ABSTRACT
The times, indeed, are a’changing! The traditional view of the family as comprising a married father and mother and their children is now only one of many twogenerational family structures. A recent report by Pew Research Center (2010) based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and Decennial Census found that less than half (46 per cent) of US children younger than 18 years of age are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage. In 1960, 73 per cent of children fitted this description, and in 1980, 61 per cent did so. Today, many cohabiting couples are unmarried. Figures from the same report indicate that 41 per cent of children are born outside of marriage, up from just 5 per cent in 1960. Moreover, developments in medical technologies mean that previously infertile couples are now able to have children. As well, changes in community attitudes to homosexuality have seen many gay and lesbian couples live together, either with children from a previous heterosexual relationship or with children conceived within the relationship, usually through medical means. Perhaps the most significant change, in terms of numbers, has been the increase in ‘blended’ families, resulting from the remarriage of divorced parents.
