How Family Structures Have Changed Over Time Blended Families
Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the pass up 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, only the circumstances surrounding parenthood have changed. While in the early 1960s babies typically arrived inside a marriage, today fully four-in-10 births occur to women who are single or living with a non-marital partner. At the aforementioned time that family unit structures have transformed, so has the part of mothers in the workplace – and in the dwelling. As more moms have entered the labor strength, more have become breadwinners – in many cases, master breadwinners – in their families.
As a issue of these changes, there is no longer one dominant family form in the U.Southward. Parents today are raising their children against a backdrop of increasingly diverse and, for many, constantly evolving family forms. By contrast, in 1960, the height of the postal service-World State of war II baby boom, there was ane ascendant family class. At that fourth dimension 73% of all children were living in a family with two married parents in their offset wedlock. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this blazon of family unit, and today less than half (46%) are. The failing share of children living in what is ofttimes deemed a "traditional" family unit has been largely supplanted by the rising shares of children living with single or cohabiting parents.
Not just has the diversity in family living arrangements increased since the early 1960s, but so has the fluidity of the family. Non-marital cohabitation and divorce, along with the prevalence of remarriage and (non-marital) recoupling in the U.Southward., brand for family unit structures that in many cases continue to evolve throughout a child's life. While in the by a child born to a married couple – equally most children were – was very probable to abound up in a home with those two parents, this is much less common today, as a child'due south living arrangement changes with each adjustment in the relationship status of their parents. For example, 1 report institute that over a three-year catamenia, well-nigh three-in-ten (31%) children younger than 6 had experienced a major change in their family or household structure, in the class of parental divorce, separation, marriage, cohabitation or expiry.
The growing complexity and diversity of families
The share of children living in a two-parent household is at the lowest point in more than half a century: 69% are in this type of family unit arrangement today, compared with 73% in 2000 and 87% in 1960. And even children living with 2 parents are more than probable to be experiencing a multifariousness of family arrangements due to increases in divorce, remarriage and cohabitation.3 Today, fully 62% of children live with two married parents – an all-time low. Some xv% are living with parents in a remarriage and 7% are living with parents who are cohabiting.iv Conversely, the share of children living with one parent stands at 26%, up from 22% in 2000 and just 9% in 1960.
These changes have been driven in part past the fact that Americans today are exiting union at higher rates than in the past. Now, nigh two-thirds (67%) of people younger than 50 who had ever married are notwithstanding in their kickoff marriage. In comparison, that share was 83% in 1960.5 And while among men about 76% of first marriages that began in the tardily 1980s were still intact 10 years later on, fully 88% of marriages that began in the late 1950s lasted as long, according to analyses of Census Bureau data.6
The rise of single-parent families, and changes in 2-parent families
Despite the turn down over the past half century in children residing with ii parents, a majority of kids are notwithstanding growing up in this type of living organization.seven However, less than one-half—46%—are living with two parents who are both in their commencement marriage. This share is downwardly from 61% in 1980viii and 73% in 1960.
An additional 15% of children are living with two parents, at least i of whom has been married earlier. This share has remained relatively stable for decades.
In the remainder of two-parent families, the parents are cohabiting but are not married. Today vii% of children are living with cohabiting parents; however a far larger share will experience this kind of living arrangement at some point during their childhood. For example, estimates suggest that about 39% of children will have had a mother in a cohabiting relationship by the time they turn 12; and by the time they turn xvi, near half (46%) volition have feel with their mother cohabiting. In some cases, this will happen considering a never-married mother enters into a cohabiting human relationship; in other cases, a female parent may enter into a cohabiting relationship after a marital breakup.
The decline in children living in two-parent families has been offset past an virtually threefold increase in those living with just ane parent—typically the female parent.9 Fully one-fourth (26%) of children younger than age xviii are at present living with a single parent, up from just ix% in 1960 and 22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at 5%; virtually of these children are being raised by grandparents.10
The bulk of white, Hispanic and Asian children are living in two-parent households, while less than half of black children are living in this blazon of organisation. Furthermore, at least one-half of Asian and white children are living with two parents both in their first union. The shares of Hispanic and black children living with two parents in their outset marriage are much lower.
Asian children are the nigh probable to be living with both parents—fully 84% are, including 71% who are living with parents who are both in their offset marriage. Some 13% of Asian kids are living in a unmarried-parent household, while xi% are living with remarried parents, and just iii% are living with parents who are cohabiting.
Roughly viii-in-ten (78%) white children are living with two parents, including about one-half (52%) with parents who are both in their first marriage and nineteen% with two parents in a remarriage; six% have parents who are cohabiting. Near ane-in-five (19%) white children are living with a single parent.
Among Hispanic children, ii-thirds live with ii parents. All told, 43% live with 2 parents in their commencement union, 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 unmarried 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 unmarried parent. Just 38% are living with ii parents, including 22% who are living with two parents who are both in their beginning marriage. Some 9% are living with remarried parents, and seven% are residing with parents who are cohabiting.
