The Changing American Family

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that the definition of "family" is an ever-changing concept in society. The writer declares that the family is arguably the central focus of American culture and society, and an integral part of the metaphorical American Dream. In this paper, the writer examines how the typical American family has undergone many changes in recent decades. The writer concludes that although means, averages and majorities can be calculated from statistical data, interpretation of such data on a non-numerical basis certainly reveals that there is not a single family mold that can be shared by a majority of Americans and there is essentially no "typical" American family.

From the Paper:

"A large percentage of society may once have defined the family as beginning with the marriage of the will-be-mother and will-be-father. However, single-parent families, non-married parents, divorced couples, remarried couples, and same-sex couples are all major parts of the family makeup today, and the traditional/ideal family structure of thirty years ago is certainly the minority today. In fact, between the 1970s and the 1990s, there was a significant rise in the number of adults who have never been married at all, going from fifteen percent to twenty-three percent. A snapshot of the majority of adults thirty years ago would show that about seventy-five percent of American adults were married, while in the late 1990s only slightly over half of American adults were married. This change is due to the fact that people are delaying marriage longer by about five years on average, divorce rates have increased significantly, and people are slower to remarry after getting divorced or being widowed. Today, cohabitation, or living together as a couple before marriage, is actually quite normal."

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