The Most Common Type of Family for Children in the United States Is the _____.

10.1 Overview of the Family

Learning Objectives

1. Describe why many children throughout history accept non lived in a nuclear family unit.
2. Understand the status of the nuclear family unit in the United States since the colonial menses.
3. Describe the major marriage and family arrangements in the United states of america today.

A family is a grouping of two or more people who are related by claret, marriage, adoption, or a common commitment and who care for ane some other. Defined in this way, the family unit is universal or nearly universal: Some class of the family has existed in every society, or well-nigh every lodge, that we know most (Starbuck, 2010). Yet it is also true that many types of families take existed, and the cross-cultural and historical record indicates that these dissimilar forms of the family can all "work": They provide practical and emotional support for their members and they socialize their children.

It is important to keep this concluding statement in mind, because Americans until the last few decades thought of only one type of family unit, and that is the nuclear family: A married heterosexual couple and their young children living by themselves under one roof. The nuclear family has existed in most societies with which scholars are familiar. An extended family, which consists of parents, their children, and other relatives, has a nuclear family at its cadre and was quite mutual in prehistoric societies. Many one-parent families brainstorm as (two-parent) nuclear families that dissolve upon divorce or separation or, more rarely, the expiry of i of the parents. In recent decades, 1-parent families accept become more mutual in the United States considering of divorce and births out of wedlock, merely they were actually very mutual throughout most of human being history considering many spouses died early in life and considering many babies were built-in out of marriage.

Although the nuclear family is a common family unit organisation today, historically many children lived with simply i parent because spouses died early and many babies were born out of wedlock.

Although many prehistoric societies featured nuclear families, a few societies studied by anthropologists have not had them. In these societies, a begetter does not live with a adult female afterwards she has his child and sees them either irregularly or not at all. Despite the absence of a father and the lack of a nuclear family, this type of family unit arrangement seems to accept worked well in these societies. In particular, children are cared for and grow up to be productive members of their societies (Smith, 1996).

These examples do not invalidate the fact that nuclear families are nearly universal. But they practice indicate that the functions of the nuclear family can be achieved through other family unit arrangements. If that is true, maybe the oft-cited business concern over the "breakdown" of the 1950s-mode nuclear family in modern America is at least somewhat undeserved. As indicated past the examples simply given, children tin can and do thrive without ii parents. To say this is meant neither to extol divorce, births out of union, and fatherless families nor to minimize the issues they may involve. Rather, it is meant simply to indicate that the nuclear family is not the only viable course of family system (Seccombe, 2012).

In fact, although nuclear families remain the norm in most societies, in exercise they are something of a historical rarity: Until virtually a century agone, many spouses died by their mid-forties, and many babies were born out of union. In medieval Europe, for case, people died early from disease, malnutrition, and other problems. One consequence of early mortality was that many children could await to outlive at least one of their parents and thus substantially were raised in one-parent families or in stepfamilies (Gottlieb, 1993).

During the American colonial period, dissimilar family types abounded, and the nuclear family unit was by no ways the merely type (Coontz, 1995). Nomadic Native American groups had relatively small nuclear families, while nonnomadic groups had larger extended families. Because nuclear families among African Americans slaves were difficult to achieve, slaves adjusted past developing extended families, adopting orphans, and taking in other people not related by claret or marriage. Many European parents of colonial children died because average life expectancy was only 45 years. The i-third to half of children who outlived at least one of their parents lived in stepfamilies or with just their surviving parent. Mothers were so busy working the land and doing other tasks that they devoted relatively picayune time to kid intendance, which instead was entrusted to older children or servants.

Moving much forrad in The states history, an of import alter in American families occurred during the 1940s after World War 2 ended. As men came habitation after serving in the military in Europe and Japan, books, magazines, and newspapers exhorted women to have babies, and babies they did have: People got married at younger ages and the birth charge per unit soared, resulting in the at present famous baby boom generation. Meanwhile, divorce rates dropped. The national economy thrived equally auto and other manufacturing plant jobs multiplied, and many families for the starting time time could dream of owning their own homes. Suburbs sprang up, and many families moved to them. Many families during the 1950s did indeed fit the Leave Information technology to Beaver model of the breadwinner-homemaker suburban nuclear family. Post-obit the Depression of the 1930s and the war of the 1940s, the 1950s seemed an almost idyllic decade.

Nonetheless, less than 60 per centum of American children during the 1950s lived in breadwinner-homemaker nuclear families. Moreover, many lived in poverty, as the poverty rate then was almost twice as loftier as it is today. Teenage pregnancy rates were about twice as loftier as today. Although not publicized dorsum so, alcoholism and violence in families were mutual. Historians have found that many women in this era were unhappy with their homemaker roles, Mrs. Cleaver (Beaver'southward mother) to the contrary, suffering from what Betty Friedan (1963) famously chosen the "feminine mystique."

