Spring 2027

Marriage and Family

An introduction to the sociology of the family, covering demographic, economic, and historical aspects of union formation, childrearing, stratification, and intergenerational support.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Allison Daminger

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Elena Hight

A previous student reported that grading was lenient and the professor worked with students, though lectures were sometimes long.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Apply social science concepts to understand the family and marriage as social institutions.

  • Describe the diversity and complexity of contemporary families and changes in these institutions over time.

  • Summarize changes over time in attitudes and beliefs about marriage and family.

  • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of common methodological approaches to studying families.

  • Apply existing social research to examine social policies that impact families.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
SOC 120

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.53 GPA, 70.7% A/AB (n=92 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.67 GPA, 82.6% A/AB (n=92 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.58 GPA, 74.2% A/AB (n=93 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALLISON DAMINGER is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BERT N ADAMS is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Fall 2012. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CAMERON MACDONALD is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTINE SCHWARTZ is recorded teaching in Spring 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GINA LONGO is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JILL RICHARDSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARCIA CARLSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2014, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MIRIAM BARCUS is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SARAH FRANK is recorded teaching in Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 2000
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Sarah Frank

Past students described the course as engaging and recommended it, noting that attending class made other coursework easier.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.45 GPA, 70.3% A/AB (n=246 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.47 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.21 GPA, 46.9% A/AB (n=177 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Elena Hight

A previous student reported that grading was lenient and the professor worked with students, though lectures were sometimes long.

Past student reviews · Cameron MacDonald

One student found exams fair and derived directly from lectures, with essays provided in advance.

Topics

  • Union formation and dissolution
  • Childbearing and childrearing
  • Social stratification and the family
  • Intergenerational support
  • Social consequences of family behaviors

Skills

  • Applying social science concepts to understand family and marriage as social institutions.
  • Applying social research to examine social policies impacting families.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.25 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
SOC 120 · Spring 2027

Marriage and Family

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:900:017527",
    "course_id": "SOC 120",
    "course_uid": "course_98ade9d46c01304a303c64be",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "017527",
    "source_subject_id": "900",
    "title": "Marriage and Family",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c3bdaa0b0d748a0f86620877655daea9c28fdbbe20ca039679043354d3ddfde6",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}