What Does Cherlin Argue Is The Most Distinctive Trait About American Family Patterns?

The first eight chapters we reviewed from the book Public and Private Families: An Introduction gives us a foundation in comparing and studying the family from a sociologist’s view. Written by Andrew J Cherlin, a Sociology Professor at Johns Hopkins University. As a class we discussed several key points taken from these chapters and reflected how these concepts pertain to our life whether it be our family directly or observations of other family dynamics. I found Cherlin’s first chapters to be easy to follow and pertinent to the study, he goes into detail regarding his views and offered several suggestive ways to research and study in depth more if the reader so chose to do.

This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.

The statistics for divorce in the 1990's suggest that nearly sixty percent of marriages end in divorce. Given this startling figure, the assumption can be made that many children will experience some effects caused by the life-changing event called divorce. What is it exactly about divorce that causes negative consequences for these children? In what ways will these children be effected? Will these effects show outwardly? I will attempt to uncover some of the complexities surrounding these psychological questions in the following text. The unsettling fact is: young children of divorced parents face great psychological challenges due to the environmental conditions and changes associated with divorce (Wolchik and Karoly 45).

The effects of divorce on the American culture are immense. Social scientists have been studying these effects for many years now. The studies are continuing to confirm that the climbing rate of divorce in the American culture is hurting the society and also frequently devastating the lives of many American children. There are many areas in which divorce has a negative effect in the life of a child or an adult. Many of these effects also directly correlate to the effect on a society. However, there is hope. Although divorce is being more widely recognized as being harmful to both our culture and to the individuals involved, there are many ways that we as a culture can seek to reduce this harm and attain our goal of being a culture

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

Single- parent families are characterized in several different ways. These include single- parenthood due to the following: divorce, as a result of death, individual choice (unwed pregnancy, adoption), or types of temporary work-related situations, such as military deployment (Gladding, 2015). Regardless of what leads to the family being restructured, the hardships and stressors that the family faces during this time are quite similar. Every aspect of the family system tends to change, which includes but is not limited to income, housing, parenting styles and relationships with family

This study used a national sample to examine whether there are patterns of postdivoce families. Specifically, attention was focused on whether children of families who had more characteristics of a “good divorce” could be identified empirically. Their exploratory analysis included data from 13,017 households in the United States. Their data also consisted of interviews and surveys with parents, along with interviews with children. The authors found partial support for the good divorce hypothesis. Children with families with a good divorce had fewer behavioral problem, however young children and adolescents with a good divorce did not differ in self-esteem, school grades, liking school, substance use, life satisfaction, substance use, early sexual activity, number of sexual partners, cohabiting or marrying as a teenager, and closeness to mothers.

Amid this period, as is understood, separation rates expanded (Cherlin 1992), as did the commonness of nonmarital cohabitation, which is less steady than marriage (Bumpass and Lu 2000). Additionally, cohabitation and marriage give off an impression of being more precarious in the United States than in most other created nations; and a moderately high rate of American kids experience moves into single-guardian families and stepfamilies (Andersson, 2002; Heuveline, Timberlake and Furstenberg

In recent decades the family institution has undergone a dramatic transformation focusing on increased divorce rates, cohabitation rates, and the number of children raised in step and single marital families (Amato, 2000; Bumpass & Lu, 2000; Graefe & Lichter, 1999). Due to the increase of divorce rates children move more frequently and deal with additional family transitions throughout their childhood (Brown, 2006). As these changes slowly increase, about 40% of kids who are born to wedded, two-biological- parent families have a higher chance of parental divorce prior to reaching adulthood(Amato,2000). In addition, these children will likely experience a multitude of family disruptions and transitions as parents decide to remarry and progress with new partners. The family atmospheres during these times are incredibly detrimental to the growth and development of these children (Sun& Li, 2009). Research studies show that parental divorce can compromise educational success for their children. Children in two-parent families have noticeably higher test scores than children who are in single parent families and also had lower chances of graduating from high school (Sun & Li, 2001). One of the rationalizations for the academic difficulty in divorced

Each and every day a child somewhere in the world is experiencing major changes within their family. One of those major changes is divorce or separation of parents. Divorce is “the action or an instance of legally dissolving a marriage”(Webster, 2011 p1). Today’s reality shows that couples only have one in two odds of remaining together. “ The U.S. Census bureau – involved in research about counseling children of divorce- estimating that approximately 50% of all American children born in 1982 lived in a single-parent homes sometime during their first 18 years. Mostly are due to divorce”(Children of Divorce, 2008 p.1). The rapid increase in divorce rates is a factor that has contributed to the large decline of the typical family. “Over 1

For the sake of discussion, let us agree that by family relationships, Stinson and Jones are referring to the traditional family relationships of two spouses committed to a lifelong, monogamous, heterosexual marriage and their children. Stinson and Jones say that children are dependent on these “families” for their well-being and successful transition to adulthood yet the traditional family is in serious danger.

Divorce is a plague that is destroying numerous families across the United States of America. Sadly, when husbands and wives divorce, the children are often caught directly in the middle. Throughout the years divorce has been becoming more and more common. In the 1920's it was a rare find to know a person whom had been divorced, today it is a rarity not to know of one who has been, or will be divorced. Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike.

According to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau information, the number of children raised in single-parent households continues to rise. Children with two parents in the home, earning two incomes, tend to have better financial and educational advantages. The effects of a single-parent home on a child’s behavior can be far-reaching and impact several areas of life in a negative or positive way. In the United States, the effects of single-parent family life on children fall into two categories: (1) those attributed to the lower socioeconomic status of single parents and (2) the short-term consequences of divorce that moderate over time. Four factors are predictive of U.S. children's adjustment to the divorce of their parents: the passage of time, the quality of the children's relationship with their parent, the level of conflict between parents, and the economic standing of the children's family. In the first few years after a divorce, the children have higher rates of antisocial behavior, aggression, anxiety, and school problems than children in two-parent families. However, some of these problems may be credited to a decrease in available resources and adult supervision; many of the adverse effects disappear when there is adequate supervision, income, and stability in social networks.

The ideal American family was transformed in the 19th century in large part due to the great changes taking place in the American society. Many family groups fit this changing mold while some did not. In this essay I will show how this concept of the ideal American family changed. I will also try to explain which groups of Americans followed this concept and why.