American Family Decline, 1960-1990: A Review and Appraisal

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. National Council on Family Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Marriage and Family. A Review and AppraisalContrary to the view of some academics that the family in America is not declining but just changing, the thesis of this article is thatfamily decline since 1960 has been extraordinarily steep, and its social consequences serious, especially for children. Drawing mainly on U.S. Census data, family trends of the past three decades are reviewed. The evidence for family decline is appraised in three areas: demographic, institutional, and cultural. It is argued that families have lost functions, power, and authority, that familism as a cultural value has diminished, and that people have become less willing to invest time, money, and energy in family life, turning instead to investments in themselves. Recent family decline is more serious than any decline in the past because what is breaking up is the nuclearfamily, thefundamental unit stripped of relatives and left with two essential functions that cannot be performed better elsewhere: childrearing and the provision to its members of affection and companionship. Family decline in America continues to be a debatable issue, especially in academia. Several scholars have recently written widely-distributed trade books reinforcing what has become the establishment position of many family researchers-that family decline is a "myth," and that "the family is not declining, it is just changing" (Coontz, 1992; Skolnick, 1991; Stacey, 1990). Many academic books (and dozens of articles) have echoed the same theme, including one outspokenly entitled The Myth of Family Decline (Dornbusch & Strober, 1988; Gubrium & Holstein, 1990; Kain, 1990; Scanzoni, Polonko, Teachman, & Thompson, 1989). Even Father Andrew Greeley (1991) has weighed in, claiming on the basis of telephone surveys that marriage in America is stronger than ever.My view is just the opposite. Like the majority of Americans, I see the family as an institution in decline and believe that this should be a cause for alarm-especially as regards the consequences for children. In some sense, of course, the family has been declining since the beginning of recorded history-yet we've survived. But often overlooked in the current debate is the fact that recent family decline is unlike historical family change. It is something unique, and much more serious. The argument for this position, and the evidence to support it, are provided below. OVERVIEW At the beginning of this century there was a widespread belief that the childrearing functions of the family, coming to full fruition, would stamp the character of our era. In this century's f...

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