Natalie Angier's: The Changing American Family

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What is a family? People you’re related to? People you live with? According to Webster.com, it is a combination of those things. However, this definition could vary depending on who you ask. The meaning of family has changed over the years. Divorce and remarriage, single families, same-sex marriage, new family roles, and technology are just a few factors that have changed the way we interpret and define of family. It may be a shocking statistic but the divorce rate in America has decreased over the years. Despite the popular belief that the divorce rate has stayed at 50% it has actually been dropping since 1996 and is now right above 40% according to Natalie Angier’s article “The Changing American Family” in The New York Times. With these …show more content…

It is rough on the child and causes their view of family to be damaged. Teenagers who experience one or more divorces are three times more likely to need psychological help within a year according to a study done by Peter Hill who studies adolescent development. Divorce is a confusing time for children. Some might think they did something to cause the divorce and wonder if they could’ve prevented it. The child will most likely carry around guilt of breaking up their parents, even if they had nothing to do with it. A study done of people whose parents divorced six years earlier showed that they were more lonely, unhappy, anxious, and insecure than those children who never experienced …show more content…

The economic difference is the main and most challenging difference between them. The average two-parent family household makes around $57,100 per year. In contrast, single mothers make about $29,000 per year on average according to an article in Modern Mom written by Melinda Kedro. That large of a difference can and most likely will cause problems with the family such as possible lack of education or money for food or healthcare. The Witherspoon Institution found that 66% of children from a single-parent family live below the poverty line and only about 10% of children from a two-parent

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