About What Percentage of Total U.s. Households Are Made Up of Traditional Nuclear Families in 2011?

The combination of husband, wife, and children that 99.8 percentage of people in the Usa believe constitutes a family is not representative of 99.eight pct of U.S. families. Co-ordinate to 2010 census data, only 66 percent of children under seventeen years quondam live in a household with two married parents. This is a subtract from 77 pct in 1980 (U.S. Census 2011). This two-parent family structure is known as a nuclear family , referring to married parents and children equally the nucleus, or core, of the group. Recent years have seen a rise in variations of the nuclear family with the parents not being married. Iii percent of children live with two cohabiting parents (U.South. Demography 2011).

More than than ane quarter of U.Southward. children live in a single-parent household. (Photo courtesy of Ross Griff/flickr)

Unmarried Parents

Single-parent households are on the rise. In 2010, 27 percent of children lived with a single parent but, upwardly from 25 percentage in 2008. Of that 27 percent, 23 percent live with their mother and three percent live with their father. Ten per centum of children living with their single mother and 20 percentage of children living with their single begetter besides live with the cohabitating partner of their parent (for example, boyfriends or girlfriends).

Stepparents are an additional family element in two-parent homes. Amidst children living in two-parent households, 9 percent live with a biological or adoptive parent and a stepparent. The majority (lxx percent) of those children live with their biological female parent and a stepfather. Family construction has been shown to vary with the age of the child. Older children (fifteen to seventeen years quondam) are less likely to live with 2 parents than adolescent children (6 to fourteen years old) or young children (zero to five years old). Older children who do live with 2 parents are also more likely to live with stepparents (U.S. Census 2011).

In some family unit structures a parent is not present at all. In 2010, three 1000000 children (4 percentage of all children) lived with a guardian who was neither their biological nor adoptive parent. Of these children, 54 percent alive with grandparents, 21 percent live with other relatives, and 24 per centum alive with nonrelatives. This family unit construction is referred to as the extended family , and may include aunts, uncles, and cousins living in the aforementioned domicile. Foster parents business relationship for about a quarter of nonrelatives. The practice of grandparents interim as parents, whether alone or in combination with the child'south parent, is becoming widespread among today'south families (De Toledo and Brownish 1995). Nine pct of all children live with a grandparent, and in virtually half those cases, the grandparent maintains primary responsibleness for the kid (U.Due south. Demography 2011). A grandparent performance as the master care provider oft results from parental drug abuse, incarceration, or abandonment. Events like these tin can return the parent incapable of caring for his or her child.

Changes in the traditional family structure raise questions about how such societal shifts affect children. U.S. Demography statistics take long shown that children living in homes with both parents abound up with more financial and educational advantages than children who are raised in single-parent homes (U.S. Census 1997). Parental marital status seems to be a significant indicator of advancement in a child's life. Children living with a divorced parent typically have more than advantages than children living with a parent who never married; this is especially true of children who live with divorced fathers. This correlates with the statistic that never-married parents are typically younger, accept fewer years of schooling, and have lower incomes (U.Due south. Census 1997). Half dozen in ten children living with only their mother live about or below the poverty level. Of those being raised past unmarried mothers, 69 pct live in or near poverty compared to 45 per centum for divorced mothers (U.S. Census 1997). Though other factors such as age and education play a part in these differences, it can be inferred that marriage between parents is generally beneficial for children.

Cohabitation

Living together before or in lieu of marriage is a growing choice for many couples. Cohabitation, when a homo and woman alive together in a sexual relationship without being married, was expert by an estimated 7.five million people (11.5 percent of the population) in 2011, which shows an increase of xiii percent since 2009 (U.Due south. Census 2010). This surge in cohabitation is probable due to the decrease in social stigma pertaining to the practice. In a 2010 National Center for Health Statistics survey, only 38 percent of the 13,000-person sample thought that cohabitation negatively impacted society (Jayson 2010). Of those who cohabitate, the majority are non-Hispanic with no high school diploma or GED and grew upwards in a single-parent household (U.Due south. Census 2010).

Cohabiting couples may choose to alive together in an endeavor to spend more time together or to save money on living costs. Many couples view cohabitation every bit a "trial run" for marriage. Today, approximately 28 percent of men and women cohabited before their first marriage. By comparing, 18 percent of men and 23 pct of women married without ever cohabiting (U.Due south. Demography Agency 2010). The vast bulk of cohabiting relationships somewhen issue in marriage; just 15 percent of men and women cohabit simply and exercise not marry. About one half of cohabitors transition into marriage inside iii years (U.S. Census 2010).

While couples may use this time to "piece of work out the kinks" of a relationship earlier they wednesday, the most recent research has found that cohabitation has trivial effect on the success of a marriage. In fact, those who do non cohabite earlier marriage have slightly amend rates of remaining married for more 10 years (Jayson 2010). Cohabitation may contribute to the increment in the number of men and women who delay marriage. The median age for spousal relationship is the highest it has always been since the U.S. Census kept records—age xx-six for women and age twenty-eight for men (U.S. Census 2010).

As shown by this graph of marital status percentages amongst young adults, more young people are choosing to delay or opt out of wedlock. (U.Due south. Demography Bureau, 2000 Census and American Customs Survey)

Same-Sex Couples

The number of same-sex couples has grown significantly in the past decade. The U.Due south. Demography Bureau reported 594,000 same-sex activity couple households in the United states of america, a l percentage increase from 2000. This increment is a result of more coupling, the growing social acceptance of homosexuality, and a subsequent increase in willingness to report it. Nationally, same-sex couple households brand up 1 percent of the population, ranging from as little as 0.29 percent in Wyoming to 4.01 percentage in the District of Columbia (U.South. Census 2011). The 2010 U.Southward. Census, allowed aforementioned-sex activity couples to report as spouses regardless of whether their state legally recognized their relationship at the time. Nationally, 25 percentage of all same-sex households reported that they were spouses. On June 26, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the decision that any ban on same-sex marriage was a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.South. Constitution resulting in the legalization of aforementioned-sexual practice wedlock in all 50 states.

