Numerous trends in society as well as in culture have a profound effect on the structures and processes within the family such that new developments in any of them can lead to new functions, forms and relationships in the family. The family is considered as a social shock absorber of changes in gender roles, relationships and demographics. The effect is also evident in the division of labor as well as changes in the order of stratification. The changes may vary according to social class, country’s region and others.
Industrialization and urban development, individualism, and stress on women’s role have made an impact on family structures and processes.
RELIGION
Religion plays a significant role in changing family systems in many ways, such as premarital counseling, marital and baptismal rites, procreation beliefs and gender role definition.
WORK
Industrialization and the economic system has transformed the family from being a unit of production into a unit of consumption and therapy.
During the turn of the century, working at home or elsewhere made such a great deal of difference. Ideally, young girls preferred to stay at home and not work. When forced to do so, she did work at home as a seamstress, for example. Girls belonging to the lower social class worked outside the home either in a factory or shop or as a servant in a private home. In 1900, More than two-thirds of French workers worked at home.
There was also the question of the impact of working mothers on the development of their child. Working mothers are nothing new. In fact, forty percent of children born between 1900 and 1924 had working mothers before reaching the age of 5. Except for those born from 1925 to 1932, sixty two percent had non-working mothers due to the great depression.
SCIENCE
Biomedical researches in reproduction and other scientific advances have made a profound effect on family systems. Reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization and impregnation from a anonymous sperm donor have changed the definition of parent and child.
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Interventions made by the state have also created a great impact on family life. Mandatory education coupled with course curriculum and school buses, geriatric care, adoption of no-fault divorce and family-leave laws, detection of absent/delinquent parents, involvement in family violence, inheritance taxes, and tax relief for families with children. It is only apparent that such interventions did not go far enough in the United States, which trails all other industrial nations in actively removing its children out of poverty.