ABSTRACT
IN EVERY NONINDUSTRIAL and nonurban society the family holds a dominant position in community life and is securely entrenched in social tradition and authority. Without exception in every country, the expanding influence of industrial urbanism has been disturbing to the traditional status of the family. In the midst of technical and economic change there has been social change, and this seems inevitable; but when changes take place in the family they are sometimes difficult to understand and equally difficult to accept. "The family as a social institution is changing," wrote Ogburn, "as are other institutions. These changes differ somewhat in countries according to their degree of industrialization, of their urbanization and of their isolation." 1 Such change is in process, and seems to be gaining momentum.
