Historical perspectives on parental investment and childbearing.

This article provides some historical perspectives on parental investment and childbearing. Scholars are debating whether parents always loved and nurtured their children. The historical record provides some support for both sides.

Death and family life in the past.

As recently as 1970 about one-fifth of the children living in single-parent households resided in ones created by the death of a father. In colonial and nineteenth-century America, death was a much more important factor in disrupting parent-child relationships than it is today. Past societal reaction to the death of a parent continues to influence social policy; for example, widows and their dependent children receive more public assistance than divorced mothers or single mothers with children born out-of-wedlock.

Changing perspectives on the American family in the past.

Past reviews of American family history, while providing useful information about certain aspects of family life in the past, have inadequately addressed the conceptual framework informing the discipline. Juster begins by reviewing 4 approaches developed by social scientists for studying the family: household composition, generations, family cycle, and life-course. The life-course perspective seems the most promising for a dynamic, complex view of families that links changes in the domestic sphere to wider societal trends and concerns.