Others view family life as amazingly diverse, resilient, and adaptive to new circumstances. The latter half of the 20th century was characterized by tumultuous change in the economy, in civil rights, and in sexual freedom, and by dramatic improvements in health and longevity. Marriage and family life felt the reverberations of these societal changes. At the beginning of the 21st century, as we reassess where we have come from and where we are, one thing stands out. Our rhetoric about the dramatically changing family may be a step behind the reality.
Recent trends suggest a quieting of changes in the family, or at least of the pace of change.
The living arrangements of children stabilized, as did the living arrangements of young adults and the elderly. The divorce rate had been in decline for more than two decades. The rapid growth in cohabitation among unmarried adults has also slowed. Yet family life is still evolving. Age at first marriage rose as more young adults postponed marriage and children to complete college and settle into a labor market increasingly inhospitable to poorly educated workers.