当代美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化及影响

当代美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化及影响

The Changes and Influences of Marriage and Family Patterns in Modern America

Abstract: Family is the basic social institution and the bedrock of all societies.

Family structure and family life can mirror the moral values of the society,

its cultures, and its national characteristics. The American society has

changed a lot since the 1960s in material wealth. The enormous material

wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed

people to look for more self-fulfillment. As a result, people are more and

more concerned about individual rights. The society as a whole has

become more tolerant toward people who do not follow the traditional

cultural patterns. Meanwhile marriage and family patterns have

experienced tremendous changes under the influence of these changes. The

changes have tremendous influences on the American society, men, women,

and children. Marriage and family patterns in our country have also

experienced changes these years. Studying the changes of American

marriage and family patterns can provide us some valuable information. Key words: American marriage; family patterns; changes; influences

摘要：家庭是社会的基本单位，也是社会的基石。家庭结构和家庭生活亦可反映出社会的价值观，文化特性和国民特征。20世纪60年代美国社会在物质财富方面发生了巨

大的变化。物质财富的充裕，科学技术的迅猛发展促使人们追求自我享乐，整个美

国社会对传统价值观的态度的转变影响了美国的婚姻和家庭模式。文章主要探讨了

美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化，以及这些变化对美国社会和人们的生活产生的影响。

研究美国婚姻家庭模式的变迁的经验结果对我们研究全球化时代中国婚姻家庭的

变迁课提供有益的参考。

关键词：美国婚姻；家庭模式；变化；影响

Contents

I. Introduction (1)

II. Literature Review (1)

III. The Changes of the Marriage (2)

A. The tendency of late marriage (2)

B. High rate of divorce (2)

C. Marriage between the same sexes (3)

D. Marriage between different races (3)

IV. Diverse Family Patterns (4)

A. Nuclear family (4)

B. Blended family (5)

C. Dual-Employed family (5)

D. Single-parent family (6)

E. Cohabitation (7)

F. Single life (7)

G. Child-free family (7)

H. Gay and lesbian family (8)

V. The Causes and Influences of the Changes (8)

A. The causes of the changes (8)

1. The changes of value (8)

2. Materialism and competitive environment (9)

3. The changes of family roles (9)

4. Social toleration to the alternative lifestyle and the changes of laws (9)

B. The influences on society (10)

1. Increasing the burden of woman (10)

2. The influences on children (11)

3. Increasing the burden of the governments (11)

VI. Conclusion (12)

Works Cited................................................................... .. (13)

I.Introduction

Society refers to the people who live in a country or region, their organizations, and their way of life. The American society has changed a lot since the 1960s as the enormous material wealth after World WarⅡpushes all groups of people to fight for their rights. The Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement changed significantly the social and economic conditions. The enormous material wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. As a result, people are more and more concerned about individual rights. The society as a whole has become more tolerant toward people who do not follow the traditional cultural patterns.And marriage and family patterns have experienced tremendous changes during these years, too. People have more choices than ever before and they can end a marriage if not satisfied and then remarry. Family patterns have been diversified with the prosperous economies, women’s self-awareness, different attitudes toward social values, etc. All the changes have great influences on the American society, children, men and women.

II. Literature Review

Marriage is the foundation of the growing family and family is the bedrock of the societies. The development of society and the changes of family patterns is a hot topic in America. The researchers pay close attention to the changes. There are many statistics about the rate of marriage, divorce and family patterns which show the changes of Americans’attitudes towards them and the changes of the traditional values about marriage and family.

In 1960, the pills were widely used in American, which helped control the women’s pregnancy and the birth rate, and men and women felt more safe and free to their own sexual behavior (Wang 277).

The married couple made up 74.8 percent of all household types in 1960, dropped to 65.4 percent in 1975, and is projected to drop further to 54.9 percent by 1990. The estimates for the female–headed family went from 17.2 percent to 23.6 percent in 1975 and were projected to 29 percent by 1990. (Daniel 50) This article mainly talks about the causes and influences of the changes of the marriage and family patterns. Compared with the changes of American marriage life and family patterns, China suffers the same problems – increasing divorce rate, and

marriage without child, etc. Our nation can learn from their changes, and avoids the bad situations exacerbating.

Ⅲ. The Changes of Marriage

What is marriage? Marriage is a legal union between a man and woman as husband and wife. Since the women’s situation had changed a lot, the marriage changed, too. The traditional marriage pattern is that a married couple legally live together and give birth to their children. But there is a tendency that there are fewer and fewer people getting married or choosing to marry at a late age. More people end their marriage if they are unhappy. As many people fail in their marriage, divorce and separation have become much more common in recent decades. Divorce is on the increase, and there is a higher divorce rate, but many divorced people do eventually remarry.

