当代美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化及影响

1、当代美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化及影响the changes and influences of marriage and family patterns in modern americaabstract: family is the basic social institution and the bedrock of all societies. family structure and family life can mirror the moral values of the society, its cultures, and its national characteristics.

2、 the american society has changed a lot since the 1960s in material wealth. the enormous material wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. as a result, people are more and more concerned about individual rights. the society as a

3、whole has become more tolerant toward people who do not follow the traditional cultural patterns. meanwhile marriage and family patterns have experienced tremendous changes under the influence of these changes. the changes have tremendous influences on the american society, men, women, and children.

4、 marriage and family patterns in our country have also experienced changes these years. studying the changes of american marriage and family patterns can provide us some valuable information.key words: american marriage; family patterns; changes; influences摘要：家庭是社会的基本单位，也是社会的基石。家庭结构和家庭生活亦可反映出社会的价值观，

5、文化特性和国民特征。20世纪60年代美国社会在物质财富方面发生了巨大的变化。物质财富的充裕，科学技术的迅猛发展促使人们追求自我享乐，整个美国社会对传统价值观的态度的转变影响了美国的婚姻和家庭模式。文章主要探讨了美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化，以及这些变化对美国社会和人们的生活产生的影响。研究美国婚姻家庭模式的变迁的经验结果对我们研究全球化时代中国婚姻家庭的变迁课提供有益的参考。关键词：美国婚姻；家庭模式；变化；影响contentsi. introduction.1ii. literature review1iii. the changes of the marriage .2a. the tende

6、ncy of late marriage2 b. high rate of divorce.2 c. marriage between the same sexes.3d. marriage between different races.3iv. diverse family patterns.4a. nuclear family.4 b. blended family.5c. dual-employed family .5d. single-parent family6e. cohabitation.7f. single life.7g. child-free family.7h. gay

7、 and lesbian family.8v. the causes and influences of the changes.8 a. the causes of the changes.8 1. the changes of value.8 2. materialism and competitive environment.9 3. the changes of family roles.94. social toleration to the alternative lifestyle and the changes of laws.9b. the influences on soc

8、iety.101. increasing the burden of woman102. the influences on children.11 3. increasing the burden of the governments.11vi. conclusion 12works cited. .13 the changes and influences of marriage and family patterns in modern america i. introductionsociety refers to the people who live in a country or

9、 region, their organizations, and their way of life. the american society has changed a lot since the 1960s as the enormous material wealth after world warpushes all groups of people to fight for their rights. the civil rights movement and the womens movement changed significantly the social and eco

10、nomic conditions. the enormous material wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. as a result, people are more and more concerned about individual rights. the society as a whole has become more tolerant toward people who do not fo

11、llow the traditional cultural patterns. and marriage and family patterns have experienced tremendous changes during these years, too. people have more choices than ever before and they can end a marriage if not satisfied and then remarry. family patterns have been diversified with the prosperous eco

12、nomies, womens self-awareness, different attitudes toward social values, etc. all the changes have great influences on the american society, children, men and women.ii. literature reviewmarriage is the foundation of the growing family and family is the bedrock of the societies. the development of so

13、ciety and the changes of family patterns is a hot topic in america. the researchers pay close attention to the changes. there are many statistics about the rate of marriage, divorce and family patterns which show the changes of americans attitudes towards them and the changes of the traditional valu

14、es about marriage and family. in 1960, the pills were widely used in american, which helped control the womens pregnancy and the birth rate, and men and women felt more safe and free to their own sexual behavior (wang 277). the married couple made up 74.8 percent of all household types in 1960, drop

15、ped to 65.4 percent in 1975, and is projected to drop further to 54.9 percent by 1990. the estimates for the femaleheaded family went from 17.2 percent to 23.6 percent in 1975 and were projected to 29 percent by 1990. (daniel 50) this article mainly talks about the causes and influences of the chang

16、es of the marriage and family patterns. compared with the changes of american marriage life and family patterns, china suffers the same problems increasing divorce rate, and marriage without child, etc. our nation can learn from their changes, and avoids the bad situations exacerbating. . the change

17、s of marriagewhat is marriage? marriage is a legal union between a man and woman as husband and wife. since the womens situation had changed a lot, the marriage changed, too. the traditional marriage pattern is that a married couple legally live together and give birth to their children. but there i

18、s a tendency that there are fewer and fewer people getting married or choosing to marry at a late age. more people end their marriage if they are unhappy. as many people fail in their marriage, divorce and separation have become much more common in recent decades. divorce is on the increase, and the

19、re is a higher divorce rate, but many divorced people do eventually remarry.a. the tendency of late marriagefewer and fewer people would like to marry at an early age. since 1960s the proportion of married men and women under 15 are far less than before and the proportion of no marriage experience k

20、eeps increasing. in 1970, there were 15.6 percent of white people over 18 and older that had never been married, but by 1991, this figure had risen to 20.5 percent (wang 492). a man and a woman may cohabit or live together without marriage or before marriage. in this case, man and woman are no longe

21、r bounded by the traditional marriage patterns and they are much free to lead a life they dream of. whats more, nowadays, women pay more attention to their own development, and they are not only restricted to the marriage and be a house wife any more. they have the abilities to walk out and hunt for

22、 good jobs to support themselves. people are aware of self-fulfillment and self-worth; they would pursue their wonderful dreams instead of bearing the burden of family at the early age. b. high rate of divorce the enormous amount of wealth caused people to believe in more equality and social justice

23、. meanwhile, the ever rising expectation of women to be perfect wives caused anxiety among many of them. there was a tendency that people after world warbecame less patient with the old tradition of the putting the family wellbeing first and began to demand more self-fulfillment. women began to doub

24、t if staying at home serving the need of their husband and children were all they should do. with the womens movement, women had achieved equalities in political, social, educational, and economic life. due to all the changes, women no longer need men to support them and become more and more indepen

25、dent. they can do what they want and what they like and fulfill their ambition on their own. they are struggling for the equal rights all the time, and legal divorce is part of them. as the freedom prevailed in america in early 1960s, the rate of divorce was on the continuous increase. toward early

26、1980s, divorce was the ending of a marriage between husband and wife, and the experts estimated that it would increase to 67 percent (bureau of census 68). nowadays, society is more tolerant to the divorce, and many american have come to view divorce as a natural experience and make contributions to

27、 the high rate of divorce. c. marriage between the same sexes before 1960s, homosexuals suffered a lot of discrimination and were considered as lunacy, and many of them were scared to unveil their true identity to the public. by 1960s, the homosexuals formed their own organization and struggled to o

28、btain the equal right. in 1970s and 1980s, with the development of the campaigns of homosexual rights, american public become much understandingly and tolerant of the alternative lifestyle. many states and federal government add the items of anti-sexual discrimination in the anti-discrimination poli

29、cies and laws. when the u.s. census was conducted 1990, it shows that 150,000 same-sex parents of the whole population cohabit in american in 1990s and 594,000 in 2000s. on february 4, 2004, the supreme court of massachusetts struck down the state law which had banned same sex marriage. on may 17, m

30、assachusetts became the first state to allow same sex marriage (zhou 238). it seems that the rights of homosexuals will be accepted one day. they will be regarded as the normal and live a happy life.d. marriage between different races the united states has always been described as “melting pot” in w

31、hich many different racial and ethnic groups have assimilated into one culture. actually many races remain their own traditions and for the most part of the melting has meant americanization confronting to cultural patterns of the mainstream american society. so there is another description of ameri

32、ca society-salad bowl, where the various racial and ethnic groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, creating a rich diverse country. there are many races in american society, such as wasps-white anglo-saxon protestants, native americans, african americans, hispanic amer

33、icans, and asian americans. wasps are the dominant race in american society and others are the minorities, all of them make great contribution to the development of america.since 1960s, the number of marriage between different races is on the increase. by 1960s, all couples of different races were a

34、bout 149,000, and increase to 651,000 by 1980. whats more, the number of 2000 and 2003 has reached to 1,460,000 and 2,090,000 respectively.in general, the minorities are much easier to get married with other races which can be drawn from the declaration of racial identifications from two or more rac

35、es. in 2000 u.s. bureau of census shows that the declaration of the native hawaii with other pacific island inhabitants, indians, original alaska, asia americans, and african americans of two or more races are 54.4%, 39.9%, 13.9% and 4.8% respectively and the proportion of whites are only 2.5% (u.s.

36、 census bureau 7). diverse family patterns beginning in the late 1950s, a wave of social change swept through american life. almost every american family was affected. the structure of american family had experienced tremendous changes over the past few years. at the beginning of the 20th century, t

37、he extended family-consisting of two or more adult generations of the same family sharing a common households and economic resources-was the dominant family pattern in the united states. today, in the minds of most american, the american family has meant a nuclear family. there are also other types

38、of family in america, such as blended family, child-free family, single-parent family, gay and lesbian family, cohabitation and independent living, etc.a. nuclear family nuclear family consists of parents and their children who live apart from other kin. in old days, a group of people in a big famil

39、y lived together and shared the wealth together. but now, many families are headed by a married couple. mother and father have an equal voice in making decisions. children grow up in a complete family and enjoy a lot of happy times with both their parents. but the proportion of nuclear family which

40、once has been the dominant family patterns has steeply dropped down in recent 20 years. in late 20th century, the nuclear american family that consisted of a breadwinner father, a homemaker mother and children were less than 15% of all american households. the rest of american lived in other family

41、forms, such as child-free family, single-parent family, single life which in total surpassed the dominant modern nuclear family showing the value of the bourgeoisie in 1950s (stephanie 33).b. blended family the increase in the divorce rate has led to the creation of the blended family, in which at l

42、east one member of adult couple is a stepparent. people divorce if they undergo a bitter marriage, but they would like to build a new family again. some of them choose to remarry with the people of the same experience to blend together two families into one, some of them will marry someone who never

43、 marries, and they do want to leave a new happy family life with others who seem to be suitable life companies. it is estimated that slightly more than one american family in six is a blended family. if current trends continue into the 21st century, about one out of three adults in the united states

44、 will spend part of their lives in a blended family (fan 231). in a dramatic change from the traditional bitterness of divorce, many parted parents are doing their best to be cordial, even warm, especially on the most important days of the year. they want their lovely children to grow up in a happy

45、and healthy environment. but it still has negative effects and this will be unfavorable to their children when they are growing up. a great number of peoples whose parents separated in their early age, and then build a new family eventually ended their marriage in divorce just follow the steps of th

46、eir parents. but many couples and their children adjust successfully to their remarriage, and they consider their new marriage and family to be a great improvement over the previous one.c. dual-employed family one important shift in american family patterns is that in a large majority of these famil

47、ies, both husband and wife have been employed and have double incomes. womens limbers started a social and political movement which aimed to achieve womens liberation by organizing groups and campaigns and by causing individual women and men to change their attitudes. as a result, women have obtaine

48、d many equal political and legal rights. the economic and domestic lives of women have been change a lot then. women are no longer confined to their homes to do housework and take care of the children. in 1940, only about one out of seven married women worked outside the home. today in more than 70

49、percent of married couple families with children both work outside. women in dual-employed families deal with more trifles and family chorus in their daily life, though they have their own work to do. in many cases, fathers are still the breadwinner and they are responsible for the large cost of the

50、 families. but it seems that mothers are more tired in this kind of family, because they have to spend a lot of time looking after their children and husbands while working. d. single-parent familyin some families, only one parent, with his or her children lives together. it may be the result of the

51、 divorce, separation or desertion. this kind of family is also called one-parent family or a lone-parent family. mother or father alone brings up the child. nowadays there appears more and more single-parent families in america and of all family types, single-parent families have increased most rapi

52、dly during the past few years. in 1970s, 12 percent of the total american families were comprised of single mothers with children under 18, which increased to 24 percent in 1980s, and continued increasing to 26 percent in 1995 (daniel 56). the children with single-parent are lack of either maternal

53、or paternal love, and probably meet with the physical problems or obstacles which are harmful to their growth and development.e. cohabitation cohabitation means that two people live together without legal marriage, which has increased dramatically over the past few decades. in the united state, coha

54、bitation has become much more common. as cohabitation before marriage is increasingly widespread, many women can be found cohabiting with their future husband before marriage or people after divorce live together without marriage again. the reasons of cohabitation are as follows. people are more tol

55、erant to the alternative lifestyles. they choose to cohabitate as a way to escape higher rate of divorce, they do not trust marriage can bring them happiness. more and more people would like to live together and think they lead a happy life. moreover, due to more job and educational opportunities fo

56、r young people, and economic hardships, a large number of women choose to delay their marriage to pursue their own careers which also make contributions to an increase rate of cohabitation. young people are inclined to live together because they are in an age of caving out their own career and they

57、are not sure live one place for life long time. they may choose to cohabit with their boy or girl friend and fight for life hard together, if they want to change their jobs to another place and they are not meeting of minds, then they can split up peacefully. experience shows that against good wills, couples who cohabit befo