Summary
Contents
Subject index
Continuity and Change in the American Family engages students with issues they see every day in the news, providing them with a comprehensive description of the social demography of the American family. Understanding ever-changing family systems and patterns requires taking the pulse of contemporary family life from time to time. This book paints a portrait of family continuity and change in the later half of the 20th century, with a focus on data from the 1970’s to present. The authors explore such topics as the growth in cohabitation, changes in childbearing, and how these trends affect family life. Other topics include the changing lives of single mothers, fathers, and grandparents and increasing economic disparities among families; child care and child well-being; and combining paid work and family. The authors are talented writers who bring considerable professional and scholarly background to bear in illuminating this topic in a thoughtful yet lively presentation.
Single-Mother Families
Single-Mother Families
In August 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) amid the resignations of high-level administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services and claims that the act would “reform welfare as we know it.”1 Some argued that this was the beginning of the end of support for poor mothers and their children, whereas others heralded the act as the first step toward helping poor women gain control of their lives and making fathers take responsibility for their children.
The debates over public support for poor women and children were not new, but the changes embodied in PRWORA—time limits on welfare eligibility, mandatory job training requirements, and so on—seemed far-reaching (Cherlin 2000). PRWORA formalized in ...
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