During the 1960s and 1970s, women began to enter the labor force. They did so to increase their families' incomes and to achieve greater self-fulfillment. More than 60 percent of married women with children under 6 years of historic period are at present in the labor force, compared to less than 19 percent in 1960. At about the same time, divorce rates increased for several reasons that we examine later in this chapter. Changes in the American family had begun, and along with them various controversies and problems.

Wedlock and the Family in the United states Today

In the Us today, union remains an important institution. Merely about 27 percent of all adults (18 or older) have never been married, 56 per centum are currently married, ten percent are divorced, and 6 percent are widowed (see Effigy 10.1 "Marital Condition of the US Population 18 Years of Age or Older, 2010"). Thus 72 percent of American adults have been married, whether or not they are currently married. Considering more than half of the never-married people are nether xxx, it is fair to say that many of them will be getting married sometime in the futurity. When we look simply at people aged 45–54, about 87 percent are currently married or had been married at some point in their lives. In a 2010 poll, only 5 per centum of Americans nether age 30 said they did non want to become married (Luscombe, 2010). These figures all indicate that union continues to exist an important ideal in American life, even if non all marriages succeed. As one sociologist has said, "Getting married is a way to bear witness family unit and friends that you take a successful personal life. It'southward similar the ultimate merit badge" (Luscombe, 2010).

Although spousal relationship remains an important institution, two recent trends do suggest that its importance is failing for some segments of the population (Cohn, Passel, Wang, & Livingston, 2011). Beginning, although 71 percent of adults have been married, this figure represents a driblet from 85 pct in 1960. 2d, teaching profoundly affects whether we marry and stay married, and wedlock is less common among people without a college degree.

Effigy ten.1 Marital Condition of the US Population 18 Years of Age or Older, 2010

Source: Information from U.s. Census Agency. (2012). Statistical abstract of the United States: 2012. Washington, DC: United states of america Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://world wide web.demography.gov/compendia/statab.

Recent figures provide striking testify of this human relationship. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of college graduates are currently married, compared to less than half (47 percent) of high school graduates and loftier school dropouts combined. People with no more than than a loftier school degree are less likely than college graduates to marry at all, and they are more probable to get divorced, every bit nosotros shall discuss over again later, if they do ally.

This difference in marriage rates worsens the financial state of affairs that people with lower didactics already face. As i observer noted, "As wedlock increasingly becomes a phenomenon of the better-off and better-educated, the incomes of two-earner married couples diverge more from those of struggling single adults" (Marcus, 2011). One of the many consequences of this education gap in spousal relationship is that the children of one-parent households are less likely than those of two-parent households to graduate high school and to nourish college. In this manner, a parent'southward low education helps to perpetuate low didactics among the parent's children.

The United states Compared to Other Democracies

In several ways, the United States differs from other Western democracies in its view of wedlock and in its behavior involving marriage and other intimate relationships (Cherlin, 2010; Hull, Meier, & Ortyl, 2012). Kickoff, Americans place more accent than their Western counterparts on the ideal of romantic honey every bit a footing for marriage and other intimate relationships and on the cultural importance of wedlock. 2d, the United states of america has higher rates of wedlock than other Western nations. 3rd, the The states also has higher rates of divorce than other Western nations; for example, 42 percent of American marriages end in divorce after xv years, compared to but 8 per centum in Italy and Spain. Fourth, Americans are much more likely than other Western citizens to remarry once they are divorced, to cohabit in short-term relationships, and, in general, to move from one intimate relationship to some other, a practice chosen series monogamy. This do leads to instability that can take negative impacts on any children that may be involved and also on the adults involved.

Americans place more than emphasis than Europeans on the ideal of romantic honey as the basis for marriage. This accent helps account for why the U.s. has a higher divorce rate than many European nations.

The Usa accent on romantic dear helps account for its high rates of wedlock, divorce, and serial monogamy. It leads people to desire to be in an intimate relationship, marital or cohabiting. Then when couples get married because they are in dearest, many quickly find that passionate romantic honey tin quickly fade; because their expectations of romantic love were then high, they get more disenchanted once this happens and unhappy in their marriage. As sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin (2010, p. four) observes, "Americans are conflicted about lifelong marriage: they value the stability and security of marriage, simply they tend to believe that individuals who are unhappy with their marriages should exist allowed to cease them." Nevertheless, the ideal of romantic dearest persists fifty-fifty after divorce, leading to remarriage and/or other intimate relationships.

