1950年以来美国家庭模式的变化及成因.

1950年以来美国家庭模式的变化及成因

A Study on the Causes of the Changes in American Families Since the 1950s

[Abstract] In the latter half of the twentieth century, great changes took place in America families. The bread-winner-homemaker family, which was popular in 1950s, no longer predominated in the United States, and the number of single-parent family, unmarried cohabit family and mixed family increased continuously. Meanwhile, divorce rate increased to a great extent, birth rate decreased noticeably and cohabitation rate has been climbing up. Thus someone believed that the America families were declining. Others thought that the family type of bread-winner-homemaker of the 1950s should be rebuilt. This paper points out that the nuclear family prevailing in the 1950s was only a special phenomenon in a special historic period. Its decline did not indicate the death of the family itself. And the American families turn to diversity in which none of the types predominates.

The paper aims to provide a general description of the changes in America family since the 1950s, emphasizing especially the changes in nuclear family and analyze the causes of the changes.

[Key Words] American nuclear family; family structure; family changes

1950年以来美国家庭模式的变化及成因浅析

[摘要] 20 世纪下半期,美国家庭发生了巨大变化,五十年代男主外,女主内的核心家庭模式不再占主导地位,而单亲家庭,未婚同居家庭,混合家庭的数量却在不断上升。同时,离婚率大幅度上升,人口出生率下降,未婚同居的比率一直在攀升……。一些人就此认为美国家庭正在走向衰亡,另一些人认为应该重建20 世纪50 年代男主外女主内的核心家庭模式。而本文则认为五十年代核心家庭模式的普遍流行只是特殊历史时期的特殊现象,它的衰落并不代表家庭本身的消亡。美国家庭的趋势是走向多样化而并非一种模式占主导。

本文旨在描述1950年以来美国家庭变化的总体情况,重点描述核心家庭的变化,同时分析其变化的成因。

[关键词] 美国核心家庭;家庭模式;家庭变化

1. Introduction

In the second half of the twentieth century, a diverse range of family types has replaced the breadwinner-homemaker family that once predominated in the United States in the 1950s. Significant trends occurred to the family life in the U.S. Divorce is much more common. Young adults are postponing marriage and often living with a partner prior to marrying. A growing number of children are born to mothers who are not married. And many more married women are working outside the home. Some people predict that the family is in the process of disappearing entirely. Others lament recent family changes and think that family pattern was rooted in unusual historical period, and its decline cannot be seen as a sign of disappearance of the family.

A family is indeed in the midst of a major institutional transformation, and then the current level of family instability is temporary. The main trend of the American family is toward diversification of family forms rather than a single standard form.

The paper aims to provide a general description of the changes in American family since the 1950s and emphasize especially the changes in nuclear family and analyze the causes of the changes.

2. Definition of family

“A family is defin ed as consisting of two or more persons, related by blood, marriage, or adoption, living in the same household.‖ [1] P112 But to understand families and the specific relations they represent, we must r ecognize that the term ―family‖ is socially constructed; that is the meaning of family changes in response to a wide variety of social and cultural conditions. To reflect this understanding, we often refer to families

in the plural. Multiple meanings of family are reflected in the historical and cross-cultural record. For example, in ancient Greece, ―family‖ referred to the household economy, including the land, house, and servants. In medieval Europe, peasants who lived on feudal estates were considered pa rt of the lord‘s ―family‖ and he was called their

―father‖ even though they were not related to him by blood. In some cultures, non-kid adults are treated as family members and act as co-parents toward children. Similarly, in contemporary Native American families, the terms used to describe family relationships are more meaningful than narrow English usage would imply: a ―grandmother‖ may actually be a child‘s aunt or grandaunt, and ―cousin‖ may have various meaning not necessarily based on birth and marria ge. However, sometimes we also make generalizations about families by referring to ―the family‖ as a social institution—many expectations and activities embedded in a larger number of social, economic, legal, political and cultural practices. In this paper, it places the term ―family‖, as a social institution in the latter half of the 20th century in the United States.

