ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 examines the family context of the youth experience. Specifically, this chapter puts the contemporary family context in the context of the historical and cultural evolution of the pre-colonial African family to show the historical and cultural changes that have transformed it from being organised around broader kinship groups to its nucleated form. Among the structural forces that have transformed the family are the first and second demographic transitions and globalisation. Among the changes in the family that contemporary youth are experiencing are solitary living as opposed to living with extended kin, the separation of procreation from marriage, increased postponement of marriage and childbearing, and rational choices to remain single and childless through the increased use of modern forms of contraception.
