The Traditional Family Structure: A Negative Change

909 Words4 Pages

Although the concept of the traditional family structure will always endure through the passing of time, this concept has been changing lately. As society is adapting constantly to the different changing realities, the idea of the ideal family structure has extinguished since, nowadays, people tend to divorce and remarriage, or form untraditional families as well.
However, before considering the traditional family extinguished, it is important to highlight that the idea might be a bit general. If we consider the fact that the majority of people around the world are heterosexual, willing to marry and to form traditional families, due to the traditional customs of certain cultures and countries, we might acknowledge that the idea of the typical …show more content…

Well, the traditional family structure will always be present in society. So, there is no need for overreacting. Society’s change of opinion on both divorce and remarriage have changed and, in a way, matured, for some of us have understand to tolerate and respect other’s decisions. In addition, as rising a child on your own is a though task to do, there is an important number of single parents that look for a partner with -more or less- the same lifestyle; and that is how blended families come to be. According to Karney, Garvan and Thomas (Karney, Garvan, & Thomas, 2003), almost a half (40%) of married couples living in the United States are step couples. Moreover, one-third of weddings in America form stepfamilies. The so called “extinction” of the ideal traditional family structure is reflected on those figures since they mirror the reality society lives nowadays. So, from divorce to remarriage, these new customs adopted by society have become accepted and legally acknowledged as well, affecting the idealistic believe older people have on this …show more content…

Nowadays, as a part of society (sadly not all) has become open minded about homosexuality, new legislation for same-sex marriage and adoption has been adopted all around the world. Fortunately, for the same sex-couples in the US adoption and marriage are legal nationwide since 2015. The recognition made -to those with different sexual orientation- on their human rights is a step further in the construction and developing of new family structures. Furthermore, as from October 2015, 486,000 same-sex couples were married in the US, that is, a 45% of all same-sex couples (according to: Gates, G. J., Brown, T. N. T. 2015. Marriage and Same-sex Couples after Obergefell. Los Angeles, CA: Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law.) This shows that the legislation in favor of homosexual couples triggered an escalation in same-sex marriage and helped in the situation of many same-sex couples who were unable to marry. In addition, as same-sex marriage is considered to be a controversial issue because it endangers and “affects” deep into the traditional beliefs and customs, there is a conservative part of society that opposes it. So, these facts all together show ho untraditional families are gaining importance in today’s society. Is not that the values are lost and extinct, but that the concept for the traditional family is definitely not the same as it was

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