Divorce in American Society Whatever happened to the picture that perfect traditional families portrayed? Television has had such an influence over us when we begin wishing we had families like the ones we see on Little House on the Prairie and The Brady Bunch. Families who work together, support one another, and seem to have all of life's problems figured out. The media is catching up to society and showing more single-family sitcoms with down to earth family relationships such as Blossom, Sinbad and Married with Children. These types of families show the nuclear family of today. They experience day to day worries and concerns with the reality that everything is not always so perfect in the real world. There have been many changes in American families since the 1950's. We are seeing more women in the work force, family values changing, and more divorces leading to the rise of single parent households. This is putting the American home downhill. Divorce seems to be a problem solving solution that many families are taking into consideration; statistics show that it has left half of all families fatherless. The United States has the highest divorce rate in the world. Marriage is no longer taken for its life long commitment; most couples get into a marriage wanting the best out of it. Unfortunately, people are getting married without thinking of the responsibilities that come with marriage. What is happening to the meaning of a family? Where are we taking it and why aren't we doing much about it? A family is suppose to be the love and support of both a mother and father for their children. There is not much time spent at home building new bonds and expressing the love. Instead, Americans have ... ... middle of paper ... ...hip; whether it be between brother and sister, mother and daughter, father and son, boyfriend and girlfriend, or husband and wife, it reassures the heart that everything is going to be all right. I support the phrase, "a family that prays together stays together". In society today there is no idealistic family. There is no going back to what the traditional families were like. We are living in a day and age where children live with both parents, one or the other parent, grandparents, aunt, or even homeless on the streets. There is no solution to prevent divorces; it is a matter of true love and support before the commitment. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, but that doesn't mean we cannot strive for one. It is up to us to paint the family we want and pray for its strength to last. What is to be said about the American family dream?
Marriage has changed more over the last 30 years than the previous 3,500 years. As
Families: hurt, 50% of marriages become divorces, 3x more people living alone, single parenthood is the #1 reason for our poverty
The ideal traditional family is no more but the non-traditional is here and becoming very much relevant, and I think it is time to say good bye to the past and embrace the present and welcome the
For Centuries in our society marriage between man and woman has been a practiced cultural right and custom. Over 90% of Americans will marry in their lifetime and roughly 50% of those marriages will result in Divorce. Many Sociological factors contribute to the high divorce rate expressed in our culture. Reasons that contribute to the divorce rate are longer life expectancy, women in the work force, birth control, social acceptance of cohabitation, single parenting and welfare reform. It is also now socially acceptable and legal to get a divorce due to dissatisfaction and unhappiness. This social acceptance of divorce implies that today there is a changing criteria when entering marriage. Couples today now insist on the element of personal fulfillment and happiness for entering wedlock, where as, in times past this was not one of the main considerations for man and woman to get married.
Times have changed since our parents were children and families today face different challenges than those of a decade or two ago. Over the past few decades the concept of family has been revolutionized. A "traditional" family no longer consists of two parents of the opposite sex in which the father is the "breadwinner," and the mother stays at home to raise the children. Today's family is as diverse as the world it must exist in. The important thing about today's family is that success does not just happen; a strong family takes effort.
The first type of person who marries or wants to do so is known as the marriage naturalist. This tends to be the majority of rural populations who seem to still have similar views to that of former generations when it comes to the ultimate commitment. These traditional people see marriage as something that should be done as the next step of adulthood. Typically, marriage naturalists wed if the relationship has endured for long enough and the time feels right. For them, the transition into adulthood is fairly quick. Many go on to higher education for a short or average amount of time, or head directly into the work force. Instead of waiting for stability, they decide to make the plunge depending on how long the relationship has been going. It’s a steady flow, and usually based on the two people as a whole instead of each person as an individual. As a result,...
