Current Family Trends & Start of Methodology

Lecture 1.1c Focus: Current Family Trends & Start of Methodology.
Announcements: Get to Know You Survey (available tomorrow, due before class next Thursday). First reading quiz today. All course materials for the first part of the course are now available.

Key Definitions: Discussed definitions of family.
Types of Family: Examined different types including family of Origin, family of Procreation, and Found/Chosen families.
Family Structure: Reviewed the concept of family structure.
Historical Change: Explored how families have changed in the U.S.
Dr. Gleason's Argument: Recalled Dr. Gleason's assertion about a fundamental bias present in every generation.

Practice Question: Families historically transitioned from being public-facing to private-facing.
Characteristics of Public Families (Pre-Industrial Revolution):
- Marriage was often strategically used to strengthen a family’s position and standing within the community.
- Children significantly contributed to the financial well-being and labor of the family unit.
- Men often followed in the professions of their fathers or other family members, maintaining craft or trade legacies.
- Family members generally remained physically close to home or within the geographical area where they grew up.
Characteristics of Private Families (Post-Industrial Revolution):
- Focus shifted to emotional bonds, companionship, and child-rearing within the household (affective individualism).
- Marriage became more about personal happiness and love, rather than economic or social alliances.
- Children became more of an emotional investment rather than economic contributors.
- Increased geographic mobility of families, often moving for work or opportunities, potentially weakening ties to extended family and local community.

Often idealized as a period (roughly 1950s-early 1960s) where the nuclear family was seen as the norm: a breadwinner father, a homemaker mother, and children. This ideal was largely promoted in media and policy.
Characterized by rising marriage rates, lower divorce rates, and relatively stable family structures, though this ideal often overlooked the complexities of diverse family forms and existing social inequalities.
This period reflected the peak influence of the private family ideal in public discourse, despite its limitations and the reality for many families who did not fit this mold.

Key Trends:
- Declining Marriage Rates: Fewer people are getting married, and those who do are marrying later in life, contributing to a historical shift in household composition.
- Rising Age at First Birth & Pregnancy Trends: Women are generally having children at older ages. This trend is linked to increased educational attainment, career focus, and access to family planning. There's also a declining overall fertility rate.
- Increase in Non-Marital Births: A growing proportion of children are born to unmarried parents, reflecting changing societal norms around cohabitation and single parenthood.
- Diverse Family Structures: An increasing variety of family forms including cohabiting couples, single-parent households, blended families, same-sex parent families, and multi-generational households.
- Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): Growing use of IVF, surrogacy, and other technologies are changing paths to parenthood and expanding family formation options.
- Changes in Family & Work Balance: More dual-earner households face challenges in balancing paid work with family responsibilities, leading to new dynamics in childcare and domestic labor distribution.