MPC Member Publications

This database contains a listing of population studies publications written by MPC Members. Anyone can add a publication by an MPC student, faculty, or staff member to this database; new citations will be reviewed and approved by MPC administrators.

Full Citation

Title: The Transformation of American Family Structure

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 1994

Abstract: This essay reexamines the revisionist argument about the history of the family in light of new evidence about long-run changes in American family structure. In particular, I use the new Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, a national database incorporating consistent individual-level data from the U.S. Census over the period 1850 to 1990. I also report findings from the only eighteenth-century American census of sufficient size and quality to permit a consistent analysis of family composition, the 1776 census of Maryland. The evidence suggests that the revisionist interpretation needs revising. In fact, a form of extended family structure was dominant in nineteenth-century America and quite probably in the eighteenth century as well. The American preference for extended family structure disappeared in the twentieth century, and I...offer a brief analysis of some explanations for this change.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Ruggles, Steven J

Periodical (Full): American Historical Review

Issue: 1

Volume: 99

Pages: 103-128

Countries:

IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop