ABSTRACT
In every advanced, Western society today a strong movement away from the traditional or bourgeois nuclear family can be discerned. Referring to this movement as a postnuclear-family trend, the author have argued that it is associated with the decline of the family as an institution. Drawing mainly on family conditions in Sweden, where the institution of the family has become weakest, this concluding chapter addresses the question of what there might be about the changing family today that should cause us to have special concern. Strong and independent families, at least as traditionally formed, can be a detriment to the achievement of many social ideals held by the citizenry of advanced societies. Strong familiies encourage the perpetuation of gross inequalities in society, both material and social. Families with children have superior housing, more material possessions, and better health care. In these ways the quality of child rearing is higher than it has ever been before.
