Bianchi and Casper (CP)

1) What are some of the major changes in family behavior described in the article?

2) What are some of the possible explanations offered for these changes?

3) Why do you think discussions of family change (in general) and change in marriage (in particular) are so contentious?

4) What are some of the ways in which family sociologists can help to inform public policy?

5) What are some of the implications of the trend toward later marriage?

6) Some facts of broad general interest (e.g., levels and trends in the gay population, premarital cohabitation, average length of single motherhood, trends in material hardship of poor children, etc.) are not easily assessed. What are some of the difficulties inherent in measuring these outcomes?

7) What are some of the important similarities and differences between cohabitation and marriage?

8) Does cohabitation appear to be a precursor to marriage (i.e., a kind of dating) or a substitute for marriage? Or both? Or neither?

9) What are some of the reasons offered for the large increase in the prevalence of premarital cohabitation?

10) What are some of the main differences in the social/demographic profiles of men and women in cohabiting unions and those in marital unions?

11) What are some of the ways that the increase in premarital cohabitation has made the study of family behavior more difficult?

12) Think about ways in which the various dimensions of family change discussed in the article (e.g., later marriage, increasing single-parenthood, increasing cohabitation, increasing divorce, etc.) may be interrelated. That is, how might changes in one dimension be the cause/consequence of changes in others? Also, consider how this linkages may be indirect - working through broader social and economic forces.

13) What are some of the important trends in "father involvement" in the U.S.?

14) What are some of the important racial/ethnic differences in family behavior described in the article?

15) What are some of the important implications of changes in family formation behavior for children?

16) What is meant by the term "feminization of poverty?"

17) How have patterns of housework responded (or not responded) to the rapid changes in women's labor force participation over the past 20-30 years? What are the implications of these changes?