Full Description
In this book, leading authorities on the family show how families, parents, and children have been affected by changing patterns of marriage and cohabitation. Taking a long historical perspective, some authors consider trends such as the decline of multigenerational families and group differences in the relationships between economic opportunity and the timing of marriage. But the focus is predominantly on questions of current interest: patterns of union formation, differences between marriage and cohabitation, contact between divorced fathers and their children, the division of household labor, and the transmission of attitudes and behavior across generations. Intended for scholars and advanced students, this book offers essential analysis of the changing dimensions of the American family.
Contents
Current Themes in the Social Demography of the American Family -- Family Patterns: The Historical Dimension -- Race and Multigenerational Family Structure, 1900-1980 -- Group Differences in Economic Opportunity and the Timing of Marriage: Blacks and Whites in the Rural South, 1910 -- The Impact of the Civil War on American Widowhood -- Marriage and Cohabitation: Current Issues -- American Marriage Patterns in Transition -- A Further Look at First Unions and First Marriages -- Cohabitation: A Precursor to Marriage or an Alternative to Being Single? -- Young Adults' Views of Marriage, Cohabitation, and Family -- For Love or Money? Sociodemographic Determinants of the Expected Benefits from Marriage -- Families, Parents, and Children -- The Disappearing American Father? Divorce and the Waning Significance of Biological Parenthood -- Intergenerational Resource Transfers Across Disrupted Households: Absent Fathers' Contributions to the Well-Being of Their Children -- The Influence of the Parental Family on the Attitudes and Behavior of Children -- Work in the Home: The Productive Context of Family Relationships