A.The tendency of late marriage

Fewer and fewer people would like to marry at an early age. Since 1960s the proportion of married men and women under 15 are far less than before and the proportion of no marriage experience keeps increasing. In 1970, there were 15.6 percent of white people over 18 and older that had never been married, but by 1991, this figure had risen to 20.5 percent (Wang 492).

A man and a woman may cohabit or live together without marriage or before marriage. In this case, man and woman are no longer bounded by the traditional marriage patterns and they are much free to lead a life they dream of. What’s more, nowadays, women pay more attention to their own development, and they are not only restricted to the marriage and be a house wife any more. They have the abilities to walk out and hunt for good jobs to support themselves. People are aware of self-fulfillment and self-worth; they would pursue their wonderful dreams instead of bearing the burden of family at the early age.

B. High rate of divorce

The enormous amount of wealth caused people to believe in more equality and social justice. Meanwhile, the ever rising expectation of women to be perfect wives caused anxiety among many of them. There was a tendency that people after World

WarⅡbecame less patient with the old tradition of the putting the family wellbeing first and began to demand more self-fulfillment.

Women began to doubt if staying at home serving the need of their husband and children were all they should do. With the Women’s Movement, women had achieved equalities in political, social, educational, and economic life. Due to all the changes, women no longer need men to support them and become more and more independent. They can do what they want and what they like and fulfill their ambition on their own. They are struggling for the equal rights all the time, and legal divorce is part of them.

As the freedom prevailed in America in early 1960s, the rate of divorce was on the continuous increase. Toward early 1980s, divorce was the ending of a marriage between husband and wife, and the experts estimated that it would increase to 67 percent (Bureau of Census 68). Nowadays, society is more tolerant to the divorce, and many American have come to view divorce as a natural experience and make contributions to the high rate of divorce.

C. Marriage between the same sexes

Before 1960s, homosexuals suffered a lot of discrimination and were considered as lunacy, and many of them were scared to unveil their true identity to the public. By 1960s, the homosexuals formed their own organization and struggled to obtain the equal right. In 1970s and 1980s, with the development of the campaigns of homosexual rights, American public become much understandingly and tolerant of the alternative lifestyle. Many states and federal government add the items of anti-sexual discrimination in the anti-discrimination policies and laws.

When the U.S. Census was conducted 1990, it shows that 150,000 same-sex parents of the whole population cohabit in American in 1990s and 594,000 in 2000s. On February 4, 2004, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts struck down the state law which had banned same sex marriage. On May 17, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same sex marriage (Zhou 238). It seems that the rights of homosexuals will be accepted one day. They will be regarded as the normal and live a happy life.

D. Marriage between different races

The United States has always been described as “melting pot”in which many different racial and ethnic groups have assimilated into one culture. Actually many races remain their own traditions and for the most part of the melting has meant

Americanization —confronting to cultural patterns of the mainstream American society. So there is another description of America society---salad bowl, where the various racial and ethnic groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, creating a rich diverse country.

There are many races in American society, such as WASPs---White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. WASPs are the dominant race in American society and others are the minorities, all of them make great contribution to the development of America.

Since 1960s, the number of marriage between different races is on the increase. By 1960s, all couples of different races were about 149,000, and increase to 651,000 by 1980. What’s more, the number of 2000 and 2003 has reached to 1,460,000 and 2,090,000 respectively.

In general, the minorities are much easier to get married with other races which can be drawn from the declaration of racial identifications from two or more races. In 2000 U.S. Bureau of Census shows that the declaration of the native Hawaii with other pacific island inhabitants, Indians, original Alaska, Asia Americans, and African Americans of two or more races are 54.4%, 39.9%, 13.9% and 4.8% respectively and the proportion of whites are only 2.5% (U.S. Census Bureau 7).

Ⅳ. Diverse Family Patterns

Beginning in the late 1950s, a wave of social change swept through American life. Almost every American family was affected. The structure of American family had experienced tremendous changes over the past few years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the extended family---consisting of two or more adult generations of the same family sharing a common households and economic resources---was the dominant family pattern in the United States. Today, in the minds of most American, the American family has meant a nuclear family. There are also other types of family in America, such as blended family, child-free family, single-parent family, gay and lesbian family, cohabitation and independent living, etc.

