterns of marriage, for example, individuals became more aware of the need for a fulfilling relationship, based on ‘confluent love’; one that is active and contingent. The ‘pure relationship’, which is not bound by traditional notions of duty and obligation, has come to depend, instead, on communication and negotiation. The implication of this work is both that greater equality leads to greater intimacy, and that this is a desirable aspiration for contemporary relationships.

Since this work was published, however, scholars working in the field of family and relationship studies have critiqued the model, arguing for a more nuanced perspective, grounded in the realities of everyday experience. Specifically, Gabb and Silva identify three main strands of thinking which have been particularly influential in shaping and reorienting contemporary UK family and relationship studies over the past 15 years, since the publication of Beck and Giddens’ work, including Morgan’s notion of ‘doing family’ as sets of expectations and obligations connected to kin relations (1996); Smart’s conception of ‘personal life’ beyond that of the family (2007); and Jamieson’s notion of intimacy defined as ‘any form of close association in which people acquire familiarity, that is shared detailed knowledge about each other’ (Jamieson 1998: 8).

The last of these is particularly relevant here, specifically as it relates to changes in the division of labour between couples once children arrive. For Jamieson, ‘[t]he majority of people in Euro-North American societies have lives which are sufficiently privileged to seek ‘good relationships’ which are not dominated by necessity. However [even then] most personal relationships include a mix of love, care, sharing, understanding and knowing, which involve a degree of relying on, needing or depending on the other, if not desperate necessity’ (1998: 174).

The intention here is to bring this perspective on intimacy to bear on the subject of parenting, my own area of research to date (Faircloth 2013). The underlying argument of that work was that there has been a significant shift in…