Family Trends

Learning about the trends in the family was a very interesting experience because I, like many others, often discuss data without ever really understanding the implications of it. While family trends can have a big impact on society as a whole, they can also have a big impact on our lives in a more personal. I would like to go over some of the trends we learned about in our class this week and share my thoughts on their impacts from a population-wide perspective and from a personal perspective.

The rate of births from unmarried mothers in 2007 was 39.7 percent. This statistic worries me greatly because of the huge impact this can have on society. While it is understandable that some mothers would give birth when they are not married and there are many cases of great single mothers, statistics show that children who grow up in single-parent homes are at a significant disadvantage when compared to children born into a stable family, as reported by familystructuresstudies.com. With the increased likelihood of children of single-parent families being at risk in many different ways such as crime, unsafe sexuality, and a higher chance of struggling in relationships, I think it is important that we look for ways to help reverse this trend while also looking to lend support to single parents we know personally.

The amount of people who cohabitate has grown immensely the past few decades. Because of this marriage and thus divorce, has gone down. In relation to the above paragraph, I think some of the reason more children are being born to unwed mothers are because there are less married mothers to begin with. Also, because we have less married families, the birth rate in America is at an all-time low, which is also very important and could lead to a whole different discussion.

There are many other trends we discussed in our class, but I think it is clear that these trends are mostly against the forming of stable families. It is important to understand how important families really are on a large scale, but what is even more important is for us to understand how our individual families are important.

It is understood that there are no perfect families, and I personally know many who have been hurt by their families in destructive ways, but many families can hugely benefit their members. I have noticed that every family has an individual culture and these cultures have a huge effect on all family members, parents and children alike. Most people learn how a family works through their experiences growing up in one, and when they start a family of their own, will likely pattern it after the culture they grew up in because they probably don’t know of anything different.

I was raised in a stable family, with a stable culture. While it was far from perfect, I always knew my parents and siblings had my back, and I had theirs. This has influenced me a ton, and I really hope to pass this culture on to my future family. Even the little things, like my family's focus on sports, or how open we are to learning new things, I notice an almost subconscious desire to emulate. That is why it is so important for us to examine these family trends and understand how they will affect our families. Kids who grow up in an unstable, dangerous environment will likely pattern their future family after that, even if they might suspect it is wrong, it will be the only thing they know.

I hope that we can all take a second to understand our influence on our personal family or the families around us and try to make a positive impact on those family’s cultures to protect them from these dangerous family trends.