Sociology

The American family has ceased to exist. Instead of maintaining the family, what the Americans of the present decade are doing is generating many families with diverse shapes and styles. We have fathers working while mothers keep the house fathers and mothers both working away from the home single parents second marriages bringing together people from unrelated backgrounds childless couples unmarried couples, with and without children gay and lesbian parents (Skolnick, 1991). This variety in the family set up has created a period of generational and historic change in the family life of Americans. Therefore the debate regarding whether family institution in America could be falling apart or should stay has become like a never ending cocktail party discussion (Skolnick, 1991). The rates of divorce, separation and family breakdowns have reached alarming levels in the US. Studies show that the there is a higher tendency of family decline among the African Americans than among the whites (Meyerson, 2007). This paper aims at discussing the decline of the American family in the past two decades in relation to gender, ethnicity and race.

The decline
To start with, there has been a trend in the past few decades in America of rapidly growing numbers of illegitimacy. The rate of birth amongst the unmarried women has increased from fifteen per thousand (in the 1950s) to forty three per thousand in the current generation. This represents an aggregate of three hundred and ten percent increase the numbers of the illegitimate children have thus grown from 150,000 to 1,150, 000 a raise that does not even match the population growth Whats more, the level of the unmarried teenagers from the ages of 15 years to 19 years has shifted from 12.6 to 42.5 today which is change by 337 (Vitz, 2009). In the last conducted census, the Census Bureau had reported that about twenty five percent of the unmarried women eventually become mothers and there was a sixty percent increase in the rate of births out of wedlock in just one decade. There has also been a great rise in the divorce cases and statistics have it that over the past twenty years almost one million children in America are victims of divorced parents every year. Although in the current decade there is remarkable fall in the divorce rate, this is only accountable to a corresponding decline in the number of marriages which makes the situation even worse. Evidence also has that the couples which are cohabiting have also been increasing than any other form of family setup. At the same time these couples have a higher likelihood of separating or divorcing than those which are not cohabiting. Whichever the case, the current high number of couples cohabiting is a clear prediction of even increasing divorce rates in the near future (Vitz, 2009).

The modern American family definition
Popenoe (2007) argument as to why the American family is declining is based on an assertion that the family (which he has defined as the domestic group) is failing to perform its primary functions of socialization and procreation of children. According to him, a family comprises of at least an adult and a dependent person. This definition which has been put forth is one major reason for the decline of the families in America. It is a modern definition that is quite loose and attractive to the modern American. Traditionally, a family consisted of at least a mother, a father and children. This ideal condition cannot work in the current generation which defines a family as just the presence of an adult and a dependant. The modern generation definition rules out the importance of children within a family setup, a major reason for the declining population in America. Also the many forms of families that have developed in the recent past for example the gay and the lesbian families have also contributed to the decline of the American traditional family because they do not constitute of children and at the same time they lead to increased numbers of single parents or unmarried women (Popenoe, 2007).

The causes of the decline of the American family
There are many different reasons that can be attributed to the decline of the American family that is being felt in our current decade. The increase in the levels of joblessness, death of parents from the deadly HIVAIDS pandemic, the increase in the use of drugs and also soaring rates of abortions amongst young and teenage girls may well give roots to the current decline in the American family (Meyerson, 2007). On the other hand, the combination of much more casual and liberal approaches toward sex, gay and lesbian rights movements, coupled with the acceptance of a completely positive outlook of homosexual community, the allowance by churches to use contraceptive devices among the members of the congregation, feminist movement and the collapse of societal roles and historical morals are all reasons that can well explain the cause of the continued obscurity of the nuclear family in America (Mintz, 2008).

The feminist revolution in our current age has brought about the most powerful and tricky challenge to the former traditional marriage patterns. Paradoxically, it could have in some way given strength to the marriage institution through the creation of much freedom to both partners and letting the males to take some of the roles that were traditionally obliged for the females. Feminism has also played a major role in the decline of the American nuclear family, although it is a combination of different emergent issues in todays society which are responsible. The fact that American modern women have to postpone child bearing and rearing so as to attend higher education which was not the case in the historical standpoint, influences the numbers of nuclear families today. The numbers of women who are getting married before twenty five years of age has greatly reduced compared to the historical 1950s where an average American girl was mature for marriage at an age of as early as eighteen years. However, with the modern education system and the increase of the numbers of women undertaking the white color jobs modern woman does not have the opportunity to concentrate with her family at an early age since she is busy building her career profile or engaged in a demanding job (Mintz, 2008).

In the recent past, it was a sin and immoral in the church setting to use contraceptive devices since the religious people believed that it was against the plan of God for them. However, the modern Christian is now allowed by the church to use the contraceptives to control child bearing. This being the case, the numbers of children born amongst the Christians has greatly reduced due to the use of the contraceptives by both the married as well as the unmarried people (Maher, 2003). In addition, due to increasing numbers of educated but unemployed population in the USA, the family has also been greatly affected because most of this young people are financially unstable and though they have attained the marginable age, they cannot engage in marriages because they are not in position to support their families. These youngsters have ended up using contraceptives and engaging in illicit sex which further breaks the family life of the Americans. This group has also recorded the highest numbers of abortions. The impact of these abortions is not only in denying innocent lives an opportunity to live but also affecting the health of those practicing it. Most of the girls who have carried out abortions have later on experienced problems in childbearing or maintaining pregnancy. This has further deteriorated the family in the USA (Maher, 2003).

More than just the issue of the change in the family definition and set up, the decline in the American family is also due to decline of the time a family spends together. Many families have both working parents who dont spend enough time with their children. What these parents forget is that it doesnt count how much one may spend on their children in terms of money and luxuries nothing can compensate family time. Thousands of children are left unaided after school spend such much time on the computers, video games and TV. Hardly ever do families get to the family dinner every night, whereas in the past, such was a good time to converse concerning the day activities all had as well as discuss whichever problems they were facing. This has denied the family some quality time together which is very important in building a strong family. It has also been observed that the rate of decline in the family among the Africa Americans is quite higher as compared to the whites. Basically, the same group of Africa Americans constitutes the largest HIVAIDS positive population as well as the largest group of injecting drug users. These two factors explain the reason as to why they have the highest number of family degradation in the country (Meyerson, 2007).

Conclusion
With a detailed analysis of the American family decline, it is factual to conclude that the bottom single factor that has led to all the problems in the American family is a gross failure by the fathers. Terms single-parent, abortions, broken family, and gay marriages, are all centered towards some problem with the males in the country. There is a great absence in the responsibility of the father at home which has led to the confusion that has seen the women take up double tasks in a family setting. Men have forsaken their responsibility as fathers in the course, they have created a social disaster. All the other factors have routed from this single factor that the failure of the fathers is the fundamental cause of family decline (Maher, 2003).