Family Structure Essay

932 Words4 Pages
The Changes in Family Structure According to the US Census Bureau, the definition of a family is “a group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.” (US Census Bureau) That definition of family doesn’t take into account all the other types of family that now exist today. Today a family can consist of non-related people that care for one another. Traditionally, a family consisted of a mother and a father that cared for their children under one roof. That trend has now shifted towards a blended family or a single parent household. More couples are choosing either to not get married, get divorced or even homosexual couples are raising children and are considered to be a family. The trend is now more non-traditional than what would have been the norm fifty years ago. This essay will attempt to look at how the changes in family structure impact our children and the different family structures that now do exist and their consequences to mankind. The most important issue at hand is how this is all affecting our children. The children are the ones that will carry on our society and it is our jobs to teach them morals and values. The most important factor in children’s lives is domestic trends. Children are very impressionable and look to adults for guidance and role models. There are now many types of family units including: single parents, divorced parents, married couples, homosexual couples and other relatives acting as parents. Studies done by Sara McLanahan and Gary D. Sandefur, they had found that children raised by single parents were worse off in life than children that were raised by both parents regardless of race, educational background or if the parent was remarried. The same would hold true for teenagers that were raised by a single parent or only lived with one parent at one point during
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