ABSTRACT
Over the past three decades, family life in the industrialized nations changed dramatically. The trends are remarkably similar across North America and Western Europe: a divorce revolution, a sexual revolution, couples’ marrying later, a drop in fertility rates, an increase in single-parent families, an increase in the number of women working outside the home, and an increase in the diversity of family forms. As a result of these and other changes, there is also increasing uncertainty about how to define the family, and widespread concern over whether the institution will continue.
