L'évolution de la famille aux États-Unis

In the United States, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has regularly carried out surveys of changing social behaviour and values since 1972. These data are the basis for the main trends presented here, relating to changes in attitudes to the family and family values: cohabiting, marriage, divorce, fertility, bringing up children, and employment for parents…
Several major trends emerge from this overview, such as the decline of marriage and the increase in divorce, the increase in births outside marriage and in the numbers of one-parent families, the growth in numbers of women working and the relative decline in neighbourly relationships. However, some of the sharply rising trends, such as in divorce rates, are starting to slow down. Furthermore, the international comparisons presented here seem to show that, while there is no longer a single model for the family, the United States’ example cannot be taken as typical of what may happen in future.