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Title: The Transformation of American Family Structure

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 1994

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Abstract: This essay reexamines the revisionist argument about the history of the family in light of new evidence about long-run changes in American family structure. In particular, I use the new Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, a national database incorporating consistent individual-level data from the U.S. Census over the period 1850 to 1990. I also report findings from the only eighteenth-century American census of sufficient size and quality to permit a consistent analysis of family composition, the 1776 census of Maryland. The evidence suggests that the revisionist interpretation needs revising. In fact, a form of extended family structure was dominant in nineteenth-century America and quite probably in the eighteenth century as well. The American preference for extended family structure disappeared in the twentieth century, and I...offer a brief analysis of some explanations for this change.

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Authors: Ruggles, Steven

Periodical (Full): American Historical Review

Issue: 1

Volume: 99

Pages: 103-128

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Fertility and Mortality

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