The change that has surprised me the most is that of family changes. Changing families is attributed to decline in size of family, growth of non –family households and difficulty for young adults to form families. The changes in family is attributed to delayed marriages, relaxed social stigmas’ economic pressure for women’s employment, increased divorce rates, increase in female headed households, decline in marital fertility and declining male employment. Also, many women remain childless (Sandstrom, & Huerta, 2015) . As a result, the society has experienced decreased birthrates and increase in life expectancy. Childlessness is linked to tertiary education a, women choosing not to have children and educated women choosing employment over childbirth.
These changes have surprised me the most because it puts the traditional role of family at risk. Traditionally, the family played a role that satisfies universal needs such as child bearing, procreation, economic survival and sexual satisfaction. The family is also responsible of instilling norms, values and beliefs to their children. Besides, the family is also the main socializing unit for society’s new members (Chudhuri, 2014) . Family is also a source of social status. The current changes has resulted in most adolescent children engaging in substance abuse, early pregnancies and increased number of school dropouts. This is because these children lack parents to guide and instill confidence in them. Poverty rates have also put families at risk.
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Changes in family setup in the contemporary society have resulted to high infant mortality rates and low birth weights. Literacy scores among children are also low. Decreased rates of fertility have resulted to increase in childlessness which has decreased household size. Failed marriages and increased divorce rates also mean less people are into marriage and others are likely to be divorced. Such changes have also increased number of children born outside marriage. Increased in the number of children born outside marriage is attributed to nontraditional adherence and cohabitation.
References
Sandstrom, H., & Huerta, S. (2015). The Negtive effects of instability on child development: a research Sysnthesis . Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
Chudhuri, S. (2014). Social development and the family .
