Policymakers are undermining American families by failing to recognize that the "Ozzie and Harriet" model of the 1950s is no longer typical, a private study concludes.
Patterns of marriage, divorce and childbearing in the United States have changed dramatically over the last half-century, and the report projects this change will continue, though at a slower pace, during the 1990s."Indeed, family life in the 1990s will be marked by its diversity," as more children watch their parents divorce and "blended" step-fam-i-lies become more common, said the study by the Population Reference Bureau.
"Social legislation, or `pro-family' policies, narrowly designed to reinforce only one model of the American family, is likely to be shortsighted and have the unintended consequence of weakening, rather than strengthening, family ties," the report said.
Carol J. De Vita, a senior research demographer at the Washington-based private, nonprofit group and an author of the report, said that though "family values" has been a recurring theme in the presidential campaign, the study did not look at particular legislation or proposals.
But in policymaking generally, she said, "the discussion focuses on the `traditional family.' " In doing that "you're leaving out a lot of other people. . . . What we need to do is broaden our view of what the family is."
The "Ozzie and Harriet" family model of television fame - a bread-winning husband and a wife who stayed home with the children - once was the dominant pattern in America. Now, one in five married couples with children fits that stereotype, the report said.
About 36 percent of all American families are married couples with children, but a growing number of those are "blended" stepfamilies. One in three Americans is a member of a stepfamily and that is expected to rise to nearly one in two by the turn of the century, the report said.
Divorce also has become more common, even when children are involved, said the report, which analyzed census and other government data. Children 50 years ago had about a one in four chance of seeing their parents divorce before they reached 18. Now, demographers estimate that half of all children will experience their parents' breakup.
Nearly one in eight families was headed by a single parent last year, and that parent was five times more likely to be a woman.
About a quarter of all children, more than 16 million of them, lived with only one parent in 1991. That's double the percentage of 1970 and nearly three times that of 1960.