Traditional Family Structures

Traditions encompass all the values in a certain community or society. From older to newer traditions, all these social customs went under a process of acceptance and change once. The values represented by the traditional family structures were always considered to be crucial in the building of a healthy society. However, nowadays, the concept of the traditional family has changed and given room to other interpretations as well. Whether they may like it or not, some people should consider these new concepts and respect them just as today’s generations do it. Moreover, the most important value that family represents is love, independently from being a same-sex, remarried couple or a divorced single parent. So, this concept has changed lately.

Nowadays, as divorce has become socially accepted, the figures have grown. According to the article “The American Family”, nearly 50 % of marriages in the United States end up in divorce. This fully affects the idea of traditional marriage because, from those divorces, new uncommon family structures emerge, such as, single father or mother parenting families. Moreover, according to a study called, “An International Look at the Single- Parent family” by Ludger Woesmann, “in the United States, in 2012, 21 percent of 15-year-old students lived in single-parent families.” These figures illustrate the social change society is going through and how the concept of an ideal family structure is becoming obsolete nowadays as well. Is this a negative change? Society’s change of opinion on both divorce and remarriage have transformed and, in a way, society has matured, for some of us have learned to tolerate and respect each other’s decisions. In addition, as people do not condemn themselves to be single forever, there is an important number of divorced parents that form blended families. 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. The so called “extinction” of the ideal traditional family structure is reflected in those figures since they mirror

Divorce, remarriage and same-sex marriage are liberties and rights that a part of society has fought for and rightfully earned. The growing figures on those issues do not only reflect the actual tendencies of society as regards relationships, but they also state that society is in an ongoing infinite process of change, for we will always be adapting to new circumstances. So, the value of love within the family will always be strongly present in society because gender, sexual orientation and marital status do not matter when there is