How Has the American Family Unit Change in the Past 50 Years
Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the turn down in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the growth of single-parent households and the drop in fertility. Not only are Americans having fewer children, but the circumstances surrounding parenthood have changed. While in the early 1960s babies typically arrived inside a marriage, today fully iv-in-ten births occur to women who are single or living with a non-marital partner. At the same time that family structures have transformed, and then has the office of mothers in the workplace – and in the home. As more moms take entered the labor forcefulness, more have become breadwinners – in many cases, master breadwinners – in their families.
As a result of these changes, there is no longer one ascendant family unit grade in the U.S. Parents today are raising their children against a properties of increasingly diverse and, for many, constantly evolving family forms. By dissimilarity, in 1960, the height of the post-Globe War 2 infant boom, there was i dominant family grade. At that fourth dimension 73% of all children were living in a family unit with 2 married parents in their first wedlock. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today less than half (46%) are. The declining share of children living in what is often accounted a "traditional" family has been largely supplanted past the ascent shares of children living with unmarried or cohabiting parents.
Not but has the diversity in family unit living arrangements increased since the early 1960s, just so has the fluidity of the family. Not-marital cohabitation and divorce, along with the prevalence of remarriage and (non-marital) recoupling in the U.S., brand for family structures that in many cases continue to evolve throughout a child's life. While in the past a child born to a married couple – equally nigh children were – was very likely to grow up in a dwelling with those ii parents, this is much less common today, as a child's living organization changes with each adjustment in the relationship status of their parents. For case, ane study found that over a iii-year period, well-nigh three-in-ten (31%) children younger than vi had experienced a major change in their family or household structure, in the form of parental divorce, separation, wedlock, cohabitation or decease.
The growing complexity and diversity of families
The share of children living in a two-parent household is at the everyman betoken in more than one-half a century: 69% are in this type of family system today, compared with 73% in 2000 and 87% in 1960. And even children living with ii parents are more likely to be experiencing a diverseness of family unit arrangements due to increases in divorce, remarriage and cohabitation.three Today, fully 62% of children live with 2 married parents – an all-time low. Some fifteen% are living with parents in a remarriage and 7% are living with parents who are cohabiting.4 Conversely, the share of children living with one parent stands at 26%, upward from 22% in 2000 and just ix% in 1960.
These changes have been driven in role past the fact that Americans today are exiting marriage at higher rates than in the by. Now, almost two-thirds (67%) of people younger than 50 who had always married are still in their kickoff marriage. In comparing, that share was 83% in 1960.5 And while amidst men about 76% of first marriages that began in the belatedly 1980s were still intact ten years later, fully 88% of marriages that began in the late 1950s lasted as long, co-ordinate to analyses of Demography Bureau data.vi
The rise of single-parent families, and changes in two-parent families
Despite the reject over the by half century in children residing with two parents, a majority of kids are yet growing up in this blazon of living arrangement.7 However, less than half—46%—are living with two parents who are both in their first marriage. This share is downwards from 61% in 19808 and 73% in 1960.
An additional 15% of children are living with two parents, at least one of whom has been married before. This share has remained relatively stable for decades.
In the remainder of two-parent families, the parents are cohabiting simply are not married. Today seven% of children are living with cohabiting parents; withal a far larger share will experience this kind of living arrangement at some indicate during their childhood. For instance, estimates advise that near 39% of children will accept had a mother in a cohabiting relationship past the time they turn 12; and by the time they turn 16, almost half (46%) will accept experience with their mother cohabiting. In some cases, this will happen because a never-married mother enters into a cohabiting relationship; in other cases, a mother may enter into a cohabiting relationship subsequently a marital breakup.
The pass up in children living in two-parent families has been offset by an almost threefold increase in those living with but one parent—typically the mother.9 Fully 1-fourth (26%) of children younger than historic period 18 are now living with a single parent, upwards from simply ix% in 1960 and 22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at five%; most of these children are existence raised by grandparents.10
The majority of white, Hispanic and Asian children are living in two-parent households, while less than half of black children are living in this type of organization. Furthermore, at to the lowest degree half of Asian and white children are living with two parents both in their first marriage. The shares of Hispanic and black children living with ii parents in their start marriage are much lower.