In terms of demographics, same-sexual activity couples are not very different from reverse-sex activity couples. Same-sex couple households have an average age of 52 and an boilerplate household income of $91,558; contrary-sex couple households accept an boilerplate age of 59 and an average household income of $95,075. Additionally, 31 pct of same-sex couples are raising children, not far from the 43 percentage of opposite-sexual activity couples (U.S. Census 2009). Of the children in aforementioned-sex couple households, 73 percent are biological children (of only 1 of the parents), 21 percent are adopted simply, and 6 percent are a combination of biological and adopted (U.S. Census 2009).

While in that location is some concern from socially conservative groups regarding the well-existence of children who grow up in aforementioned-sex households, research reports that same-sex parents are equally constructive as opposite-sex parents. In an analysis of 81 parenting studies, sociologists plant no quantifiable data to support the notion that opposite-sex parenting is any better than same-sex parenting. Children of lesbian couples, however, were shown to have slightly lower rates of behavioral problems and higher rates of self-esteem (Biblarz and Stacey 2010).

Staying Single

Gay or straight, a new pick for many people in the Us is simply to stay single. In 2010, in that location were 99.6 one thousand thousand single individuals over age eighteen in the United States, accounting for 44 pct of the total developed population (U.Due south. Census 2011). In 2010, never-married individuals in the twenty-five to twenty-nine age bracket accounted for 62 percent of women and 48 percent of men, up from xi pct and 19 percent, respectively, in 1970 (U.Due south. Census 2011). Single, or never-married, individuals are institute in higher concentrations in large cities or metropolitan areas, with New York Metropolis being one of the highest.

Although both single men and single women report social pressure to get married, women are subject to greater scrutiny. Single women are often portrayed as unhappy "spinsters" or "old maids" who cannot observe a man to marry them. Single men, on the other paw, are typically portrayed as lifetime bachelors who cannot settle down or simply "take non found the right girl." Single women written report feeling insecure and displaced in their families when their single condition is disparaged (Roberts 2007). However, unmarried women older than thirty-5 years erstwhile study feeling secure and happy with their unmarried status, every bit many women in this category take plant success in their education and careers. In full general, women feel more than independent and more than prepared to live a large portion of their adult lives without a spouse or domestic partner than they did in the 1960s (Roberts 2007).

The decision to ally or not to ally can be based a variety of factors including faith and cultural expectations. Asian individuals are the most likely to ally while African Americans are the least likely to marry (Venugopal 2011). Additionally, individuals who place no value on faith are more likely to exist unmarried than those who place a high value on religion. For black women, nonetheless, the importance of faith made no divergence in marital status (Bakalar 2010). In general, beingness single is not a rejection of marriage; rather, it is a lifestyle that does not necessarily include wedlock. Past age forty, according to census figures, 20 percentage of women and 14 of men will take never married (U.S. Demography Agency 2011).

More and more people in the United States are choosing lifestyles that don't include spousal relationship. (Photograph courtesy of Glenn Harper/flickr)

Deceptive Divorce Rates

It is often cited that half of all marriages end in divorce. This statistic has made many people cynical when information technology comes to marriage, but information technology is misleading. Let's take a closer await at the information.

Using National Center for Health Statistics data from 2003 that show a marriage charge per unit of 7.5 (per 1000 people) and a divorce charge per unit of three.8, it would announced that exactly one one-half of all marriages failed (Hurley 2005). This reasoning is deceptive, even so, considering instead of tracing actual marriages to see their longevity (or lack thereof), this compares what are unrelated statistics: that is, the number of marriages in a given twelvemonth does non have a direct correlation to the divorces occurring that same year. Research published in the New York Times took a different arroyo—determining how many people had ever been married, and of those, how many subsequently divorced. The upshot? According to this assay, U.S. divorce rates have only gone as high as 41 percent (Hurley 2005). Another mode to calculate divorce rates would be through a cohort study. For instance, we could determine the percentage of marriages that are intact after, say, five or seven years, compared to marriages that have ended in divorce later on five or seven years. Sociological researchers must remain aware of research methods and how statistical results are practical. As illustrated, dissimilar methodologies and different interpretations tin lead to contradictory, and even misleading, results.

Call back Information technology Over

1. Explain the different variations of the nuclear family and the trends that occur in each.
2. Why are some couples choosing to cohabitate before marriage? What effect does cohabitation take on marriage?

Practice

1. The majority of U.Due south. children live in:

1. two-parent households
2. ane-parent households
3. no-parent households
4. multigenerational households

2. According to the report cited by the U.S. Demography Bureau, children who live with married parents grow up with more advantages than children who live with:

1. a divorced parent
2. a unmarried parent
3. a grandparent
4. all of the above

3. Couples who cohabitate before marriage are ______ couples who did not cohabitate before marriage to be married at least ten years.

1. far more likely than
2. far less likely than
3. slightly less likely than
4. every bit as likely as

4. Aforementioned-sex couple households account for _____ percent of U.S. households.

1. 1
2. 10
3. fifteen
4. 30

5. The median age of start union has ______ in the concluding 50 years.

1. increased for men just non women
2. decreased for men but non women
3. increased for both men and women
4. decreased for both men and women

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-variations-in-family-life-needs-update/

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