In this paper, I will discuss the changes in family transformation or decline. The family was once warm and secure. The adults had a shorter life expectancy. Many children were in orphanages because their parents couldn't afford to raise them. The size of the family is on the decline. Families are spending more time with their children. The family is losing some of it status. Marriage is a form of companionship.
Family Transformation or Decline.
Past American families once were warm, secure, and satisfying are at odds with the historical record according to (Skolnick, 1991). During the nineteenth century adults had short life expectancy; children were likely to live in a single-parent home (KAIN 1990). For all reasons the rate of marital breakup has remained the same since 1860. In the 1900's 20 percent of American children lived in poverty. That's about the same of children who lived in orphanages during the previous century. Many children were there because their parents couldn't afford to raise them. Experts estimated that the use of alcohol, drug abuse, dropping out of school early, and domestic violence were all higher during the previous century than today (Newman 1995; Coontz 1992). Remarriage among divorced persons is high, suggesting that disillusionment is focused on being married to person rather than on marriage itself (Weeks 1989, 271).
Americans continue to rate family life as the largest source of life's satisfactions. Work and other sources of satisfaction rank below family for majority of Americans (Wallerstein, 1996). This is apparent when the visibility of American families is questioned. The quality of family life is hard to come by, research reports: the Muncie, Indiana ("Middletown") in 1920 described much family, among blue-collar workers, as "bleak, dreary, and devitalized." Researchers found that husbands and wives had little communication and a restricted sexual life.