Asian children are the most probable to exist living with both parents—fully 84% are, including 71% who are living with parents who are both in their first wedlock. Some xiii% of Asian kids are living in a single-parent household, while eleven% are living with remarried parents, and just three% are living with parents who are cohabiting.
Roughly viii-in-ten (78%) white children are living with 2 parents, including about half (52%) with parents who are both in their outset matrimony and 19% with 2 parents in a remarriage; 6% take parents who are cohabiting. Most one-in-5 (19%) white children are living with a single parent.
Amid Hispanic children, two-thirds live with two parents. All told, 43% live with ii parents in their first wedlock, while 12% are living with parents in a remarriage, and 11% are living with parents who are cohabiting. Some 29% of Hispanic children live with a single parent.
The living arrangements of black children stand in stark contrast to the other major racial and ethnic groups. The majority – 54% – are living with a single parent. Just 38% are living with two parents, including 22% who are living with ii parents who are both in their commencement wedlock. Some ix% are living with remarried parents, and 7% are residing with parents who are cohabiting.
Children with at least ane college-educated parent are far more than likely to be living in a two-parent household, and to be living with ii parents in a first wedlock, than are kids whose parents are less educated.xi Fully 88% of children who take at least one parent with a available's degree or more are living in a two-parent household, including 67% who are living with two parents in their outset union.
In comparison, some 68% of children who have a parent with some higher experience are living in a ii-parent household, and just 40% are living with parents who are both in a outset marriage. About six-in-ten (59%) children who take a parent with a high school diploma are in a two-parent household, including 33% who are living with parents in their showtime wedlock. Meanwhile, just over one-half (54%) of children whose parents lack a high school diploma are living in a two-parent household, including 33% whose parents are in their first marriage.
Blended families
Co-ordinate to the most recent data, 16% of children are living in what the Census Bureau terms "blended families" – a household with a stepparent, stepsibling or half-sibling. This share has remained stable since the early 1990s, when reliable data start became bachelor. At that time fifteen% of kids lived in blended family households. All told, near eight% are living with a stepparent, and 12% are living with stepsiblings or half-siblings.12
Many, but not all, remarriages involve blended families.13 According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, six-in-ten (63%) women in remarriages are in blended families, and nigh one-half of these remarriages involve stepchildren who live with the remarried couple.
Hispanic, black and white children are every bit likely to live in a blended family. About 17% of Hispanic and black kids are living with a stepparent, stepsibling or a half-sibling, as are 15% of white kids. Among Asian children, however, 7% – a far smaller share – are living in composite families. This low share is consistent with the finding that Asian children are more than likely than others to be living with two married parents, both of whom are in their first union.
The shrinking American family
Fertility in the U.South. has been on the decline since the end of the post-Globe War II baby boom, resulting in smaller families. In the mid-1970s, a 40% plurality of mothers who had reached the end of their childbearing years had given birth to 4 or more children.14 Now, a similar share (41%) of mothers at the cease of their childbearing years has had two children, and just 14% have had iv or more children.fifteen
At the same time, the share of mothers ages twoscore to 44 who have had but one kid has doubled, from eleven% in 1976 to 22% today. The share of mothers with iii children has remained virtually unchanged at nigh a quarter.
Women'due south increasing educational attainment and labor force participation, and improvements in contraception, not to mention the retreat from marriage, have all probable played a role in shrinking family size.
Family size varies markedly across races and ethnicities. Asian moms accept the everyman fertility, and Hispanic mothers have the highest. Nigh 27% of Asian mothers and ane-third of white mothers near the finish of their childbearing years have had iii or more children. Amidst blackness mothers at the cease of their childbearing years, 4-in-10 have had three or more children, as take fully half (fifty%) of Hispanic mothers.
Similarly, a gap in fertility exists amidst women with different levels of educational attainment, despite contempo increases in the fertility of highly educated women. For example, simply 27% of mothers ages 40 to 44 with a post-graduate caste such every bit a master's, professional or doctorate degree have borne three or more than children, as have 32% of those with a bachelor'south caste. Among mothers in the same age group with a high school diploma or some college, 38% have had 3 or more kids, while amidst moms who lack a high school diploma, the bulk – 55% – have had three or more children.
