 Decline of traditional
American family slows in 90's
Statistics Show a Slackening of 1970s, '80s Social
Trends
The decline of the traditional American family, fueled
primarily by divorce and out-of-wedlock births, has slowed dramatically, the Census Bureau
reported yesterday.
The trendlines that shot up during the 1970s and '80s --
redefining families to include many more headed by single parents and "blended"
households of step-families -- haven't been reversed, but they have flattened
significantly, researchers said.
Between 1970 and 1990, married couples with children, for
example, declined sharply as a proportion of all households, from 40 percent to 26
percent. But from 1990 to last year, they declined just 1 percent.
"It hasn't quite turned around, but it has slowed, and
that is significant, given the breakneck speed at which we were seeing these
changes," said Census Bureau demographer Lynne Casper Hayden.
Hayden and co-author Ken Bryson, whose report relied on data
from a Census Bureau survey conducted last year, said they began to see the slowing of
some of these social trends several years ago, but became more confident of the change
with the new numbers.
They cited a drop in teenage birth rates, down 12 percent
since 1991, and in births to unmarried women, which dipped 4 percent in 1995. Also, the
divorce rate has flattened, prompting the Census Bureau in recent years to project that
four out of 10 new marriages would fail, down from an earlier figure of five in 10.
The authors did not draw conclusions about what is prompting
the change, but sociologists and other experts have pointed to several possible factors,
including the aging of the baby boomers out of the age groups most likely to get divorced
or have out-of-wedlock children. Also, American society generally has put more emphasis on
so-called family values, with a rise in groups such as Promise Keepers aimed at
encouraging stable families.
Despite the growing evidence of traditional families on some
fronts, the changes that swept across American society in the past three decades have by
no means disappeared. The proportion of family households headed by single mothers, for
example, continues to rise -- from 16 percent to 18 percent since 1990 -- although at a
slower pace than in previous years.
And the proportion of single mothers who have never been
married has grown, from 33 percent to 41 percent of female-headed families.
More single fathers are heading families -- an increase of
33 percent since 1990, compared with a 17 percent increase for single mothers. Of the
nation's 34.6 million family households with children under age 18, 72 percent were headed
by married couples in 1997, 23 percent by single mothers and 5 percent by single fathers.
Married couples continue to dominate, even with high divorce
rates and unmarried births, because so many adults remarry relatively quickly after
divorce, and because many single women who give birth eventually marry.
"Families," defined by the Census Bureau as two or
more people living together who are related by birth, marriage or adoption, make up a much
smaller proportion of all American households than they did three decades ago. Families
made up 90 percent of households in 1940, 81 percent in 1970 and 70 percent last year.
"Non-family" households, consisting of unrelated
people living together or those who live alone, have increased, mostly because of a rise
in people living on their own. Of the nearly 31 million non-family households last year,
about 83 percent were people living alone; elderly women made up the largest group of
these solitary residents.
Related Site U.S. Census Bureau Home Page
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