Nuclear family

September 24, 2020 T. Denny Sanford School professor says America should rethink and promote a more realistic picture of U.S. households As the demography of the United States dramatically shifts, so too should the idea of what it means to be a family, said an Arizona State University professor. Since the end of World War II, the "ideal" nuclear family consisting of a white father, mother and their two biological kids has been perpetuated in media. But that image is outdated and no longer reflects modern society, said “This cultural ideal of the 'Leave it to Beaver' family where the father works, mom stays at home raising their two children is not what family looks like anymore,” said Cotton, who is a family demographer and sociologist. “It’s time to decenter that notion and expand our understanding of what a family looks like.” Cotton’s words come on the eve of ASU Now spoke to Cotton about her research on family dynamics and how the future of American households will shape and influence our society going forward. Cassandra Cotton Question: Social science research shows that the nuclear family ideal of the post-World War II baby boom is not an accurate reflection of American society. Why have social scientists like yourself come to that conclusion? Answer: What’s so interesting about the "ideal" of the nuclear family is that it’s actually a relatively new one, and it’s not universal. We’ve conceptualized the "two married, opposite-sex parents and biological kids" family a...

T he scene is one many of us have somewhere in our family history: Dozens of people celebrating Thanksgiving or some other holiday around a makeshift stretch of family tables—siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, great-aunts. The grandparents are telling the old family stories for the 37th time. “It was the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen in your life,” says one, remembering his first day in America. “There were lights everywhere … It was a celebration of light! I thought they were for me.” To hear more feature stories, The oldsters start squabbling about whose memory is better. “It was cold that day,” one says about some faraway memory. “What are you talking about? It was May, late May,” says another. The young children sit wide-eyed, absorbing family lore and trying to piece together the plotline of the generations. After the meal, there are piles of plates in the sink, squads of children conspiring mischievously in the basement. Groups of young parents huddle in a hallway, making plans. The old men nap on couches, waiting for dessert. It’s the extended family in all its tangled, loving, exhausting glory. This particular family is the one depicted in Barry Levinson’s 1990 film, Avalon, based on his own childhood in Baltimore. Five brothers came to America from Eastern Europe around the time of World War I and built a wallpaper business. For a while they did everything together, like in the old country. But as the movie goes along, the extended family begins to split ap...

In the Encyclopedia of Couples and Family Therapy, the authors note that "traditional" nuclear families are typically thought of as having a mother, father, and children. However, the term dates back to the early- to mid-twentieth century, when the characteristics of a nuclear family were significantly different from today. For example, compared to today, people in the 1950s married younger, had more children, and divorced less frequently. Custody arrangements post-divorce have also changed. A 2022 study published in Demographic Research found that shared physical custody more than doubled between 1985 and 2014, from 13% to 34%. When parents share custody, family life for children of divorce will look different, particularly if one or both parents remarry. According to Changes in Adoption There used to be a cloud of secrecy surrounding adoption, says Tangel. "In the '50s and '60s, adoption was seen as a way to fulfill that ideal [nuclear family]," she says. "Parents would look to find children who looked like them so that the family would look like two married parents with biological children. We know that's not healthy." Teen Mom's Catelynn Baltierra (Lowell) put a national spotlight on open adoptions when she and her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Tyler Baltierra, placed their baby, Carly, up for adoption in 2009. The Baltierras, Carly, and Carly's adoptive parents continue to keep in touch. Tangel says if the biological and adoptive parents set expectations, this can bene...

I remember being in a room of scholars 20 or more years ago when family historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead argued that much of the increase in family fragmentation then observed was driven by growing affluence. She was not referring to wealth inequality but to the growing affluence across America that gave wings to autonomy. Brooks gives the example of how many fewer elderly Americans now live with kin than in the past. An unasked question is, how many elderly Americans want to have less autonomy and live with their kin? Many elderly adults in America are isolated and at increased risk. More than a few want increased connection with family and a growing number I am not arguing that there is virtue in isolation and atomization. I do think we are losing, or letting go of, common spaces for connection in our lives. Many of us want what may not actually be best for us or those around us. Paul Amato and colleagues wrote an insightful book on the growing trend for couples to isolate and be Social Poverty. She suggests this is a growing problem for all, with particular challenges for those struggling with economic hardship. I strongly agree with Brooks that isolation is winning out over community. Along with detailing various types of government efforts that he believes may help in the broader context, he brings his essay home by focusing on ways we can work toward creating more social connection, partly by forged families. This is, in part, the province of commitment on a persona...

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The nuclear family is disintegrating—or so Americans might conclude from what they watch and read. The quintessential nuclear family consists of a married couple raising their children. But from Oscar-winning Marriage Story’s gut-wrenching portrayal of divorce or the Harvard sociologist Christina Cross’s New York Times op-ed in December, “The Myth of the Two-Parent Home,” discounting the Meanwhile, the writer David Brooks recently described the post–World War II American concept of family as a historical aberration—a departure from a much older tradition in which parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins all look out for the well-being of children. In The Atlantic bearing the headline “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,” Brooks argued that the “nuclear family has been crumbling in slow motion for decades.” He sees extended families and what he calls “forged families”—single parents, single adults, and others coming together to support one another and children—as filling the vacuum created by the breakdown of the nuclear family. Yet the search for alternate forms of family has two major flaws. First, there’s evidence indicating that the nuclear family is, in fact, recovering. Second, a nuclear family headed by two loving married parents remains the most stable and safest environment for raising children. There are, of course, still reasons for legitimate concern about the state of the American family. Marriage today is less likely to anchor family life in many poor and wo...

What to Know Nuclear family refers to the core members of a family, usually parents and children. Nuclear had a long history of figurative use before its main association with "nuclear energy," as nucleus has senses meaning "kernel" or more simply "something essential." Grandparents are grand; great-aunts are great; and nuclear families are … nuclear? Well, yes. Nuclear families— nuclear. It has nothing to do with melting down. Origin of 'Nuclear Family' Nuclear family dates to the 1920s, when the academic fields of At the time nuclear family was coined, the word nuclear inhabited contexts other than those most familiar to us now. Its use was broad and tied, as it still is, closely to uses of its parent word, nucleus, which had been a member of the language for 250 years. Many Uses of 'Nucleus' and 'Nuclear' Tracing the development of the word nucleus in the Oxford English Dictionary, we see that it was first applied in English in the mid-late 17th century to the brightest mass of matter in the head of a comet. Its origin is nucleus, meaning "kernel." Other astronomy meanings followed, with the word referring to other bright and dazzling celestial sights, such as the relatively small, brighter, and denser portion of a galaxy, or the hot faint central star of a planetary nebula. By the early 18th century, nucleus described other more earthly kernels in the fields of botany and pathology too, with a wide range of scientific applications active by the mid-19th century, includ...

Recent Examples on the Web From the findings of scholars like Stewart and Schechinger, the 1940s and ’50s was a time where America had narrowed in on Eurocentric ideas of the nuclear family: two-parent heterosexual couples with children. — Meagan Jordan, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2023 The remaining member of the nuclear family, Buster Murdaugh, 26, lives nearly two hours away. — Steve Helling, Peoplemag, 21 Mar. 2023 There’s a disintegration of the nuclear family. — Karen Idelson, Variety, 12 Jan. 2023 Freeing adolescent girls from the yoke of self-hatred was one of the most subversive parts of the already subversive 1990s Addams family films, which anticipated coming decades of the conservative movement’s culture-war obsession with the (straight, white, Christian) nuclear family. — Emily Alford, Longreads, 23 Nov. 2022 What are your thoughts on the nuclear family? — Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2022 That’s not to say Bruce and Selina need to play at being a nuclear family. — Richard Newby, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2022 Her aloneness was exacerbated by a West Coast community made up of mostly nuclear families. — Nina St. Pierre, ELLE, 17 Feb. 2023 What has all that automation done to Americans in the decade that most fervidly fetishized the nuclear family and glorified the suburbs? — Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2023 See More These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nuclear family.' Any opinions...

Today single parent families have become even more common than the so-called “nuclear family” consisting of a mother, father, and children. Today we see all sorts of single parent families: headed by mothers, fathers, and even by a grandparent raising their grandchildren. Life in a single parent household—though common—can be quite stressful for the adult and the children. The single parent may feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of juggling caring for the children, maintaining a job, and keeping up with the bills and household chores. And typically, the family’s finances and resources are drastically reduced following the parents’ breakup. Single parent families deal with many other pressures and potential problem areas that other families may not face. • Visitation and custody problems. • The effects of continuing conflict between the parents. • Less opportunity for parents and children to spend time together. • Effects of the breakup on children’s school performance and peer relations. • Disruptions of extended family relationships. • Problems caused by the parents’ dating and entering new relationships. The single parent can help family members face these difficulties by talking with each other about their feelings and working together to tackle problems. Support from friends, other family members, and places of worship can help too. But if family members are still overwhelmed and having problems, it may be time to consult an expert or a licensed mental health pro...