Consequently, ever since the reform was approved, the divorce rates and high poverty increased in single-parent homes and the innocent children suffer from this unfortunate experience. There could be many factors for couples seeking divorce: marrying at a very early age, less education and income, cohabitation, premarital pregnancy, coming from a divorced family. People divorce due to lack of commitment, arguing too much, infidelity, marrying at a young age, unrealistic expectation, lack of equality in relationship, lack of preparation for marriage, and abuse.
Comparing its structure and function as it was in 1960 with what it had become in 1990 can highlight the dramatic changes in the American family. Until 1960 most Americans shared a common set of beliefs about family life; family should consist of a husband and wife living together with their children. The father should be the head of the family, earn the family's income, and give his name to his wife and children. The mother's main tasks were to support and enable her husband's goals, guide her children's development, look after the home, and set a moral tone for the family. Marriage was an enduring obligation for better or worse and this was due much to a conscious effort to maintain strong ties with children. The husband and wife jointly coped with stresses. As parents, they had an overriding responsibility for the well being of their children during the early years-until their children entered school, they were almost solely responsible. Even later, it was the parents who had the primary duty of guiding their children's education and discipline. Of course, even in 1960, families recognized the difficulty of converting these ideals into reality. Still, they devoted immense effort to approximating them in practice. As it turned out, the mother, who worked only minimally--was the parent most frequently successful in spending the most time with her children. Consequently, youngsters were almost always around a parental figure -- they were well-disciplined and often very close with the maternal parent who cooked for them, played with them, and saw them off to and home from school each day.
American families have changed tremendously over the past years. Families did not only face the change in their status or social behavior; but also faced a change in their lifestyle. Now there are different types of families with different types of norms and values. Families are socially, ethnically and very expressively diverse than ever before (Angier).
Now that women more and more are joining the workplace, thus, removing them from their family of orientation. The divorced in the United States are more common, its rate has risen then ever before. So, parents today are raising their kids into a diverse family structure, the growth in single parent households has increased as well. Lots of kids living without a father with mother as the “head” of the house. People now are more likely to adopted a child, hey become the legal parents of the child. Let’s not forget the teenager’s pregnancy and same sex marriage. Consequently, different forms of domestic arrangements now outnumber the traditional American
Television has played a major role in the death of the American nuclear family. According to Dictionary.com, a nuclear family is defined as a primary social unit consisting of parents and their offspring. Television has become commonplace in American culture, and most watch oblivious to the effect it has on them and their families. “2009’s Nielsen’s Television Audience Report shows that 54% of homes in the U.S. had three or more television sets, 28% had two television sets and only 18% had one television set” (“More”). Over the past seven decades’ television has had a progressive impact on the American family unit by showing family can be diverse in race, gender, and parenting styles.
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
Marital satisfaction, something that everyone would like to find an equation for, is the goal that all married couplesnaturally wish to achieve. Since marital satisfaction obviously has a direct relationship to marital stability, the more satisfaction that is achieved within a marriage, the more stable and more positive the relationship. This stability is accomplished through hard work and communication between the partners, and a mutual understanding of what part each must play in the relationship.
When we think of marriage, the first thing that comes to mind is having a lasting relationship. Marriage is a commitment of two people to one another and to each other?s family, bonded by holy matrimony. When a couple plans to marry, they think of raising a family together, dedicating their life to each other. That?s the circle of life--our natural instinct to live and produce children and have those children demonstrate your own good morals. I have never been married; but I don?t understand why when two people get married and vow to be together for richer and poorer, better or worse, decide to just forget about that commitment. A marriage should be the most important decision a person makes in his or her life.
Marriage is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the world. Its status has changed drastically over the years, and in the last few decades alone has gone from being a social expectation to simply an option for most people. In the 1920s, marriage was generally considered an expectation for all young women, lest they dry up like cacti before they bore children. Today, marriage is generally recognized as a commitment that may satisfy some, though many choose to forgo the process. The differences between the cultural perception of marriage in the “Roaring Twenties” compared to today have manifested themselves in many different ways.