Single-parent families

With increased divorce, there has been a huge rise in the number of children growing up in households with just one parent. From 1970 to 1998, the proportion of single-parent families in the United States more than doubled - increasing from 13 to 31 percent. A large majority (82 percent) of such families are headed by women. It has been estimated that more than half of all children born today live for some time with only their mothers before they reach age 18.

Most of these families live below or near the poverty level. Com­pared with two-parent families, female-headed families are more likely to experience unemployment, lack of social support, problems at school, and so on. These problemsdo notresult from the absence of a father but from factors that can also affect two-parent families, for example, low income and poor living conditions.

Another factor in the rise of single-parent families is the increase in the number of never-married women having children. In 1982, 15.1 percent of never-married women between 18 and 44 had children. In 1992, the figure was 23.7 percent.

Stepfamilies [2]

Because of the high rates of divorce and remarriage, stepfamilies have also become quite common. They number some 7.3 million and account for 16 percent of all married couples with children under age 18. Because women usually win custody (that is, care and guardian­ship) of children in divorce cases, most stepfamilies consist of moth­ers, their biological children, and stepfathers.

The happiness of stepfamilies depends largely on how well the stepfather gets along with the children. It can be difficult to be a stepfather. Stepfathers are likely to have problems with discipline. If a stepfather tells his 12-year-old stepson that he should not watch an R-rated movie, he may reply: "My dad lets me watch them. Besides, it's Mom's television set".

Conflicts are most likely with teenagers. Teenagers are trying hard to break free of adult control. They may accept parental discipline only out of love and respect, which they may not have for their stepfathers. During an argument, teenagers are likely to shout at their step­fathers: "You're not my real father!" While most fami­lies are relatively free of serious problems, conflict with stepchildren is one of the main reasons that second marriages fail at a higher rate than first marriages.

Task 4. Understanding the main idea of the whole text is an important reading skill. Re-read the introductory paragraph (par. 1) and headings of "The Family Today." Read sentences a-d below. Then choose the sentence that best states the main idea of the text.

a) In the United States, the number of traditional family units is decreasing and new forms of family units are becoming more common.

b) In the United States, traditional families do not have the problems that other types of family units do.

c) Stepfamilies are increasingly common in the United States, but are likely to have many problems.

d) Two-career families, single-parent families, and stepfamilies are the main types of family units in the United States.

Task 5. It is important to develop strategies for dealing with difficult or unfa­miliar vocabulary in the texts you read. Strategies you might use are:

• finding the definition within the text;
• looking at the context (that is, the words and sentences that come before and after the unknown word) for clues to the word's meaning;
• using knowledge of a related word.

Find these words in the text. Decide which strategies to use for each word, and write a brief definition next to each one.

Word	Definition
significantly (par.3)
conflict (par.3)
households (par.4)
poverty (par.5)
custody (par.7)
discipline (par.8)

Discuss the meanings of the words with your classmates. Compare the different strategies you used.

Task 6. Textbooks often include texts (like this one) about changes over a period of time. Some common ways to describe changes over time are shown in the tables below:

has become/became

less (and less) somewhat relatively fairly increasingly more (and more) quite

frequent unusual common

there has been a / there was a

tremendous huge significant

increase decrease rise

in

(has) increased (has) decreased has gone up (or down) / went up (or down)

greatly significantly a little by a small / large amount

(has) almost (has) more than

halved doubled tripled

a) Find examples of some of these language patterns in the text.

b) Use the language patterns to write two to three sentences about each of the graphs in the text. Do not copy sentences from the text. Compare your sentences with a partner.

The percentage of married women in the workforce almost doubled between and 1998. (Figure 1.1)

Task 7. When you read you should be doing more than simply taking in the words on the page. To understand a text well and to remember what you have read, you need to read actively – that is, constantly think and ask questions about what you are reading.

Re-read these paragraphs from the text, and read the questions in the thought bubbles. Discuss the answers to the questions with your classmates.

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