3. Changes of American family

“A careful look at what did and did not happen to America families in the postwar period would be helpful for us to avoid any misleading notions about the trends and to examine its underlying causes.‖ [2] P20

3.1 A changing nuclear family

A nuclear family, in which father acted as breadwinner and mother as homemaker, consists of a conjugal couple and their children. In the1950s, it was very prevalent. But now it has evolved. The paper shows the changes on the marriage, divorce and birthrate in American family since the1950s.

3.1.1 Marriage and divorce

One of the key changes in American family is that marriage rates have fallen significantly since 1950 despite a small ascent from 1960 to 1970. It went up moderately in 1980 and then went down in the following years. As the marriage rate went down, the divorce rose, with its peak in the late 1970s.

The rising trend in the divorces has been going on for a long time since the 1950s, and we see a slow drop-off in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1980s and early 1990s, five of ten marriages ended in divorce. In the coming decade, we can expect continual high levels of divorce, perhaps dipping down a bit so that four of ten marriages will dissolve.

Another significant change in family union formation process has been the postponement in marriage since the Baby Boom. Chart 1 shows the median age at marriage among American women and men over the past century.

As chart 1 shows, for women, age at marriage hovered around 21-22 years between 1890 and 1950, declined significantly during the Baby Boom, and began rising thereafter, reaching slightly over 25 years old in 2000. Patterns for men are somewhat different, with a general decline in age at marriage between 1890 and the Baby Boom. Like women, however, age at marriage for men began rising after the Baby Boom, and in the year 2000, was higher than at any time in the past century (nearly 27.

Chart 1[3] p35

3.1.2The shift in marital and non-marital fertility

Between 1960 and 1990, marital fertility rates—births to married women between the ages of 15 and 44—declined sharply, while non-marital fertility rates—births to unmarried women of similar ages—increased gradually. Together, these married and

non-married trends represented a reduction in over all fertility while increasing the proportion of children born outside of marriage. Beginning in the mid-1970s, marital

fertility rates stopped declining, non-marital fertility rates begin to rise, and the age at first marriage continued to rise. After 1975, the rise in the illegitimacy ratio was due to increase in non-marital fertility as well as to increase in the number of women at risk of having a non-marital birth. chart 2[4] p20

Changes in marital and non-marital fertility altered family life in two major ways: they reduced the prevalence of parenthood overall and they increased the proportion of families headed by single mothers.

3.1.3 Cohabitation

At the same time marriage is being postponed, unmarried cohabitation has increased. Chart 3 shows the number of opposite-sex cohabiting couple households. In 1960, the number was estimated at less than half a million; at the 2000 Census, there were nearly 5 million such households.

Cohabitation, that is living with someone in a sexual union without a formal marriage has become increasingly common. Three million households in 1991 had cohabiting couples, nearly 60 percent of who were under age 35.

“Cohabitation has increased six folds since 1970wh en only 500,000 households had cohabiting couples. Only opposite-sex couples are counted in these figures, so these data underestimate the extent of cohabitation in the United States today ‖ [5] P27. About one-third of all cohabiting, opposite-sex couples in 1991 had children under age 15 present in their homes, but far more cohabiting couples are parents. Where once non-marital birth was a relatively minor phenomenon, it has now reached co nsiderable proportions. ―By one estimate, almost half of cohabiting couples have children either living with them or living elsewhere with a custodial parent.‖ [6] P913 Cohabitation is often seen as prelude to marriage. Only 5 percent of women ages 15 to 44 were cohabiting with a male partner in 1988, and one-third had done so at some time in the past. One-quarter of white women, one-quarter of Hispanic women, and nearly one-third of black women had lived with

their first husband before marriage. Among single persons who plan to cohabit in the future, more than 80 percent said that cohabiting allows couples to make sure they are compatible before getting married. ―At least one of the partners expects the arrangements to result in marriage in 90 percent of cohabitations. Respondents may be overly optimistic, however;

55 percent of first cohabiting unions of white women and 42 percent of those of black women resulted in marriage‖ [7] P487.Chart 3[8] p60

It is important to note that the rise in cohabitation has helped to offset much of the fall in marriage rates. If we expand o ur notion of ―marriage‖ to include legal marriage and cohabitation, there has been little decline in the institution of marriage in the United States.