A.Nuclear family

Nuclear family consists of parents and their children who live apart from other kin. In old days, a group of people in a big family lived together and shared the wealth

together. But now, many families are headed by a married couple. Mother and father have an equal voice in making decisions. Children grow up in a complete family and enjoy a lot of happy times with both their parents. But the proportion of nuclear family which once has been the dominant family patterns has steeply dropped down in recent 20 years.

In late 20th century, the nuclear American family that consisted of a breadwinner father, a homemaker mother and children were less than 15% of all American households. The rest of American lived in other family forms, such as child-free family, single-parent family, single life which in total surpassed the dominant modern nuclear family showing the value of the bourgeoisie in 1950s (Stephanie 33).

B. Blended family

The increase in the divorce rate has led to the creation of the blended family, in which at least one member of adult couple is a stepparent. People divorce if they undergo a bitter marriage, but they would like to build a new family again. Some of them choose to remarry with the people of the same experience to blend together two families into one, some of them will marry someone who never marries, and they do want to leave a new happy family life with others who seem to be suitable life companies. It is estimated that slightly more than one American family in six is a blended family. If current trends continue into the 21st century, about one out of three adults in the United States will spend part of their lives in a blended family (Fan 231).

In a dramatic change from the traditional bitterness of divorce, many parted parents are doing their best to be cordial, even warm, especially on the most important days of the year. They want their lovely children to grow up in a happy and healthy environment. But it still has negative effects and this will be unfavorable to their children when they are growing up. A great number of peoples whose parents separated in their early age, and then build a new family eventually ended their marriage in divorce just follow the steps of their parents. But many couples and their children adjust successfully to their remarriage, and they consider their new marriage and family to be a great improvement over the previous one.

C. Dual-Employed family

One important shift in American family patterns is that in a large majority of these families, both husband and wife have been employed and have double incomes.

Women’s Limbers started a social and political movement which aimed to achieve women’s liberation by organizing groups and campaigns and by causing individual women and men to change their attitudes. As a result, women have obtained many equal political and legal rights. The economic and domestic lives of women have been change a lot then. Women are no longer confined to their homes to do housework and take care of the children. In 1940, only about one out of seven married women worked outside the home. Today in more than 70 percent of married couple families with children both work outside.

Women in dual-employed families deal with more trifles and family chorus in their daily life, though they have their own work to do. In many cases, fathers are still the breadwinner and they are responsible for the large cost of the families. But it seems that mothers are more tired in this kind of family, because they have to spend a lot of time looking after their children and husbands while working.

D. Single-parent family

In some families, only one parent, with his or her children lives together. It may be the result of the divorce, separation or desertion. This kind of family is also called one-parent family or a lone-parent family. Mother or father alone brings up the child. Nowadays there appears more and more single-parent families in America and of all family types, single-parent families have increased most rapidly during the past few years.

In 1970s, 12 percent of the total American families were comprised of single mothers with children under 18, which increased to 24 percent in 1980s, and continued increasing to 26 percent in 1995 (Daniel 56). The children with single-parent are lack of either maternal or paternal love, and probably meet with the physical problems or obstacles which are harmful to their growth and development.

E. Cohabitation

Cohabitation means that two people live together without legal marriage, which has increased dramatically over the past few decades. In the United State, cohabitation has become much more common. As cohabitation before marriage is increasingly widespread, many women can be found cohabiting with their future husband before marriage or people after divorce live together without marriage again.

The reasons of cohabitation are as follows. People are more tolerant to the

alternative lifestyles. They choose to cohabitate as a way to escape higher rate of divorce, they do not trust marriage can bring them happiness. More and more people would like to live together and think they lead a happy life. Moreover, due to more job and educational opportunities for young people, and economic hardships, a large number of women choose to delay their marriage to pursue their own careers which also make contributions to an increase rate of cohabitation. Young people are inclined to live together because they are in an age of caving out their own career and they are not sure live one place for life long time. They may choose to cohabit with their boy or girl friend and fight for life hard together, if they want to change their jobs to another place and they are not meeting of minds, then they can split up peacefully.

Experience shows that against good wills, couples who cohabit before marriage are more likely to divorce than those who do not cohabit (Axinn & Thornton 1992). So it seems that cohabitation is not a good way to keep a better marriage.

F. Single life

Single life refers to people who live by themselves, which is one of the family patterns rapidly increasing in America. There is a tendency that more and more people are keen on living on their own.

