The United States Census Bureau (2011) defines a family as a household that comprises at least one more individual who is related to the householder by way of marriage, birth or adoption. Based on this definition, a trend analysis of how the average American family has changed over the last five decades can be done. Since the 1960s, the benefits associated with having a couple raise a child from birth to adulthood no longer hold the same social and cultural values in the U.S. as they previously had. There has been an upsurge in the number of births to unmarried mothers, the prevalence of cohabitation, an increase in the rate of working mothers, and a rise in divorce, separation, remarriage, and repeated divorce in the country.
In today’s American society, there are more cases of intimate romantic affairs outside of marriage; marital commitments are no longer respected as they were before. What is more, youngsters’ lives have been transformed in other considerable ways that affect family life. There is a significant advancement in new entertainment and communication technologies infiltrating most childhoods. For some children, this implies watching too much television or playing endless video games. For others, the power of the internet has facilitated connectivity worldwide, allowing them to expand their horizons and social networks.
Since the 1960s, the mindset that perceived sex and childbearing only within the context of marriage has become ever more detached from the reality of today. The availability of safe and convenient contraception and legalization of abortion has minimized the risk of childbearing and the subsequent long-term obligation to parenting. Such developments reduced the consequences of premarital sex and, therefore, increased the likelihood of staying single. Rising income levels and the increasing financial independence of women has also contributed to delayed marriage and childbearing. Consequently, cohabitation has become frequent in the modern American society since it allows many couples to enjoy the benefits of co-residence per se, which include economies of scale in consumption.
Even with all of the above-discussed changes, it is surprising that the contemporary American family has not been destroyed; however, it has been fundamentally restructured. These days, the family structure has become less stable and more heterogeneous (Lundberg & Pollak, 2007). The perception of marriage as a lifetime commitment as well as childrearing is not a universal adult experience for all married couples anymore. The gender specialization that typified the traditional family of the 1960s now appears to be almost nonexistent. Consequently, the economic role of the family unit continued to decline as both the labor market and the state government supplemented or changed more and more traditional family functions.
Social institutions that have existed for many years tend to change gradually if they do change at all (Pew Research Center, 2010). Nonetheless, things have not turned out that way with regards to marriage and family since the 1960s. Based on research conducted researchers over the past five decades, the basic structure of these age-old social institutions has transformed as quickly as at any other period in American history. Indeed, the modern-day American family has become weaker when compared to that of the 1960s. Male or female; youthful or old; married or not married; black, white or Hispanic, skewed majorities of Americans still remain committed to their families above all.
All in all, even though differences in political affiliations and religious beliefs may sometimes reshape Americans’ perception of what constitutes a family, these differences disappear when they are asked to evaluate the importance of family life. So as to strengthen the family, far-reaching education campaigns should be carried out across the country to sensitize Americans about the benefits of keeping the family a single, stable social unit.
References
Lundberg, S., & Pollak, R. A. (2007). The American family and family economics (2715). Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Pew Research Center. (2010). The Decline of marriage and rise of new families.
United States Census Bureau. (2011). Changing American households.
