Blog entry #10

I am planning on researching the idea of a typical American family. My first article is from The Journal of Marriage and Family, and the title is “Gender Family Structure, and Social Support Among Parents.” The article begins by talking about the different ideas of a family structure. Then it breaks into a few hypotheses about specific types of family environments. In one study, 5.9% of mothers and 4.4% of fathers still live with their own parents/stepparents, which is one examples of an “oddity” from an assumed typical family. Most of the studies in this article have to do with how different categories of people get and give support to one another. This is broken into sections such as whether a parent is single or not, male or female, divorced or never married and so on. This article could help with my essay through the different ways a traditional family (which is one category) compares emotionally to the other types of families that data has been collected for. One phrase I found particularly interesting was about the most significant support for nontraditional families. “It appears that friends, not kin, are the most significant members of the social support networks of nontraditional families.” This quote brings in another factor to consider with family bonds and connections with friends.

The other article comes from the American Sociological Review, and is named “Nonfamily Living and the Erosion of Traditional Family Orientations Among Youth Adults.” This article begins by pointing out a change in the living and marriage patterns that has evolved over the years. It states “Young adults in recent cohorts have been leaving the parental home earlier and marrying later now than they did several decades ago...” Therefore, any idea of a “traditional family” must have a time frame of when it Is perceived because the norm is changing with time and the ideas also are evolving. Also stated is that divorce is becoming more and more acceptable of an idea as opposed to a few decades ago when it was frowned upon. A connection made in this article is from when a person becomes independent and their expectations for a family. There was a direct correlation between women who moved out and became independent sooner than others and their views on gender roles and are more likely to feel displeased by the idea of a traditional family.


Works cited:

Marks, Nadine F. and Sara S. McLanahan. “Nonfamily Living and the Erosion of Traditional Family Orientations Among Youth Adults.” American Sociological Review Vol. 55, No. 2 (May, 1993): 481-493. Web. 12 April 2010.

Waite, Linda J., Frances Kobrin Goldscheider and Christina Witsberger. “Gender Family Structure, and Social Support Among Parents.” The Journal of Marriage and Family Vol. 51, No. 4 (Aug., 1986): 541-554. Web. 12 April 2010.