Children with at least one college-educated parent are far more than likely to be living in a 2-parent household, and to be living with ii parents in a first marriage, than are kids whose parents are less educated.eleven Fully 88% of children who take at least ane parent with a bachelor's degree or more are living in a two-parent household, including 67% who are living with two parents in their outset matrimony.
In comparing, some 68% of children who have a parent with some college experience are living in a two-parent household, and just 40% are living with parents who are both in a first marriage. About six-in-10 (59%) children who accept a parent with a high school diploma are in a 2-parent household, including 33% who are living with parents in their outset marriage. Meanwhile, simply over 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 start marriage.
Blended families
According to the nigh recent data, 16% of children are living in what the Demography Agency 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 available. At that time xv% of kids lived in composite family households. All told, nearly 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 Co-ordinate to information from the National Eye for Wellness Statistics, six-in-x (63%) women in remarriages are in composite families, and about half of these remarriages involve stepchildren who live with the remarried couple.
Hispanic, black and white children are equally likely to live in a blended family. About 17% of Hispanic and black kids are living with a stepparent, stepsibling or a one-half-sibling, as are 15% of white kids. Among Asian children, however, 7% – a far smaller share – are living in blended families. This low share is consistent with the finding that Asian children are more than probable than others to be living with two married parents, both of whom are in their first marriage.
The shrinking American family
Fertility in the U.Southward. has been on the turn down since the cease of the mail service-Earth War Ii babe boom, resulting in smaller families. In the mid-1970s, a forty% plurality of mothers who had reached the end of their childbearing years had given nativity to iv or more children.xiv Now, a similar share (41%) of mothers at the end of their childbearing years has had ii children, and merely 14% accept had iv or more than children.15
At the same time, the share of mothers ages 40 to 44 who have had just one kid has doubled, from 11% in 1976 to 22% today. The share of mothers with three children has remained virtually unchanged at about a quarter.
Women's increasing educational attainment and labor force participation, and improvements in contraception, not to mention the retreat from matrimony, take all likely played a role in shrinking family size.
Family unit size varies markedly across races and ethnicities. Asian moms accept the lowest fertility, and Hispanic mothers have the highest. Nigh 27% of Asian mothers and one-third of white mothers near the end of their childbearing years have had three or more children. Amidst black mothers at the end of their childbearing years, four-in-ten have had 3 or more than children, as take fully half (fifty%) of Hispanic mothers.
Similarly, a gap in fertility exists among women with unlike levels of educational attainment, despite recent increases in the fertility of highly educated women. For instance, just 27% of mothers ages 40 to 44 with a post-graduate caste such as a master's, professional person or doctorate degree have borne three or more children, equally have 32% of those with a available'south degree. Among mothers in the same age group with a high schoolhouse diploma or some college, 38% have had 3 or more kids, while amongst moms who lack a high school diploma, the majority – 55% – have had iii or more children.
The rising of births to unmarried women and multi-partner fertility
Not only are women having fewer children today, but they are having them nether different circumstances than in the by. While at 1 fourth dimension about all births occurred within marriage, these two life events are now far less intertwined. And while people were much more than likely to "mate for life" in the past, today a sizable share have children with more than one partner – sometimes inside marriage, and sometimes outside of it.
Births to single women
In 1960, just v% of all births occurred outside of marriage. By 1970, this share had doubled to 11%, and by 2000 fully one-third of births occurred to single women. Not-marital births connected to rise until the mid-2000s, when the share of births to unmarried women stabilized at around twoscore%.16
Not all babies built-in outside of a marriage are necessarily living with just one parent, however. The majority of these births at present 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 xx years, nearly all of the growth in births outside of marriage has been driven by increases in births to cohabiting women.17
Researchers take found that, while marriages are less stable than they one time were, they remain more stable than cohabiting unions. Past analysis indicates that about one-in-five children born within a spousal relationship will experience the breakup of that marriage past historic period ix. In comparison, fully half of children born within a cohabiting union will feel the breakup of their parents by the aforementioned age. At the same time, children born into cohabiting unions are more than likely than those born to single moms to anytime live with two married parents. Estimates propose that 66% volition have done then by the fourth dimension they are 12, compared with 45% of those who were born to unmarried not-cohabiting moms.
The share of births occurring outside of marriage varies markedly across racial and ethnic groups. Amongst black women, 71% of births are now not-marital, equally are near half (53%) of births to Hispanic women. In dissimilarity, 29% of births to white women occur outside of a spousal relationship.
Racial differences in educational attainment explicate some, but not all, of the differences in not-marital birth rates.
