Unwillingness to manage stress and hostility is a contributing factor in many heart attacks. Rising health care costs was the top issue in a recent study of 33 social and economic issues. Those who cope well with transitions have a more positive perception and meaning of transitions and an overall sense that life makes sense. Many individuals and families are in transition due to demographic, social and economic changes. The number of American households consisting of an employed father, a mother at home, and two or more school-aged children plummeted from 60 percent in 1955 to 4 percent in 1987, according to H. L. Hodgkinson, Sr.
Family relationships are also in transition.
Increasing numbers of Americans in their middle and later years find themselves sandwiched between caring for aging parents and sharing a home with married children who cannot afford their own home. Divorce and remarriage are common. These and other trends present Coloradans with many changes and transitions. Families experience transitions when a child is born, goes to day care, grows into adolescence, or moves out of the home. Family transitions continue as young adults marry and have children.