Children and Families

The The states has about 36 million families with children under xviii. About 70 percentage of these are married-couple families, while 30 percent (up from about fourteen percent in the 1950s) are one-parent families. Almost of these latter families are headed by the mother (encounter Figure x.2 "Family Households with Children under xviii Years of Age, 2010").

Figure 10.two Family Households with Children nether 18 Years of Age, 2010

Source: Data from US Census Bureau. (2012). Statistical abstract of the Us: 2012. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://world wide web.census.gov/compendia/statab.

The proportion of families with children under 18 that have just i parent varies significantly by race and ethnicity: Latino and African American families are more than likely than white and Asian American households to take only 1 parent (see Effigy 10.3 "Race, Ethnicity, and Per centum of Family Groups with But One Parent, 2010"). Similarly, whereas 30 percentage of all children practice not alive with both their biological parents, this effigy, too, varies by race and ethnicity: about 61 percent of African American children, xv percent of Asian children, 33 percent of Latino children, and 23 pct of non-Latino white children.

Figure x.3 Race, Ethnicity, and Percentage of Family unit Groups with Only Ane Parent, 2010

Source: Data from U.s. Census Bureau. (2012). Statistical abstruse of the United states of america: 2012. Washington, DC: Us Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://world wide web.census.gov/compendia/statab.

Nosotros will discuss several other issues affecting children afterwards in this chapter. Only earlier nosotros move on, it is worth noting that children, despite all the joy and fulfillment they so oft bring to parents, besides tend to reduce parents' emotional well-existence. As a recent review summarized the evidence, "Parents in the Us feel low and emotional distress more often than their childless developed counterparts. Parents of young children report far more depression, emotional distress and other negative emotions than not-parents, and parents of grown children take no ameliorate well-being than adults who never had children" (Simon, 2008, p. 41).

Children have these effects considering raising them tin be both stressful and expensive. Depending on household income, the boilerplate kid costs parents between $134,000 and $270,000 from birth until historic period 18. College education evidently tin cost tens of thousands of dollars beyond that. Robin Due west. Simon (2008) argues that American parents' stress would be reduced if the government provided improve and more affordable day intendance and after-school options, flexible work schedules, and tax credits for various parenting costs. She also thinks that the expectations Americans have of the joy of parenthood are unrealistically positive and that parental stress would be reduced if expectations became more realistic.

Key Takeaways

• Although the nuclear family has been very common, many children throughout history accept not lived in a nuclear family, in role because a parent would die at an early age.
• Near Americans somewhen marry. This fact means that marriage remains an of import ideal in American life, fifty-fifty if not all marriages succeed.
• Virtually thirty percentage of children live with only i parent, almost ever their mother.

For Your Review

1. Write a brief essay in which you depict the advantages and disadvantages of the 1950s-type nuclear family unit in which the father works outside the home and the mother stays at dwelling.
2. The text notes that about people eventually marry. In view of the fact that so many marriages end in divorce, why practice you lot call up that and then many people continue to marry?
3. Some of the children who live only with their mothers were born out of wedlock. Do you think the parents should have married for the sake of their child? Why or why not?

References

Cherlin, A. J. (2010). The matrimony-go-round: The land of marriage and the family in America today. New York, NY: Vintage.

Cohn, D., Passel J., Wang, Westward., & Livingston, G. (2011). Barely half of US adults are married—a record depression. Washington, DC: Pew Inquiry Center.

Coontz, S. (1995, summer). The fashion we weren't: The myth and reality of the "traditional" family unit. National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, 11–14.

Friedan, B. (1963). The feminine mystique. New York, NY: Westward. W. Norton.

Gottlieb, B. (1993). The family in the Western earth from the black death to the industrial age. New York, NY: Oxford University Printing.

Hull, 1000. E., Meier, A., & Ortyl, T. (2012). The changing landscape of love and matrimony. In D. Hartmann & C. Uggen (Eds.), The contexts reader (2nd ed., pp. 56–63). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Luscombe, B. (2010, November xviii). Who needs marriage? A changing institution. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032116,2032100.html.

Marcus, R. (2011, December 18). The marriage gap presents a existent cost. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://world wide web.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-matrimony-gap-presents-a-existent-toll/2011/12/16/gIQAz24DzO_story.html?hpid=z3.

Seccombe, K. (2012). Families and their social worlds (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Simon, R. W. (2008). The joys of parenthood, reconsidered. Contexts, 7(2), 40–45.

Smith, R. T. (1996). The matrifocal family: Power, pluralism, and politics. New York, NY: Routledge.

Starbuck, Yard. H. (2010). Families in context (2nd ed.). Bedrock, CO: Paradigm.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/10-1-overview-of-the-family/

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