Family has always been very important for every individual. The main principles of the family are stable and cannot be changed; however, many aspects of family relationships are constantly changing in view of the large variety of social, economic, and other reasons.
Typical modern family is not the same as it once was. The recent five decades have seen a significant divorce rise, substitution of marriage by the cohabitation, “blended” families of either heterosexual or gay design, and born out of wedlock children (for example, over 50% of all children of African-American origin). It proves a change from the companion marriage ideal popularized at the beginning of 1920s to egalitarian relationships, enhanced freedom, and self-aspiration (Castelloe, 2011).
Over the XX century, the American economy’s transformation has made a significant change in the living standard. Growing affluence has been supported by an intergenerational co-residence decline for older people. The majority of older widows in 1900 lived with an adult son or daughter, while nowadays most of them reside alone ("Family - Social Changes Affecting Family Relationships", 2016).
Since the World War the Second, the economy of many countries, e.g. Japan and The U.S. has undergone a significant increase leading to a more affluent and richer lifestyle for all residents. However, the family has been, and is now, substantially shaken. The family grouping is not a self-evident institution now (Tadashi, n.d., p. 139). There are two main reasons for it.
The first one is that numerous family unit functions exist now outside the family. In the past, the unit of the family exercised all functions constituting a self-contained, tiny cosmos for the members. However, later in XX century, in Japan as well as in many other countries, functions that are economically productive have completely shifted to the factory or office, thus changing the family into a unit that is solely consuming. The family’s protective function, the responsibility of its members defending from social threats and natural dangers, has gone to the local communes and police. Similarly, functions of education are the schools’ domain now; functions of religion are performed by the religious groups that are institutionalized; functions of recreational are the responsibility of the leisure industry, and etc. (Tadashi, n.d., p. 139).
Another reason for the family’s changing role relates to its downsizing. The average before the war household’s size was five persons that has now been decreased to three. The single person households’ percentage is also growing (Tadashi, n.d., p. 139).
Childbearing postponement is a significant reason for the fertility rates’ decline. Larger contraceptives access has provided more adults with control over the births occurrence and timing. Due to the fact that women and men first want to realize themselves in the housing and labor markets, numerous individuals have decided to postpone the birth of children. The average age in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) at that women have a first child has grown to 28 (2008) from 24 (1970). The first childbirth average age of women is high, at only below 30 years old in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Spain and in the United Kingdom it is the highest (even though teenage motherhood is more spread in the U.K. in comparison with the other OECD states ("Families are changing", 2011, p. 21).
The women proportion that remains childless has grown recently. In most countries, a larger women proportion born in the 1960s are childless than those born in the 1950s, except for Norway, Mexico, the United States and Portugal, where the childlessness fall of less than 2% took place ("Families are changing", 2011, p. 22).
Nowadays a good level of education is important to a social and personal development of a child. Children’s compulsory education in most of the OECD states takes place at 5-15 years old. All countries of OECD have comprehensive systems of education ("Families are changing", 2011, p. 46).
Increasing divorce and falling marriage rates mean that less individuals are getting married, and most of those that do often get divorced. Thus, more kids experience family dissolution and are born out of marriage. The births outside marriage’s increase is also due partly to the non-traditional partnership forms’ increase, e.g. cohabitation. This form of partnership is getting very wide-spread among younger people as before potential marriage they cohabit as a marriage alternative. In general, changing patterns of partnership mean that now more kids live in reconstituted and sole-parent families ("Families are changing", 2011, p. 48).
Recently media have taken a role of a surrogate parent. The technologies proliferation, like video games, cell phones, and social networking has shifted the relation of children to their family members (Castelloe, 2011).
The increased number of two-income, dual career marriages has also changed household arrangements. More American women in 2010 were employed in comparison with men. Even though husbands have become more involved in caring of children, the largest part of parenting and housework still belongs to wives that means a balancing act between job responsibilities, spousal engagement, and care-giving demands (Castelloe, 2011).
Conclusions
As it is possible to see from the above information, family relationships have been changing during the last decades. It is obvious that the family ties have become less important for many individuals. There are changes in many aspects of family life, such as the age of marriage, having children, split of responsibilities between family members, care about older people, and etc.
References
Castelloe, M. (2011). Changes in the American Family. Psychology Today. Retrieved 26 June 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201104/changes-in-the-american-family
Families are changing. (2011). OECD, 21-48. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/47701118.pdf
Family - Social Changes Affecting Family Relationships. (2016). Medicine.jrank.org. Retrieved 26 June 2016, from http://medicine.jrank.org/pages/627/Family-Social-changes-affecting-family-relationships.html
Tadashi, I. CHANGES IN FAMILY RELATIONS REFLECTED IN THE DINING TABLE. THE FAMILY THEATER THEORY, 139. Retrieved from http://www.contemporary-japan.org/back_issues/japanstudien_4_symposium/JS4_Inoue.pdf
