This paper examines how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines for men and women. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a…

As the divorce rate continues to rise, increasing attention is being paid to the impact of parental divorce and remarriage on the children from these families. A study was undertaken to investigate the impact of family process and organization, in intact, divorced, and stepfather families. Subjects were 36 families (12 families from each group)…

Tested relationships between negative and positive sibling interactions and relationship quality and family form. When husband-wife, mother-child, and father-child relationship quality were controlled, marital status was not significantly related to sibling interactions. When parental marital status was controlled, quality of spousal relationship…

Examined first year postdivorce functioning of young adolescents, assessing social and social withdrawal behavior, cognitive functioning, and externalizing problems. Interparental conflict exerted significant main effect on social and social withdrawal behavior and, for cognitive functioning, interacted with marital status. Parental marital status…

Considers how ritual processes function to reduce the usual ambiguities, tensions, and conflicts following divorce. Examines ritual in collective gatherings when ex-spouses must interact, and observable behaviors that are formalized on the basis of rules of etiquette. Presents a ritual model of family reorganization, highlighting formal and…

Introduces special journal issue published to inform American readers of recent developments in Europe and to help readers address contemporary family change. Discusses similarities of trends in North America and Western Europe and points out differences among countries. Examines various statistical indicators and trends in birth rates, marriages,…

Used data from national survey to examine effect of children on parents' well-being. In general, parents scored better than nonparents on measures of life meaning, while measures of affective well-being and satisfaction were more strongly influenced by context of parenting. Marital status appeared to be particularly important determinant of effect…

Interviewed white virgin junior high school students in 1980 and again in 1982. Found effects of parental marital status on sexual behavior and on age-graded deviance, suggesting general loss of parental control. Control loss was associated with disruption of two-parent household for boys and with the state of living in a fatherless household for…

Examines whether the rising percentage of unmarried adults would affect the level of social support between adult children and their parents. The only major effect found was for coresidence. Neither divorced children in general nor divorced daughters or divorced single parents in particular posed a special burden to parents. (RJM)

Many researchers have cited the trauma of divorce as being second only to that incurred by the death of child. Yet divorce does not mean the end of a family or of parenting responsibilities. This book focuses on co-parenting and how real divorced parents attempt to make a "family apart" function successfully. The stories and quotes were…

During the past century the U.S. family system has seen vast changes--in marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women's work outside the home. Andrew Cherlin reviews these historic changes, noting that marriage remains the most common living arrangement for raising children, but that children, especially poor…

Explored child-parent relationships and parents' (N-1,502) psychological well-being through analysis of structural and demographic correlates of parent-child relationship quality and child-rearing demands and through implications of relational quality and demands for parents' psychological well-being. Found age and divorce status strongest…

This guidebook was developed to aid mothers who are attending school or training programs and also have preschool or school-age children at home, to find new approaches to their complicated life situations. Based on the experiences of 215 women in Allegheny County Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), the booklet describes some of the problems they faced as…