Paul C. Glick

Updating the Life Cycle of the Family.

Changes from decade to decade in family life cycle patterns are analyzed for women who have married in the 20th Century. Longtime changes in the median age of women upon entering life cycle stages have occurred primarily because of fluctuations in birth rates and improvement in survival rates. A noteworthy recent development is the continuing postponement of marriage. Women entering marriage during the 1970s are expected to have between one and two fewer children to end childbearing three years sooner and to have 11 more years of married life after the last child marries than women who married during the first decade of the century. (authors)

One Parent Families: A Social and Economic Profile.

This paper uses US census data to document the extent to which one parent families tend to have social and economic characteristics that compare unfavorably with those of 2 parent families. By most objective measurements the vast majority of one parent families hold a disadvantageous position in society relative to other family groups. They are characterized by a high rate of poverty a high percentage of minority representation relatively low education and a high rate of mobility. In short as a group they generally have little equity or stature in American society and constitute a group with unusually pressing social and economic needs. This paper demonstrates that the one parent experience is much more extensive than is ordinarily thought. 1 out of every 5 families with children under 18 years old in 1984 was a one parent family up from 1 of every 10 in 1970. There were 3.2 million one parent families in 1970 and 6.7 million in 1984. In 1984 88% of one parent families were mother-child families. Mother-child families are increasingly younger. The median age of mothers maintaining families alone dropped from 37.2 years in 1970 to 34.6 years in 1984--the same median age as that for mothers in two parent families in 1984. One of the ways in which fathers who maintain a family alone are much better situated than their female counterparts to realize economic security is their higher level of educational attainment. Men who maintain one parent families are much better situated economically than their female counterparts. The number of one parent families demonstrate that the magnitude of the problem of providing assistance to the families in need is great.

Remarried Families, Stepfamilies, and Stepchildren: A Brief Demographic Profile.

In view of the wide-ranging statements that are made about the prevalence of remarried families, stepfamilies, and stepchildren, this article presents estimates of these family situations for 1987 and 1980 and shows how the estimates were derived. The article explains how other estimates would be different if the definitions were changed or if estimates were developed for remarried persons in different professional and educational groups.

More Young Adults Are Living with Their Parents: Who Are They?.

From a high point in 1940, near the end of the economic depression of the 1930s, the proportion of persons 18 to 29 years of age who were living with their parents declined to a low point in 1960, near the end of the baby boom, and rose moderately by 1984. The recent increase occurred during several years of high rates of marriage postponement, college enrollment, unemployment, divorce, and births to unmarried mothers. This paper documents the changes since 1940 and presents selected demographic characteristics of young adults living in their parental homes in 1980. The tables are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureaus decennial censuses and Current Population Survey.

New approaches in studying the life cycle of the family

ResumenMétodos revisados y nuevas fuenies de datos para estudiar el ciclo de vida de la familia permiten medir con mayor exactitud la edad típica en que ocurren los hechos en dicho ciclo y describir las formas típicas de cambio en la composición y en las características económicas de la familia desde el principio hasta el término de él. Se encuentra que los cambios ocurridos durante el siglo veinte en la edad al casarse, en el tamaiio de la familia completa, en el espaciamiento de los hijos y en la esperanza de vida, han influído sustanc almente en el ciclo de vida de la familia media de los Estados Unidos. He aquí una comparación de las mujeres más jóvenes y para las cuales existen datos, con las mujeres de 40 a 60 años de edad:Las mujeres mas jóvenes se casan uno ados años ántes y terminan su período de reproducción dos a tres años más jóvenes; su edad al casarse su hijo menor es de 4 a 5 años menor y la duración de su vida de casada es cerca de nueve años mayor. Los datos del Censo de 1960 muestran que de ocho parejas que se encuentran en su primer añ de casados, siete constituyen un hogar independiente de sus parientes; al cabo de diez años de casados el 99 por ciento tiene hogares separados. El límite del período de reproducción sitúiee entre los 5 y los 20 años de casados, cuando cerca del 85 por ciento de las parejas conservan a algunos de sus hijos en casa.El ingreso máximo de la familia se registra entre las familias cuyo jefe (marido) tiene de 45 a 54 años de edad. Sin embargo, el ingreso maximo por miembro de la familia se alcanza cerca de diez años después, cuando la mayoría de los hijos han abandonado el hogar.

Marital Instability in the United States: Some Correlates and Recent Changes.

The authors examine recent U.S. divorce trends with particular reference to some of the demographic consequences for children and families. They also present new data on some correlates of marital instability including the relationship between age at first marriage and divorce and between childlessness or sex of children and divorce. Data are from official vital statistics the 1960 and 1970 censuses and the June 1975 Current Population Survey (ANNOTATION)

Frequency, Duration, and Probability of Marriage and Divorce.

Information on marital histories of adults in the entire United States is summarized from the Survey of Economic Opportunity. Four-fifths of whites and two-thirds of Negroes in the cohort who married at least 20 years ago had married only once. One-fourth of the whites and nearly one-half of the Negroes in this cohort with youthful marriages had experienced divorce. Intervals between marital events were generally shorter for whites than Negroes. Probabilities of marriage were highest for single men in their late twenties; this cohort had the lowest probability of divorce. Men with an incomplete high school or college education had high probabilities of early divorce and early remarriage. Poor men tended to postpone divorce and, after a short period of divorce, not to remarry.

The life cycle of American families: an expanded analysis.

**Graham B. Spanier received his Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University. He is Associate Professor of Human Development and Sociology and Associate Dean of the College of Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University. His current research interests focus on the quality and stability of marital relationships across the life span, marital separation and remarriage, and family demography. Paul C. Glick received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin. He is senior demographer in the Population Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. His current research interests focus on family demography, including marital status and living arrangements, the family life cycle, and demographic analyses of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. This article is the latest in a series of analyses of the progression of American women through some critical stages of the life span based on data collected by the Census Bureau. The present analysis, however, is

Fifty Years of Family Demography: A Record of Social Change.

Written in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Marriage and the Family this essay tells how family demography developed in the United States and then summarizes findings from selected research projects on the subject since 1940. Early studies examined the family life cycle historical family trends religious and racial intermarriage socioeconomic status and family stability and the marriage squeeze. Later analyses dealt with international trends in marriage health of the married and unmarried cohabitation outside marriage one-parent families and living alone. Still more recent investigations included gender preferences in children marital stability and sex of children no-fault divorce divorce among children of divorce projections of marital status remarriage marital homogamy stepfamilies and some consequences of recent changes in American family demographics. (EXCERPT)

The Incidence of Polygamy in Contemporary Africa: A Research Note

An updating of information on the incidence of polygamy in contemporary Africa suggests that its continued prevalence as a form of marriage warrents further study. (authors)