The ascension of births to unmarried women and multi-partner fertility
Non only are women having fewer children today, but they are having them under different circumstances than in the past. While at one time well-nigh all births occurred within matrimony, these two life events are at present far less intertwined. And while people were much more likely to "mate for life" in the past, today a sizable share have children with more 1 partner – sometimes within marriage, and sometimes exterior of information technology.
Births to single women
In 1960, only 5% of all births occurred outside of wedlock. By 1970, this share had doubled to 11%, and by 2000 fully one-third of births occurred to unmarried women. Non-marital births continued to rise until the mid-2000s, when the share of births to unmarried women stabilized at effectually 40%.sixteen
Non all babies born exterior of a marriage are necessarily living with just one parent, yet. The majority of these births now occur to women who are living with a romantic partner, according to analyses of the National Survey of Family Growth. In fact, over the past twenty years, near all of the growth in births outside of spousal relationship has been driven by increases in births to cohabiting women.17
Researchers take establish that, while marriages are less stable than they once were, they remain more than stable than cohabiting unions. By analysis indicates that about one-in-five children born inside a matrimony will experience the breakup of that marriage past age 9. In comparison, fully half of children born inside a cohabiting matrimony volition experience the breakup of their parents by the aforementioned age. At the same time, children born into cohabiting unions are more likely than those born to single moms to anytime alive with 2 married parents. Estimates suggest that 66% will accept washed so by the fourth dimension they are 12, compared with 45% of those who were born to unmarried non-cohabiting moms.
The share of births occurring outside of matrimony varies markedly beyond racial and ethnic groups. Among blackness women, 71% of births are now not-marital, as are about half (53%) of births to Hispanic women. In contrast, 29% of births to white women occur exterior of a matrimony.
Racial differences in educational attainment explain some, but not all, of the differences in non-marital birth rates.
New mothers who are college-educated are far more likely than less educated moms to be married. In 2014 only 11% of women with a college degree or more who had a baby in the prior year were unmarried. In comparison, this share was almost iv times as loftier (43%) for new mothers with some college but no higher degree. Almost half (54%) of those with just a high school diploma were unmarried when they gave birth, as were about six-in-ten (59%) new mothers who lacked a high school diploma.
Multi-partner fertility
Related to non-marital births is what researchers call "multi-partner fertility." This measure reflects the share of people who have had biological children with more than than one partner, either within or outside of marriage. The increase in divorces, separations, remarriages and series cohabitations has likely contributed to an increment in multi-partner fertility. Estimates vary, given data limitations, merely assay of longitudinal data indicates that near 20% of women near the finish of their childbearing years have had children by more than one partner, as have about three-in-10 (28%) of those with two or more children. Research indicates that multi-partner fertility is particularly common among blacks, Hispanics, and the less educated.
Parents today: older and improve educated
While parents today are far less likely to be married than they were in the past, they are more likely to be older and to accept more didactics.
In 1970, the boilerplate new female parent was 21 years onetime. Since that time, that age has risen to 26 years. The rise in maternal age has been driven largely by declines in teen births. Today, 7% of all births occur to women under the age of 20; as recently equally 1990, the share was nigh twice as loftier (13%).
While age at first birth has increased across all major race and ethnic groups, substantial variation persists across these groups. The average first-time mom among whites is now 27 years erstwhile. The boilerplate historic period at first birth amidst blacks and Hispanics is quite a bit younger – 24 years – driven in part by the prevalence of teen pregnancy in these groups. Only 5% of births to whites take place prior to age xx, while this share reaches 11% for not-Hispanic blacks and 10% for Hispanics. On the other end of the spectrum, fully 45% of births to whites are to women ages 30 or older, versus merely 31% amid blacks and 36% among Hispanics.
Mothers today are likewise far improve educated than they were in the past. While in 1960 just 18% of mothers with infants at domicile had any college experience, today that share stands at 67%. This tendency is driven in large office by dramatic increases in educational attainment for all women. While about one-half (49%) of women ages xv to 44 in 1960 lacked a high schoolhouse diploma, today the largest share of women (61%) has at least some higher feel, and merely 19% lack a high schoolhouse diploma.
