Abstract
In 2014, a commonly used anthropology textbook defined family as “minimally, a mother and her dependent children” (Schultz and Lavenda 2014). The Oxford English Dictionary also defines family by focusing on the presence of children in the home. More importantly, many in politics, Western culture, and the media define family in terms of a nuclear unit consisting of two heterosexual parents and their offspring (Stacey 1996). These definitions suggest that children are what define a family. As such, many scholars emphasize the economic, political, and social aspects of children in the home when studying families. However, the family has seen many changes to its typical composition over time.
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Volsche, S., Schmidt, S., Farris, D.N. (2020). From Voluntarily Childless to Childfree: Sociohistoric Perspectives on a Contemporary Trend. In: Farris, D.N., Bourque, A.J.J. (eds) International Handbook on the Demography of Marriage and the Family. International Handbooks of Population, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35079-6_19
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