Changes In Family Structure: Why Things Are Different Now

Family is generally defined by two people, when you tend to think about a sterotipical family you automatically think a dad that goes to an office that provides and a mum that stays at home and looks after the children and house. which are related by blood, married or in some cases adoption that live together. In todays society the definition of ‘family’ has drastically evolved over the course of 30 years. What changes in family structure have occurred recently?

The presumption is that you must marry at a certain age and start creating a family early but in today’s day and age that particular view has change and that exception has decreased.

Newlyweds are starting to make the decision to create a family later and some are even choosing not to have any children. Although there have been a lot of changes and bariers that are affecting the ordinary family type and its structure including separation, remarriage, and de facto which can affect the children that are involved as it can take a toll on their mental health and schooling performance.

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The term De facto is becoming more of a common which essentially means a relationship status that has not been made official by the government. Some of these relationships are turning into marriage at a later period as a large percentage of relationships in this day and age are generally living under the same roof for a longer time before officially getting married, but there are multiple reasons as to why these changes are occurring such as fertility difficulties, having children later, career goals or education aspired.

A significant family provides a sense of belonging where it puts meaning to life as well as it helps to cope with general life scenarios. Which is why as kids we often seek acceptance from building friendships and groups at school as it has a predominant effect on an individual hence why a strong structured family ethics are important for a stronger child’s development. 

Other barriers including families that are quite often faced with challenges such as becoming ill, finances struggles or relationship break-ups, which leaves the family having to adapt in this case it can result in a unsecuried household, but this circumstance this does not define a families fortune, a large amount of difffent families still perform efficentily, eventhough they face such barriers and challanegers along their journay. An importance is that a family aim to be able to adapt to these changes as life is packed with these unfortunnt events which can have an impact and cause stress.

Most general families are going towards soul parent‚ which determine a higher-level relationship issues or separation problems causing accommodation arrangements. Generally, families that have a mother that looks after the house and children and father that is the provider. With a rise within individuals that are subsistence themselves also living with unrelated people together. There are drastic changes from the period of 1960s where genrally would have been an 80% chance that two children, would have been chosen in this circumstance. At 2012, it has decreased to a percentage 50-50, which leaves this particulaily difficult to see a generic family structure. 

Incidence of school-related emotional and behavioral problems associated with variation in family structure in young adolescents using a large and nationally representative sample of eighth graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Such problems, although more common in boys, are much more prevalent in families in which the natural mother is absent, especially in father-stepmother families. Using a multinomial-logit model, the unique association of family structure with these problems is evaluated after adjusting for demographic differences.

With various structures of family previous decade changes are occurring drastically as to many years ago society would not acknowledge the relationship or would not show respect if they were living within the same house hold together without officially being married or having a child before being married. As religious views and impacts society was extremely narrow minded about family before marriage and that impacted their future generation as individuals, as they have a worry that they would get disowned by their family which lead to marriage at a younger age to be able to form a structured family, but these religious views are diminishing which has increased civil marriage solemnity.

There can be a negative if a dad or mum become ill or even a sibling which can play a major role on a childerns mental state causing multiple serious disorders including stress disorders and anxiety which then forces the child to grow up faster as there is no support and becomes a burden that has an extensive effect on a proper childhood as a result of having to become a primary carer.

In conclusion, with all these statistics showing “Statured Family” is far more complex than the Nuclear family this day and age, values and traditions have modified over a course of time the perception of a family has been embraced by diversity. Dads and stepdads have a greater impact in a normal child’s upbringing a dad that live together with their kids generally helps them interact and adjust easier to life challengers. 

Childern that tend to be asymmetrical are likely to be me more vulnerable to barriers, therefor dads or stepdads can have a tendency to be overreactive with adaptation helping a child with these effects. A well-structured foundation for a family is extremely predominant, for further development especially for children development stages as environment conditions can factor into aspect of a child’s upbringing within a family home, having long-term impact on a normal adolescent’s life. Hence why a structured home and family is immensely crucial for children to develop fully.

Works cited

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