ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the small number of key theoretical issues regarding family life cycle theory that may be illuminated by the data of the research project. Throughout recorded history scholars have attempted to bring order to an understanding of the course of human life by dividing it into stages. The extension of the life cycle perspective from the individual to the family is hardly surprising because of the need to organize this large body of complex data. The family life cycle perspective proposes that relatively long periods of structural stability are punctuated by transitional periods in which a crisis precipitates change in family structure. Many students of the family life cycle emphasize that family structure changes — without their being explicit about their definition of structure. The chapter suggests that the structural changes experienced by families during transitional periods are influenced in a significant way by the level of structural organization.
