how has family structure changed?

For thousands of years, the family structure was comprised of close relationships with extended family, including the mother, father, and children, but also grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives. The world was primarily made up of small communities or tribes made up of different groups of clans. According to a paper entitled Family: Variations and Changes Across, it has primarily been in the past century that the nuclear family, which is made up of the mother, father, and child or children, has dominated society in the U.S. and other countries Cultures.

The family function may vary from culture to culture, but overall, the family is characterized by reproduction, common residence, and economic cooperation. While the nuclear family is identified as having parents and children and comprised of two generations, extended families consist of at least three generations and may include other relatives. Polygynous families, one in which there is one husband and two or more wives, has also been practiced in many societies throughout the world during different times in history. A one-parent family structure was once associated with much stigma but has become more acceptable and common. While some cultures had matrilineal or matriarchal authority, most cultures in the West have a patrilineal or patriarchal family structure. Whoever holds the authority in the family often makes important decisions, controls property, finances, and is responsible for protecting the family.

Most cultures have had rules about whom can marry whom and what traditions must be carried out by different family members, which is determined by their role. Many cultures practiced arranged marriages, and marriage formed based on love became a relatively new practice from a historical perspective. In many cultures, divorce was socially unacceptable until more recently.

Family: Variations and Changes Across Cultures notes that Talcott Parsons theorized that in the U.S., the domination of the nuclear family resulted in geographical and psychological alienation and isolation from their families, contributing to increased social mobility and dependence on the state for education and finances. Increased tourism, travel, economic changes, social changes, and technology have influenced this trend. Pew Research also notes that family structure has changed in that more unmarried couples live together, delay marriage, or have children outside of marriage. Furthermore, Americans have fewer children, and 4 in 10 births occur to single mothers or those living with a non-marital partner. Pew research also indicates that in the 1960s, 73% of children lived in a home with two married parents, while in 2014, only 46% of children lived in a home with two married parents. Diversity in family living has overall increased, and so has remarriage; 16% of children live in a blended family with a step-parent.