Assignment 2 - Family Demographics

Part 1 Assignment 2


1. I felt that many of these highlights made sense to me as I read them. After carefully reading through each highlight, I feel that the two highlights that stood out most to me were the last two highlights which focused on individuals living alone. The second to last highlight listed on the report stated that increases in people living alone are going to serve as a factor contributing to declines in average family household sizes. Moreover, the last highlight informed me that one quarter of households consist of an individual living alone. Due to the current state of the economy, I was surprised that roughly 25% of individuals live by themselves and that this rate has increased slightly since 1995. The reason that this statistic shocked me is because I believe that cohabitation is becoming such a popular trend, or so it seems. After taking into consideration the fact that there are such high rates of divorce in the United States, it does make sense that a quarter of Americans do live alone.


2. I was a little bit surprised by the data on the chart. Although most of the findings I would have expected, I was shocked to see that the percentage of Americans living alone has increased from 24.9% in 1995 to 26.8% in 2010. Considering that the two highlights from the beginning of this report that discussed statistics regarding people living alone struck me the most, I was very interested to read the data for percentages of people living alone in the United States. It seems to me that over the past couple of years, more Americans have been choosing to move back in with their parents or living with roommates in order to save money. I know so many people who are working more than one job just to pay for their rent. Therefore, I would have expected the percentage of Americans living alone to decrease from 1995 to 2010. Interestingly, the percentage of households in which fathers live with their children has not changed. I would have actually expected that percentage to increase from 1995. I feel that way mainly because I work at a childcare center and I have found over the years that I have been there, more children are tending to reside primarily with their fathers rather than their mothers.


3. On the chart, I noticed that the percentages of household composition have just slightly changed from 1995 to 2010. All of the percentages focusing on households with no children have increased since 1995, which I thought was interesting. I realize however, that this is due to the fact that the numbers of households with no children have risen, as I learned when reading the highlights in this report. On the contrast, I have noticed that the percentages for households with children have all decreased or remained the same since 1995.


3a. I discovered that married couples with no children are the most typical family type in 2010 compared to 1995. In 1995, the percentage of married couples with no children was 29.5%. In 2010, this percentage increased 31.5%


3b. After viewing the chart, I determined that two parent families with children have decreased in percentages from 1995 to 2010. In 1995, the percentage of two parent families with children was at 25.2%. In 2010, this percentage dropped by over 5% to 20.1%. Therefore, two parent families with children are becoming less the norm.


4. In five years, I definitely expect to be living in a married couple household with no children. Although I would love to have one child by then, I do not feel that it would be realistic due to the fact that I still hope to obtain my M.A. and would also like to have a steady job and consistent income before I become a parent. In ten years, I expect to still be living in a married-couple household and I hope to have two children by that time. In other words, in ten years I expect to be living in a two parent household with children. When I am seventy years old, I expect to be living in a married couple household with no children, living with the same partner that I am with today. I believe that by that point in my life, my two children will have moved out of the house and will be happily living with their own families.

Part 2 Assignment 2

1. There are many differences among women today versus forty years ago. To start, many women today are getting married and having children at later ages than they would have been expected to do forty years ago. To elaborate, over the past forty years, the percentages of single, unmarried, childless women have increased and many women are waiting until later ages to take steps in life that would have been taken sooner in past years. Moreover, another difference is that more women are receiving higher education than women were obtaining forty years ago. It has been discovered that women in their twenties and thirties are attending college in order to gain college degrees and hopefully, get better jobs. Urbanization is another demographic shift that has created a difference between women today versus forty years ago. In the past, unmarried women would have tended to stay with their parents and live at home. Today, unmarried women are more likely to move out and fulfill their own personal goals and desires.

2. In terms of what women are doing and when they are marrying, the ages that women are tending to marry are becoming later than they were in the past. There are higher percentages of single women in their thirties than there were in the past. Women are also spending more time doing personal things than they would have been seen doing years ago. Many women are spending the majority of their time focusing on their career and going back to college to obtain college degrees and receive higher education. Women well into their thirties are devoting all of their time to their jobs and their friends rather than searching for a partner or thinking about having children.

3. Women work more today than in the past. Many women are receiving higher education to obtain degrees in areas of interest to them. They are dedicating much of their time to their career and many are making more money than men than they ever did in years before.

4. Unfortunately, I have never seen Sex and the City. Therefore, I will not be able to add any comments from the movie or describe which girl I most identify with and why. Due to the fact that I know a little bit about Carrie’s character just from reading this article, I do not believe that she would be a character that I could closely relate to. As far as my favorite boyfriend/husband is considered, I would have to say that my ideal partner would be a man who shows a lot of affection and never expects too much from me. I have been with my boyfriend for three and a half years now and can truthfully say that he is going to be the person that I marry. He listens when I talk, is there for me whenever I need him to be, and most of all, he believes in me. Like many women are doing today, I plan to receive higher education once graduating as an undergraduate from Montclair State. I intend of obtaining an M.A. in Counseling and in the beginning of my career, I hope to teach for many years. Eventually, I want to become a guidance counselor at an elementary school or work as a children’s counselor at a hospital. I will probably get my career started and then marry. I believe it is very important for individuals to have steady jobs and consistent incomes before they marry. If you can’t support yourself, how will you be able to support a family or your partner?

Part 3 Assignment 2

1. After reading the article by Cherlin, titled “Demographic Trends in the United States: A Review of Research in the 2000s”, one change in age at marriage is that in the year 2008, the average age at first marriage increased for both men and women in the United States. For men, the median age at first marriage increased to 27.4 and for women, the average age for first marriage rose to 25.6.

2. It is becoming harder to determine where the boundaries exist for family units due to the fact that families are becoming so much more diverse. It is difficult to study families in accordance to the stages of the family life cycle, as researchers such as Paul Glick were once able to rely on. Many individuals are following paths in life that do not correlate with the assumed stages that one progresses through during the family life cycle.

3. I felt that the author cited many sources in the article when describing the newest research. Although I may be confused by the question, I think that in the beginning she used Paul Glick as a source in order to explain how past research has differed from newest research.

4. Although I do not watch very much television, I feel that the show “King of Queens” can relate to topics that will be discussed in this class. Specifically, I feel that this show connects with the information that I learned from reading the census. Carrie and Doug are a married couple with no children, which as I read, is more typical today than it was fifteen years ago. I would say that they are each in their early thirties and they still like to do fun things, like go out with friends and take mini vacations. Due to the fact that they are childless, they are able to place their focus on personal desires as well as their careers. Both spouses contribute to their household income and support each other the best that they can. In addition, Carrie’s elderly father lives with them, which is another issue that was brought up in our course readings.