For the past decade, with primary funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, we have undertaken a program of research that is directed toward understanding changing patterns of family formation and their effects. In this article we will summarize the results of our earlier studies and describe research currently underway. Recent Trends Family organization and living arrangements in the U.S. have undergone remarkable change in recent times. Compared to earlier periods, Americans now marry later, are less likely to stay married, are less likely to marry after divorce and are more likely to live alone or with non-relatives than in previous times.
Children are also more likely to be raised in single parent homes.
Although trends in American family formation are pervasive, though consistent with developments in many other Western nations, in a number of areas African American changes have been more substantial. Over the same period, Black divorce rates, as well as that of U.S. women as a whole, nearly quadrupled. However, since divorce was much higher among Blacks even in 1970, the 1990 differential is quite striking 358 divorces per 1000 women among Blacks, compared to 166 among women overall. African American women are also less likely than other groups of women to remarry after divorce or widowhood. The explosion in divorce rates is one factor in the greatly changed living arrangements of children.