ABSTRACT
Based on the experiences of Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, the United States, and other advanced Western societies, it is possible to postulate a single family trend involving movement away from the bourgeois family and even away from the nuclear family-kinship system. With regard mainly to the dimension of fertility, some demographers have labeled the recent sequence of family changes the second demographic transition. This refers to the steep decline of fertility to a level well below that at which population replacement occurs, the first demographic transition having been the rapid decline in both mortality and fertility rates associated with the rise of the modern nuclearfamily. Economically and culturally, the 1960s were a period of growing affluence and the advancement of individualistic values. During this period, the age of first sexual intercourse was dropping, and premarital sexual intercourse (especially intercourse among "nonengaged" couples) was becoming increasingly common.