The main reasons that women postpone their marriage and kept single are as follows: to get more freedom, to develop her own career, to make acquaintance with more people, to practice the ability of independence, to reduce bondage of sexual behavior (Stein & Peter 140). High divorce rate is also the reason for the increase in adults living alone.

G. Child-free family

Child-free family is also called Dink or Dinky, which is the abbreviation of Double/Dual Income, No kids. It is one of the dominant family patterns in the United States. A dink family refers to a married young couple who both earn a lot of money but they don’t want to bear a child. There have appeared more and more dink families. Children are no longer the link to maintain a couple’s marriage. Dink couples get married for love, and they advocate freedom and dedicate life. Usually, both of them are well educated and well paid. Because of no children, they can spend their money on their own will. They can go to the luxury places to enjoy their life, and travel around in their leisure time. The most important thing is that they share no

responsibility to bring up a child and lead a much comfortable and agreeable life.

The reasons why people especially young couples choose to form a child-free family are complicated. With the improvement of the science and technology, people are leading a better life than ever before. The life span has been increasing during those years, people are more likely to postpone their marriage and have babies at an older age. Due to the fierce competition, young couples prefer to dedicate their energy to their works instead of children. They want to have a more comfortable life rather than life with burdens. So they have to struggle for their own dreams or ambitions with no more responsibilities and after success they can spend their earnings as they want.

H. Gay and lesbian family

Gay and lesbian family is also called homosexual family. This type of family can be composed of two male adults or two female adults, and children of either one or both the couple, or adopted children. It can be made up of two divorced men/women, or one divorced men or women. It can also consist of two single men/women, with child of their own or adoption. Nowadays, governments begin to attach importance to the homosexual rights and put forward many items to against sexual discrimination and give homosexual couples many of the same rights as any married couple.

V. The Causes and Influences of the Changes

A.The causes of the changes

Marriage and family patterns in America become more diversified in recent years, and the causes are complex and the main reasons are as follows:

1. The changes of values

The 20th century had seen dramatic changes in America society. The development of economy and enormous material wealth has pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. The hippy advocated sexual freedom, drug abuse, and colony, individualism and gastronomy began to prevail. All of them had exerted negative influence on the America traditional values---responsibility, self-control and hospitality and the same to the marriage and family patterns. Today more and more people are postponing marriage and choosing not to marry at all. Personal values and attitudes alter immeasurably. People are more change-oriented. People nowadays are

concerned about the strength of mutual emotional feelings and needs. They ask for much in marriage, not only live together and raise children. If their life companies can not satisfy them, they can divorce which people think is logic and legal. All of those have led to high rate of divorce, cohabitation…

2. Materialism and competitive environment

The United States is a leading industrial power in the world. The productivity and standard of living remain among the highest in the industrial world. In order to lead a more comfortable life, people work hard but become more realistic and materialistic in the competitive environment. People care material enjoyment more than emotional needs, which often bring conflicts to the family. Parents have to earn more for their children but at the same time easily ignore the psychological needs of their children. And if they can’t get enough money to meet their needs or lead a comfortable life, parents may quarrel with each other sometimes even divorce. Young people have to work diligently to lead a happy and comfortable life in the ferocious competition. They postpone their marriage or don’t marry at all, and among them many choose have no children for their own better.

3. The changes of family roles

Typically, the family group that occupies one household consists of parents and their unmarried children. Fathers are authority and authority and breadwinners for the family. Mothers often stay at home to take care of their children and husbands. In recent decades it has become clear the traditional mother role in the seclusion of the home is unacceptable. More women receive higher education and work outside. Today, far more than 10 million American mothers with children under eighteen years of age have jobs (Deng, 155).

The number of women entering the work force is rapidly increasing. Women now can earn money on their own and be independent in economy. The labor force participation of males is slowly declining as women become a working competitor. Women work by themselves and supply the husband’s income. If they are not satisfied with their marriage, they are easily to divorce. Women are no longer dependent on their husbands; they can make a life on their own. Men don’t need to provide lots of money for their ex-wives and children. They are not as serious about the divorce as before.

4. Social toleration to the alternative lifestyle and the changes of laws

With the prevalence of the divorce and cohabitation, the society is lenient and

more tolerate of the alternative lifestyle. Americans regard divorce as a nature thing. Many couples split up without acrimony with the divorce legislation. Nowadays, divorce is much easier than before in America. People can end their marriage if they are not satisfied. Cohabitation is normal; many partners choose to cohabit before or after their marriage. People are more tolerate about the new style of life.

