PARENT-CHILD RELATIONS - ASSESSING RECENT CHANGES

Profound structural changes in American marriage and family life over the past three decades have transformed "traditional" living arrangements for children and stimulated an enormous amount of popular and scholarly interest regarding the consequences for children's well-being. Of greatest concern have been the impact of divorce, single-parent families, maternal employment, dual-earner marriages, and a general erosion of parental commitment and support. A systematic review of the research indicates that although parents and children spend very little time together, they remain generally satisfied with their relationships, largely due to a pattern of consistent, but detached, parental support. I argue that the consequences of maternal employment, divorce, and single-parent family structure have been greatly exaggerated, and that researchers need to investigate processes more directly influencing children, notably economic hardship and high levels of marital and family conflict.