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Say Good Bye To Traditional Family

September 12, 2013

Say Good Bye To Traditional Family

Zhenchao Qian, professor and chair of sociology, is the author of a new study finding that the American modern family no longer resembles the old vision of a 'traditional family,’; marriages are in decline, divorces on the rise, and adult kids are returning home bringing some big shifts in the makeup of U.S. households.

According to Qian, the Great Recession of the late 2000s accounts for many of the changes - across the board, regardless of race, young people born in the United States have delayed getting married, moved back in with their parents, and those who do marry get divorced at a higher rate.

Qian said that “there is no longer any such thing as a typical American family", although his study makes a caveat – immigrant families may come closest, with relatively low rates of divorce and remarriage, and low rates of cohabitation.

Qian’s analysis, based on data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2008-2010 American Community Survey, among other sources, is contained in a new report for the US2010 Project, sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University. The US2010 project examines changes in American society in the recent past. http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/

From 2008 to 2010, nearly half of young adults between the ages of 20 and 24 lived with their parents. During the same time, the percentage of U.S.-born women of that age who had ever been married declined from 31 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2008 to 2010. The decline for men was similar, dropping from 21 percent to 11 percent.

Not only are young people putting off getting married, but when they do, they are more likely to get divorced and remarried; a cycle Qian calls the "marriage-go-round." Among currently married men, Qian found the percentage of those who were married more than once increased from 17 percent in 1980 to 25 percent in 2008 to 2010.

But the most troubling finding, Qian said, is the large disparity that has grown between families of different races and socioeconomic classes. Race, education, the economy and immigration status weigh heavily on how well families fare financially, he said.

"There is no doubt that the gap between America's haves and have-nots grew larger than ever during the 2000s. Economic inequality is key to the polarization of American families, and the disadvantages of children living in single and unstable families will just worsen the racial and ethnic inequalities we already have in this country,” said Qian.

Outcomes were even worse for African-Americans: they had the lowest percentage of people who had ever been married, at every age group, the highest proportion of permanent singlehood by the age of 50 and the highest divorce-to-marriage ratios.

“Race and ethnicity, education, economics and immigration status are increasingly linked to how well families fare,” said Qian.

Despite the negative changes in American families, one group has remained stable and most closely resembles what was once considered the American norm and that is the immigrant community. Qian found that immigrants tend to be married at a higher rate and divorce and remarry at a lower rate when compared to those born in the United States.

By 2010, the end point of Qian’s decade-long study period, immigrants made up 13 percent of the U.S. population and they tend to be married at a higher rate and divorce and remarry at a lower rate when compared to those born in the United States.

“Immigrants do not divorce as much as natives, and those who divorce are less likely to remarry,” said Qian.

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