The change of laws about marriage also provides people more chances to divorce. In 1969 California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the nation’s first low permitting no-fault divorce. No-fault that allows parents to split up without having to declare war has become norm. Before that couple can divorce only when their life companies are disloyal to their marriage. The law helps couples divorce easier than ever before. And nowadays only two states in America don’t adopt the law.

All in all, the changes in American family structure included the rapidity of economic growth, more liberal divorce laws, more toleration to the alternative lifestyle, greater willingness to end a bitter marriage, the tendency of young people today to postpone marriage, and more independent economic independence for women, etc.

B. The influences on society

Family is the basic social institution and the bedrock of all societies. Family structure, family relations and family life can mirror the moral values of a society, and its national characteristics. The changes of marriage and family patterns in America inevitably have lots of influences on its society.

1.Increasing the burden of woman

The divorce rate of America rank first in the world. After divorce, most mothers take the responsibility to raise the children and their incomes often less than before. The biggest burden falls on households that are headed by singe mothers. Nearly half of these families are below the poverty line (Patrick 12). Single mothers’ conditions are much worse after divorce.

Between 1980 and 2003, the poverty point of single mother family is much higher than the average poverty point almost 18 to 22.7 percentages and 20.7 to 27.7 percentages compared to double-parents families. From 1980 to 2003, although the ratio of single-mother family to the whole families is 17.01%, poor single-mother families take 51.17% percentage of the poor family (Daniel 55)

They also bear stress from poor life condition, conflicts with ex-husband, and

raising and educating children. They are easily to perplex in the stress and experience health problems.

2.The influences on children

Children become victims of the separation. Three of every 100 children are kicked, bitten or punched by their parents (Deng 173).The Children whose parents have divorced may suffer more tortures. They exhibit more health, behavioral, and emotional problems, are involved more frequently in crime and drug abuse, and have higher rates of suicide.

Children from single-parent families tend to have less-efficient work or study habits and tend to be absent, truant or tardy more often. These behaviors may interferer with application of knowledge.

Children from single-parent families suffer from mental and physical trauma during and after their parents’divorce. Nowadays, more and more researches show that divorce can add burden to juvenile’s behavior, emotion and mental. Many children suffer from physical problems, such as anger, loneliness, alienation of their friends of families, impulsive, and wreaking havoc in the class.

Studies show that juvenile-delinquency rates are twice as high for youngster from single-parent homes as for those in traditional household. Although children raised by one parent comprise just over a fifth of their age group, they commit 55 percent of its crimes ( D eng 170).

The high rate of children’s commit suicide is closely connected with the high rate of divorce. Many children suffer a lot when their parents end their marriage. Divorce shows negative impacts on their growth.

3.Increasing the burden of the governments

It also increases the burden of the society and the changes of American marriage and family patterns challenge the government’s work. The government not only needs to dissolve the criminal problems but also the job, welfare and other economic problems.

Divorced family and single-parent family both face the stress of job-hunting., so the federal and state governments have to spend more money to subsidize and sustain those families. The high rate of divorce and jobless stress make contribution to the high rate of poverty. The governments have to expand cost on supplying the poor families. In 1980, two thirds singe-parent families rely on various welfare programs and subsidies to live (Wang 399).

VI. Conclusion

The changes of marriage and family patterns have tremendous influences on the American society, children, men and women. If the family is the building block of society, then marriage is the foundation of the family. However, this foundation is growing weaker, with fewer adults entering into marriage, more adults leaving it in divorce then choosing to remarry or cohabit. From the changes of American marriage and family patterns we can draw a conclusion that marriage and family have great influences on the steady development of the society.

As we know, marriage and family patterns in our country have also experienced changes these years. Since the Reform and Opening-up in late 1970s of China, the continuous improvement of the economy, the fluidity of large population, the implement of Birth-control policy and some other important society reforms with global tides together have seen the similarities of between the tremendous changes of Chinese marriage and family patterns in America.

Anthropology statistic shows in China the rate of divorce continues increasing in recent 30 years, and the balance of the traditional stability of the marriage has been destroyed. In recent years, percentage of cohabitation has been increasing in our nation, which challenges our traditional culture---marriage is the only legal process to sex behaviors. Realism shows that in such a developing country with large population, studies about the development of the society and the changes family patterns are significant.

As far as American marriage and family patterns are concerned, the factors are so complex, such as social background, gender, education, jobs and others. And there are similarities between America and us, such as high rate of divorce, cohabitation, dink, so it can be learnt from their changes to avoid the same problems appearing in our county.

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