American Families Are Changing

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American Families are Changing Linda Haury South University Online American Families are Changing Few would deny that the family has a very important role in society. There are other “persons, groups, or institutions that teach us what we need to know in order to participate in society” (Kendall, 2013, p. 104). For example, peers, schools, and churches. How important is the family as an agent of socialization? “Most of us form an emerging sense of self and acquire most of our beliefs and values within the family context. We also learn about the larger dominant culture (including language, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms) and the primary subcultures to which our parents and other relatives belong. The role of the family is especially significant because young children have little social experience beyond the family’s boundaries (Kendall, 2013, p. 104). “For many years the standard sociological definition of family has been a group of people who are related to one another by bonds of blood, marriage, or adoption and who live together, form an economic unit, and bear and raise children” (Kendall, 2013, p. 434). When I was a child in the 60s, the typical family was a married couple consisting of a man and a woman. The man works to provide for his family and the woman stays home to cook, clean house, and bear children. Some examples seen on television were “Ozzie and Harriet” and “Leave it to Beaver”. The families on these shows were the traditional family unit at that time. What about today? Has the family changed? How has the family unit changed? What caused it to change? The makeup of the family is changing dramatically. There has been a rapid increase in the number of "singlehoods," cohabitations, and single-parent families due to both divorce and to personal choice (South University Online, 2010). These changes in American family

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