ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the actual changes experienced by contemporary western-style families, and the impact of these demographic forces on family structures and resultant kin roles and relationships. At the level of the individual, a combination of forces is resulting in the ageing of some life transitions, with all western-style ageing societies displaying an increase of age at first marriage and at remarriage, at leaving the parental home, at first childbirth. Particular concern focuses on loose vertical families with long spacing between the generations, increasing voluntary childlessness and the potential of cohabitating, divorced and reconstituted families to provide the stability required for family care. Life table calculations from Sweden, one of the few countries with reliable data on non-marital unions, reveal that while every third Swedish marriage ends in divorce. It may be that such late life alliances do not provide the stability for the extensive cross-kin interactions and relationships supported within marriage-based families or stepfamilies.