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Title: Divergent Paths of American Families
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2013
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Abstract: For a very long time, a typical American family consisted of a working husband, a stay-at-home wife, and children. This traditional family was portrayed in popular TV dramas and sitcoms during the 1950s and 1960s, such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver and represented what an ideal family looked like. Over time, especially since the 1970s, American families have been undergoing fundamental changes. The so-called traditional family is now much less common; the transformation of marriage as a social institution means that young adults today have many more options about partnering and parenting (Cherlin 2004). Some young Americans delay marriage and others forgo marriage altogether (Lichter and Qian 2004; McLanahan and Casper 1995). Unmarried cohabitation, which is typically a short-lived living arrangement, has emerged to be the initial coresidential choice among most young men and women. Marriage is no longer till death do us apart for all because divorce and separation have become commonplace. Over the life course, individuals experience more cohabitations, remarriages, and relationship disruptions (Cherlin 2004).
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Authors: Qian, Zhenchao
Publisher: Brown University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage, Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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