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2 Demographic Perspectives on Family Change
Pages 7-26

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From page 7...
... This chapter summarizes four presentations, including three studies that examine family change largely from a demographic perspective and one that drew on qualitative methods to identify specific groups in a larger quantitative study. Demographic indicators provide a baseline of information for many other kinds of family research.
From page 8...
... These changing family dynamics have major implications for the living arrangements of children, said Susan Brown, professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University and codirector of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. Furthermore, these living arrangements can have major consequences for children's health and well-being, since children in unmarried families experience greater family instability, on average.
From page 9...
... The language has not kept pace with new family forms, Brown observed. For example, with cohabiting relationships, researchers do not have shared understandings of how to describe these families or refer to family members.
From page 10...
... Research has demonstrated that family structure is more subjective than researchers might assume. In the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health -- known as Add Health, a nationally representative study of how social contexts affect the health and risk behaviors of teens and young adults -- adolescents and their mothers were asked about family structure (Harris, 2009)
From page 11...
... Some family forms are more stable than others, so that family structure is confounded with family instability. Using Add Health data, Brown (2006)
From page 12...
... The broad array of diverse living arrangements has generated considerable interest in family instability, but there is no consensus on how to conceptualize or measure it. "Innovative measurement will require new concepts and theories that reflect these very rapid changes that are occurring in U.S.
From page 13...
... From this perspective, much family change has been generated by long-term shifts in ideology that undermine old patriarchal family arrangements. For example, increases in women's labor force opportunities have made them less dependent on marriage.
From page 14...
... . It is the most common family formation event in the first three years after leaving school.
From page 15...
... For more highly educated women, it may well indicate growing autonomy and increasing choices. For less educated women, it appears that cohabitation is likely more a response to uncertainty.
From page 16...
... Similarly, research shows that half-siblings, former spouses, and extended kin living elsewhere can influence family functioning. If the diversity in cohabiting households is great, the variability in noncohabiting single-parent households is even broader and more ambiguous.
From page 17...
... In particular, it is important to measure levels of commitment and the quality of relationships and to distinguish variability among cohabiting unions. INTERGENERATIONAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE IN FAMILY PATTERNS Research on family structures usually begins with static measures, which have been used in recent years to capture an increasing diversity of family forms.
From page 18...
... Family data come from both parent and adolescent interviews, and neighborhood data come from geocoded residence addresses. The family structure of friends, families in schools, and families in the neighborhood can be measured through the percentage of two-parent families, single-parent families, and other family forms.
From page 19...
... . 0.5 Less than 50% 50%–74% Cumulative Probability 0.4 75%–88% 100% 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Age FIGURE 2-4 Cumulative probabilities of first nonmarital birth vary by the percent age of friends from two-parent families.
From page 20...
... MEASURING THE IMPACT OF RACE, CLASS, AND IMMIGRATION STATUS ON FAMILY STABILITY Study of family structure began with mostly white scholars concerned about issues that affected mostly white, middle class, native-born Americans. But American society is much different today, observed demographer Daniel Lichter, professor of policy analysis and management and sociology and director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University.
From page 21...
... new immigrant populations. This has created a large built-in demographic momentum for the future population growth of this group (Martin and Midgley, 2006)
From page 22...
... But most of this research is focused on a single point in time and does not capture the dynamics of family instability, particularly for different immigrant groups or for different immigrant experiences. National averages hide tremendous diversity across different racial and ethnic groups.
From page 23...
... Copyright 2004 by The Future of Children, a publication of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Structural and cultural variations in family structure, parenting practices, and child outcomes are other key issues, as are school and neighborhood contexts, including neighborhood segregation of immigrants.
From page 24...
... We have it in the Current Population Survey, so you can do some things that make sense, but not in the decennial census or American Community Survey." Other data needs include the relationship of each person to everyone else in a household, income transfers and social support, mode of entry, migration histories, and connections to the ancestral country or country of origin. Changes to the American Community Survey have made it possible to examine issues in ways that could not be done in the past (U.
From page 25...
... They found that parents mentioned the child crying or being sick, tired, and not wanting to participate in an activity as signs of stress. To obtain comparable measures of activities and the time spent in them in a large quantitative study, the researchers used data from time-diary interviews with a nationally representative sample of children ages 9 to 12 across the United States.
From page 26...
... This will be particularly helpful in refining the terminology used to discuss family forms. Jere Behrman asked about family structure in other parts of the world, and Kelly Raley briefly discussed work in Western Europe.


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