ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates on the importance of examining family lives in historical, demographic, and socio-economic contexts. It focuses on debunking the “myth of family homogeneity” that is often assumed to have occurred prior to World War II. In comparison, modern-day transitions to adulthood are commonly seen as more chaotic due to “the rise of the nuclear family” and the decline of “the” family as a result of the changes associated with socio-demographic, cultural and economic conditions. Hufton’s research on young women in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France provides an excellent example of young people’s transitional behaviors in relation to living conditions that was common in many European countries and in North America. The combination of later marriage, higher fertility, and widely dispersed childbearing resulted in a different timing of family transitions. The chapter summarizes the major trends in light of wider socio-demographic, economic, and cultural shifts occurring in North American and many European societies.