3.2 Variants of family structure

The new family system we are now seeing differs from the older one in several ways.

With the increase in premarital sex, cohabitation, and non- marital birth, a good deal of what used to be reserved for legal marriage is now taking place outside of it. These illegalized sexual and parental activities are not chaotic but exhibit a pattern that has social significance.

Cohabitation could actually be perceived as conventional marriage. Cohabitation then should be seen as new variants of family structure rather than phenomena that have nothing to do with a family system. At the same time, we should bear in mind that the conventional nuclear family is still here. Many households still have a father, mother and minor children living together, although this makes up only about one fourth of all households—a significant drop from 1970 (chart 4. As chart 4 shows, the family structure in the United States is becoming more complicated because there are different kinds of families and household types existing at the same time. For example, since 1970 the rate

of households composed of married couples with children has decreased, whereas rate of households composed of single persons and single parents has increased.

3.2.1 Married couples with children

Two–parent families declined substantially in the period 1960 to 1998, from 91 percent to 73 percent. Not all of the 73 percent of family households with children in 1998 had two biological parents in the household. Using data that allow identification of biological relationships, we can estimates that 12 percent of children who live in two-parent families are actually not living with both biological parents and thin that only 88 percent of the two-parent family households with children include both

chart 4[9] p133

biologica l parents, and 64 percent of family households with children are ―intact‖ two-parent families. The trend suggests the decrease of the two-parent family.

3.2.2 Married couples without children

As chart 4 shows, married couples without children has become the most common type of household, with the stable proportion of all households from 1970 to 2000. And that forty-two percent of all families in 1991 consisted of married couples without children. Among married couples without children in 1991, about 15 percent of the women were under age 35, suggesting a possible delay in childbearing. Indeed, over half of all married women younger than 35 who were childless in 1990 reported that they expect to have a child at some point in the future.

3.2.3 Single-parent families

The one-parent family is usually described as an "incomplete" nuclear family, and there is a general assumption that it is socially undesirable. However, with the rising divorce rate, this family type has also become increasingly common in the white middle

class. Chart 4 shows that single parent household keeps increasing through 1970 to 2000, although there is stagnation in the

1990s.

Women were five times more likely than men to be raising a family alone in 1991, and African-Americans were almost three times more likely than whites to be single parents. Single-parent families represented with children, one in three Hispanic families with children, and one in six white families with children. Changing patterns of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and the rise in births to unmarried women have contributed to the growth of single-parent families. Demographer Larry Bumpass writes: ―About half of today‘s young children will spend some time in a single-parent family, most as a consequence of divorce… Fu rthermore, this is not just simply a transitional phase between a first and second marriage. The majority will reside in a mother-only family for the remainder of their childhood‖. [10] P 485

3.2.4 Blended family

The family form created in a remarriage that involves one or more children from the previous marriage of either spouse is called a reconstituted family or a blended family. Each has lost a spouse through divorce or death. One or both of them have children from their previous marriage. They form a new stepfamily that includes children from one or both of their first households. Because of constant flow in and out between divorce and marriage in the modern U.S. society, there is going to be a fair number of people in single parent families or families of remarriage. In the United States, remarriage has been the traditional answe r to many of the problems faced by single parents. ―Remarriage improves the financial situation of a divorced mother and provides another adult to share the household tasks and responsibilities. In addition, remarrying is a way to end the loneliness and is olation many divorced persons experience.‖ [11] P80