READING COMPREHENSION

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CHANGING FAMILY

A.

Past definitions of family

 

Like the community, the family is a social institution. Long ago, human beings lived in loosely-related groups. Each group had a common ancestor (a family member from the distant past). But for over a millennium (a thousand years), there have been two main types of families in the world: the extended form and the nuclear form. The extended family may include grandparents, parents, and children (and sometimes aunts, uncles, and cousins)- in other words, relatives living in the same house or close together on the same street or in the same area. In contrast, the nuclear family consists of only parents and their biological (related by blood) or adopted children. Because of the industrialization in the nineteenth century, the nuclear family became the most common family structure.

 

B.

Kinds of families today

 

Today there are many different kinds of families around the globe. Some people live in traditional families- that is to say, a stay-at-home mother, a working father, and their own biological children. Others live in two-paycheck families- that is, both parents work outside the home. There are many single-parent families; in other words, only a mother or a father lives with the children. Still others have adoptive or foster families (i.e., adults take care of children not biologically theirs) or blended families- in other words, divorced or widowed men and women marry again and live with the children from their previous, or earlier, marriages. Some kids have stepparents- that is, mothers or fathers related to them by marriage instead of biology. In other families, some youngsters under the age of 18 have to take care of kids- either their own or their younger siblings (brothers and sisters). In different countries around the world, there are also same-sex partnerships-with or without children- childless marriages, unmarried live-in relationships, communal living groups, and so on.

 

C.

The early 20th century

 

What caused the structure of the family to change? Here is an example from the Western world. In the early 1900s in the United States, the divorce rate (i.e., the percent of legal endings compared to the number of marriages) began to rise, and the birthrate (i.e., the number of births per 100 or 1,000 people) began to decline; in other words, couples stayed married for fewer years, and they had fewer children. Women often chose to get an education and take jobs outside the home. Decades (ten-year periods) later, the same things began to occur in other industrialized countries- and then developing countries of the world as well.

 

D.

The 1930s and 1940s

 

The decades of the 1930s and 1940s were difficult years in both industrialized and developing countries. Many families faced serious financial problems because the heads of households lost their jobs. During World War II (1939-1945), millions of women had to take care of their homes and their children alone. Because so many men were at war, thousands of these “war widows”- that is to say, women whose husbands were away at war- had to go to work outside the home. Most women worked long hours at hard jobs. There weren’t many “perfect families.” They had problems.

 

E.

After World War II

 

During the next decade the situation changed in many places. There were fewer divorces, and people married at a younger age and had more children than in the previous generation. Men made enough money to support the family, so a mother seldom worked outside the home when her children were small. Children began living at home longer- that is, until an older age, usually after high school or even college. The traditional family was returning in the United States, it seemed- as in many other countries.

 

F.

The end of the 20^th century

 

In the years between 1960 or so and the end of the 20^th century, however, there were many new changes in the structure of the family around the globe. From the 1960s to the 1990s, the divorce rate in the Western world greatly increased and the birthrate fell by half. The number of single- parent families rose, and the number of couples living together without marriage went up even more. At the end of the 20^th and beginning of the 21^st centuries, young adults of some economic classes started staying with their parents longer, marrying later, and having kids at an older age, if at all.

 

G.

The family of the future

 

Many people today would like the traditional two-parent family back-that is to say, they want a man and a woman to marry for life; they also think the man should support the family and the woman should stay home with the children. However, few families now fall into this category. In fact, if more women decide to have children on their own, the single-parent household may become more typical than the traditional family in many countries. Also, unmarried couples may decide to have more children- or they might take in foster children or adopt. And because people are staying single and living longer (often as widows), there may be more one-person households in the future. On the other hand, some people believe similar events happen again and again in history. If this is true, people may go back to the traditional extended or nuclear family of the past. Others think the only certainty in history is change: in other words, the structure of the future family could begin to change faster and faster- and in more and more ways.

Recognizing topics in readings about history

Reading about history usually begins with introductory material. These one or two paragraphs may tell the most important ideas and points of the whole selection. The several paragraphs after that may tell about various periods of history- probably in time order. The last paragraph may give information about the present or thoughts about the future. Each paragraph, however, still has a topic