Changing Family Demographics

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how demographics for family units have been changing over the past decades in the United States. It shows that there are more single teenage mothers, more single-parent families due to divorce or illegitimacy, and lower-income family units. It explains that these changes are due to a more liberal society and welfare laws.

From the Paper:

"Move over Cleaver and Ozzie and Harriet families. It is a whole new world out there. In the 1950s, there may have been the typical family with mother, father and two children, but that is no longer the norm in 2003. In fact, according to a New York Times article, "for the first time, the number of nuclear families has dropped below 25 percent of American households." This is the result of a variety of factors: men and women delaying marriage and having children later in life or no children at all; more couples living alone after their children have left; an increase in the number of aging adults living at home; and especially the increase in the number of single-parent families, mostly headed by women."

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