Mothers moving into the workforce
In addition to the changes in family structure that have occurred over the past several decades, family life has been profoundly afflicted past the movement of more and more mothers into the workforce. This increment in labor force participation is a continuation of a century-long tendency; rates of labor forcefulness participation among married women, particularly married white women, have been on the rise since at to the lowest degree the turn of the 20th century. While the labor forcefulness participation rates of mothers accept more than or less leveled off since about 2000, they remain far higher than they were four decades ago.
In 1975, the commencement year for which data on the labor forcefulness participation of mothers are available, less than half of mothers (47%) with children younger than 18 were in the labor force, and about a third of those with children younger than 3 years sometime were working exterior of the home. Those numbers changed rapidly, and, by 2000, 73% of moms were in the labor strength. Labor force participation today stands at lxx% amongst all mothers of children younger than 18, and 64% of moms with preschool-aged children. Nigh three-fourths of all employed moms are working full fourth dimension.
Among mothers with children younger than eighteen, blacks are the about likely to be in the labor force –nigh three-fourths are. In comparison, this share is 70% among white mothers. Some 64% of Asian mothers and 62% of Hispanic mother are in the workforce. The relatively loftier proportions of immigrants in these groups likely contribute to their lower labor force involvement – strange-born moms are much less likely to be working than their U.S.-born counterparts.
The more than instruction a mother has, the more probable she is to exist in the labor force. While near half (49%) of moms who lack a high school diploma are working, this share jumps to 65% for those with a high school diploma. Fully 75% of mothers with some higher are working, as are 79% of those with a college degree or more than.
Forth with their movement into the labor strength, women, fifty-fifty more than than men, accept been attaining college and higher levels of educational activity. In fact, among married couples today, it is more than mutual for the wife to have more than education than the husband, a reversal of previous patterns. These changes, along with the increasing share of single-parent families, mean that more than ever, mothers are playing the function of breadwinner—often the chief breadwinner—within their families.
Today, 40% of families with children nether 18 at home include mothers who earn the majority of the family income.18 This share is up from xi% in 1960 and 34% in 2000. The bulk of these breadwinner moms—eight.three million—are either single or are married and living apart from their spouse.19 The remaining 4.ix 1000000, who are married and living with their spouse, earn more than their husbands. While families with married breadwinner moms tend to accept higher median incomes than married-parent families where the begetter earns more ($88,000 vs. $84,500), families headed past unmarried mothers have incomes far lower than unmarried father families. In 2014, the median annual income for unmarried mother families was just $24,000.
Breadwinner moms are particularly common in black families, spurred by very loftier rates of single motherhood. About three-fourths (74%) of black moms are breadwinner moms. Most are single or living apart from their spouse (61%), and the remainder (13%) earn more than their spouse. Among Hispanic moms, 44% are the main breadwinner; 31% are unmarried, while 12% are married and making more than their husbands. For white mothers, 38% are the primary breadwinners—twenty% are single moms, and 18% are married and have income higher than that of their spouses. Asian families are less likely to have a woman as the main breadwinner in their families, presumably due to their extremely low rates of single motherhood. Just 11% of Asian moms are unmarried. The share who earn more than their husbands—20%— is somewhat college than for the other racial and ethnic groups.
The flip side of the motion of mothers into the labor forcefulness has been a dramatic decline in the share of mothers who are now stay-at-home moms. Some 29% of all mothers living with children younger than 18 are at abode with their children. This marks a modest increase since 1999, when 23% of moms were dwelling with their children, but a long-term decline of near 20 percentage points since the late 1960s when about one-half of moms were at home.
While the image of "stay-at-home mom" may conjure images of "Go out It to Beaver" or the highly affluent "opt-out mom", the reality of stay-at-home maternity today is quite dissimilar for a big share of families. In roughly three-in-ten of stay-at-home-mom families, either the father is not working or the mother is single or cohabiting. Every bit such, stay-at-domicile mothers are more often than not less well off than working mothers in terms of pedagogy and income. Some 49% of stay-at-dwelling house mothers have at nigh a high-school diploma compared with 30% amid working mothers. And the median household income for families with a stay-at-dwelling house mom and a full-time working dad was $55,000 in 2014, roughly half the median income for families in which both parents work full-time ($102,400).20
Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/17/1-the-american-family-today/