From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Study: Republican family values may be outdated
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 05:09:39 GMT

/** headlines: 187.0 **/
** Topic: UNITED STATES: Republican family va **
** Written 11:30 am  Aug 24, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:headlines **
From: News Desk <newsdesk>
Subject: UNITED STATES: Republican family va

/* Written 12:16 am  Aug 24, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "UNITED STATES: Republican family va" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: UNITED STATES: Republican family values may be outdated

washington, aug 24 (ips) -- the ''family values'' repeatedly
hailed by republican politicians at last week's convention in
houston may no longer be as relevant to many u.s. families today
as they were in the 1950s, according to a new report released
here monday.

in a 44-page study, the washington-based population reference
bureau (prb) finds that the composition and economic status of
u.s. families have changed dramatically from the male
breadwinner-female-homemaker model of forty years ago.

the precipitous rise in divorce rates and the fall in
marriage rates in the u.s. population have resulted in a very
different picture of the typical u.s. family than in the 1950s,
according to the report: ''new realities of the american family.''

''recognising the diversity of american families and
addressing the complexity of their needs must lie at the heart
of the policy debates on family issues,'' according to the
study, which was written by prb analysts dennis ahlburg and
carol de vita.

prb is one of the country's most important independent
demographic research organisations.

''the breadwinner-homemaker model with husband and wife
raising their own biological (or adopted) children was once the
dominant pattern,'' according to the report.

''today, many family forms are common: single-parent
families (resulting either from unmarried parenthood or
divorce), remarried couples, unmarried couples, step-families,
foster families, extended or multi-generational families, and
the doubling up of two families within the same home.''

''women are just as likely to be full or part-time workers
as full-time homemakers,'' the report said.

the health and composition of the traditional two-parent
family was injected into this year's presidential campaign three
months ago when vice president dan quayle assailed a popular
situation-comedy television character, murphy brown, for bearing
a child during the series out of wedlock.

''bearing babies irresponsibly is, simply wrong,'' he said in
a controversial speech.  murphy brown ''doesn't help matters
(by) mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone,
and calling it just another ''life-style'' choice.'' (more/ips)

united states: family (2)

that attack -- and the more positive-sounding ''family values'' --
were transformed during last week's convention into a virtual
mantra for the republicans and the re-election campaign of
president george bush and quayle himself.

but the prb report argues that recent social and demographic
trends have contributed to entirely new conceptions about the u.s.
family.

the report found that the marriage rate has fallen almost 30
percent since 1970, while the divorce rate has increased by nearly
40 percent during the same period.

new marriages currently have a fifty-fifty chance of ending in
divorce.

the average age at first marriage is also higher now than at
any time during the past century, according to the report, which
also noted that younger families face much greater financial
pressures than in the past.

the report also found that more than half of all mothers with
pre-school-age children were working in 1991, compared with only
about 20 percent in 1960.

in addition, one in four babies is now born to an unmarried
mother, compared with one in ten in 1970, and about half of all
children today are expected to spend some part of their childhood
in a single-parent home.

according to one estimate reviewed in the study, one in three
citizens -- adults and children alike -- is now a member of a step-
family.

''family patterns are so fluid that the u.s. census bureau has
difficulty measuring family trends,'' the report said.

given these trends, ''valuing the family should not be confused
with valuing a particular family form.  indeed, family life in the
1990s will be marked by its diversity,'' according to the report.
''as blended families become the norm, the responsibilities of
family members become more complex, more ambiguous, and more open
to dispute.''

as a result, public policy-makers, according to the report,
should guard against ''social legislation (or ''pro-family''
policies) narrowly designed to reinforce only one model of the
american family'' because it could ''have the unintended
consequence of weakening, rather than strengthening, family
ties.'' (end/ips/ps/jl/jemg/92)

** End of text from cdp:headlines **

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