New mothers who are college-educated are far more likely than less educated moms to be married. In 2022 merely 11% of women with a college caste or more than who had a baby in the prior twelvemonth were single. In comparison, this share was well-nigh four times as loftier (43%) for new mothers with some higher but no college degree. About one-half (54%) of those with only a high school diploma were unmarried when they gave birth, every bit 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 ane partner, either inside or exterior of marriage. The increase in divorces, separations, remarriages and series cohabitations has probable contributed to an increase in multi-partner fertility. Estimates vary, given data limitations, just analysis of longitudinal data indicates that almost 20% of women near the end of their childbearing years accept had children by more than one partner, as have near three-in-x (28%) of those with two or more children. Research indicates that multi-partner fertility is peculiarly common among blacks, Hispanics, and the less educated.
Parents today: older and better 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 have more than education.
In 1970, the average new mother was 21 years old. 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 twenty; as recently as 1990, the share was well-nigh twice as high (13%).
While age at commencement nascency has increased beyond all major race and indigenous groups, substantial variation persists beyond these groups. The average first-time mom among whites is now 27 years old. The average age at offset birth amongst blacks and Hispanics is quite a bit younger – 24 years – driven in part by the prevalence of teen pregnancy in these groups. But 5% of births to whites take identify prior to age 20, while this share reaches 11% for non-Hispanic blacks and x% for Hispanics. On the other end of the spectrum, fully 45% of births to whites are to women ages xxx or older, versus simply 31% among blacks and 36% amidst Hispanics.
Mothers today are likewise far better educated than they were in the past. While in 1960 just 18% of mothers with infants at dwelling house had any college experience, today that share stands at 67%. This tendency is driven in large part by dramatic increases in educational attainment for all women. While about half (49%) of women ages 15 to 44 in 1960 lacked a high school diploma, today the largest share of women (61%) has at least some higher experience, and just nineteen% lack a high schoolhouse diploma.
Mothers moving into the workforce
In addition to the changes in family structure that accept occurred over the past several decades, family life has been profoundly afflicted by the movement of more and more mothers into the workforce. This increase in labor force participation is a continuation of a century-long trend; rates of labor force participation among married women, particularly married white women, accept been on the rise since at least the turn of the 20th century. While the labor force participation rates of mothers take more than or less leveled off since about 2000, they remain far higher than they were 4 decades ago.
In 1975, the first year for which data on the labor force participation of mothers are available, less than one-half of mothers (47%) with children younger than 18 were in the labor force, and well-nigh a tertiary of those with children younger than iii years former were working outside of the home. Those numbers changed chop-chop, and, by 2000, 73% of moms were in the labor force. Labor force participation today stands at seventy% among all mothers of children younger than xviii, and 64% of moms with preschool-anile children. About three-fourths of all employed moms are working total time.
Among mothers with children younger than 18, blacks are the most likely to be in the labor force –nigh three-fourths are. In comparing, this share is 70% among white mothers. Some 64% of Asian mothers and 62% of Hispanic mother are in the workforce. The relatively high proportions of immigrants in these groups likely contribute to their lower labor strength involvement – foreign-built-in moms are much less likely to exist working than their U.Southward.-born counterparts.
The more than educational activity a mother has, the more likely she is to be in the labor force. While most 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 college are working, as are 79% of those with a college degree or more than.
Along with their movement into the labor force, women, even more than men, have been attaining college and higher levels of didactics. In fact, among married couples today, it is more common for the married woman to accept more than instruction 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 primary breadwinner—within their families.
Today, forty% of families with children under eighteen at domicile include mothers who earn the majority of the family income.18 This share is upwardly from 11% in 1960 and 34% in 2000. The bulk of these breadwinner moms—8.iii million—are either unmarried or are married and living apart from their spouse.19 The remaining iv.9 1000000, who are married and living with their spouse, earn more their husbands. While families with married breadwinner moms tend to accept college median incomes than married-parent families where the father earns more ($88,000 vs. $84,500), families headed by unmarried mothers have incomes far lower than unmarried begetter families. In 2014, the median almanac income for unmarried female parent families was only $24,000.
Breadwinner moms are particularly common in black families, spurred by very high rates of single maternity. Virtually iii-fourths (74%) of black moms are breadwinner moms. Most are unmarried or living apart from their spouse (61%), and the remainder (13%) earn more their spouse. Among Hispanic moms, 44% are the primary breadwinner; 31% are single, while 12% are married and making more than than their husbands. For white mothers, 38% are the master breadwinners—20% are unmarried moms, and 18% are married and accept income higher than that of their spouses. Asian families are less likely to take a woman as the principal breadwinner in their families, presumably due to their extremely low rates of unmarried motherhood. Just 11% of Asian moms are unmarried. The share who earn more than than their husbands—20%— is somewhat college than for the other racial and ethnic groups.
The flip side of the motility of mothers into the labor force has been a dramatic reject 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 dwelling with their children. This marks a small-scale increase since 1999, when 23% of moms were home with their children, but a long-term refuse of about 20 percentage points since the belatedly 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 motherhood today is quite different for a large 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. As such, stay-at-dwelling house mothers are generally less well off than working mothers in terms of didactics and income. Some 49% of stay-at-home mothers have at virtually a high-school diploma compared with 30% amongst working mothers. And the median household income for families with a stay-at-habitation 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/
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