In this article, the authors argue that to understand the very low incidence of outside-of-marriage childbearing in contemporary Japan one needs to take into account perceptions of all possible solutions to a premarital pregnancy: marriage, abortion, and childbearing outside wedlock. To demonstrate the particular impact of these perceptions in…

Social institutions that have been around for thousands of years generally change slowly, when they change at all. But that's not the way things have been playing out with marriage and family since the middle of the 20th Century. Some scholars argue that in the past five decades, the basic architecture of these age-old institutions has changed as…

Investigated as a function of adults' birth cohort--a group of adults born during a specific time period--were beliefs influencing current attitudes toward parenting that prevail in England and the United States. Particular attention was given to the value attached to parental role in relation to the specific roles of spouse and worker. The total…

Most parents do everything they can to facilitate the health and happiness, growth and development of their children. Nevertheless, Western society leaves parents the responsibility for children's well-being, but does not empower parents to ensure that well-being. This book takes the position that our society is inimical to children and has…