The Traditional Family: How It Has Changed
Abstract
The version of a traditional family in the 1960’s is much different than that of today. There are factors that are involved in this change such as the make-up, status, and economics. Experts have noted that the fact that families are weaker now than those in the 1960’s and this could be the cause of problems that are being faced by people in society today.
Families of today are faced with hardships that the families of the 1960’s didn’t have to deal with. In the 1960’s the majority of families were a one income family, usually coming from the father. The mother was a stay at home mom and tended to the home and children while the father worked. There were rare occasions when there was no father in the home and the mother had to work but even rarer were there any two income households. Today most families have to be a two income household to make ends meet. This sometimes causes conflict between a couple resulting in divorce. The traditional family of 1960 was a much more solid family because there were fewer divorces (Castelloe, 2011). The other difference in the make-up of families of today versus those of the 60’s is today many families are made up of either one parent or two parents of the same sex (Castelloe, 2011). There were very few same sex households, well that were heard of, in the 60’s. It is more socially accepted now than it was then (Castelloe, 2011). Since the rate of divorce is much higher now than in the 60’s there are more families that only have one parent opposed to having two. This adds stress to the one parent who is trying to do the job of two parents at home as well as trying to earn a living to support the family (Castelloe, 2011). With this added stress children tend to suffer from some form of neglect and try to find ways to get attention because they are not getting enough at home. This is what causes families to weaken because they do not know what the fix is for things that are going wrong in the home. Another
The version of a traditional family in the 1960’s is much different than that of today. There are factors that are involved in this change such as the make-up, status, and economics. Experts have noted that the fact that families are weaker now than those in the 1960’s and this could be the cause of problems that are being faced by people in society today.
Families of today are faced with hardships that the families of the 1960’s didn’t have to deal with. In the 1960’s the majority of families were a one income family, usually coming from the father. The mother was a stay at home mom and tended to the home and children while the father worked. There were rare occasions when there was no father in the home and the mother had to work but even rarer were there any two income households. Today most families have to be a two income household to make ends meet. This sometimes causes conflict between a couple resulting in divorce. The traditional family of 1960 was a much more solid family because there were fewer divorces (Castelloe, 2011). The other difference in the make-up of families of today versus those of the 60’s is today many families are made up of either one parent or two parents of the same sex (Castelloe, 2011). There were very few same sex households, well that were heard of, in the 60’s. It is more socially accepted now than it was then (Castelloe, 2011). Since the rate of divorce is much higher now than in the 60’s there are more families that only have one parent opposed to having two. This adds stress to the one parent who is trying to do the job of two parents at home as well as trying to earn a living to support the family (Castelloe, 2011). With this added stress children tend to suffer from some form of neglect and try to find ways to get attention because they are not getting enough at home. This is what causes families to weaken because they do not know what the fix is for things that are going wrong in the home. Another
References: Castelloe, M. S. (2011, April 27). Changes in the American Family . Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201104/changes-in-the-american-family Macionis, J. J. (2010). Sociology: A Global Introduction (13th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.