Social change and the American family

Major changes affecting American family life must be seen in historical and international perspective. Most are shared with other industrialized societies and are rooted in our past and culture. This brief presentation provides an overview with respect to family instability, unmarried sex, unmarried childbearing, cohabitation, and single-parent families. Changes across these behavioral domains are seen as mutually reinforcing in creating diverse family experience and family types. At the same time, even given important differences on the average, the various family types overlap considerably with respect to both their nature and consequences.