A family is a basic but a very essential structure for human beings. The very first group every person belongs is a family, and it is not too much to say that a family is the origin of a socialized human being. A family is the first place for a child to learn how to interact with people. It would be difficult to generalize each family in the United States since this country has different races and ethnicities, and a family varies one from to another. As the climate of culture or people’s thoughts change throughout time, structures and trends of a family also change in every period. Nowadays in the United States, various kinds of families exist: childless couples, same sex couples, single parent households, and individuals. The family structure has changed in the United States postwar, and the family trend today is not moving toward the right way for the future.
First, in the present time, the size of a family has been becoming smaller while the number of households is increasing. Unlike any other culture, American families have been traditionally more likely to become nuclear families, and the form of the nuclear family is still common. DiCanio (1989) indicates that the form of the nuclear family is suitable for this society because people change their work location frequently (p.217). In the past, families had more children because children were good, cheap labor for the family work especially for farmers. However, as a result of industrialization, machines took the places of people and life became much more convenient; therefore, parents no longer regarded their children as laborers. Rather, the expense of raising children has become very expensive nowadays: education, medical care, and so on.
A family is a basic but a very essential structure for human beings. The very first group every person belongs is a family, and it is not too much to say that a family is the origin of a socialized human being. A family is the first place for a child to learn how to interact with people. It would be difficult to generalize each family in the United States since this country has different races and ethnicities, and a family varies one from to another. As the climate of culture or people's thought...