Parental Identification, Couple Commitment, and Problem Solving among Newlyweds

Abstract

The rapidity of the social and economic changes that characterized industrial and post-industrialized societies in the last century was accompanied by corresponding changes in family structure and relationships. The transitions from rural to urban-industrial and from an industrial to the current post-industrial information based society have all been associated with fundamental alterations in family composition, values, and goals.* By the late 1960s the “baby boom” generation, seeking greater social equality and personal freedom, tended to put off marriage for longer periods and were more likely to live together prior to marriage (8; Lindsey, 1990). Between the 1960s and 1970s the divorce rate doubled, the number of children born out of wedlock rose dramatically, and there was a proliferation of single female-headed households (Cherlin, 1992).