Changing Marital and Family Patterns: A Test of the Post-Modern Perspective

Four central constructs of the post-modern perspective are extended and tested using secondary analysis of Census data and the NORC General Social Survey: 1972–94 data sets. The modified postmodern themes of: (1) the decline of a single universal family organizational standard, and (2) growing cultural diversity, which is seen as legitimate—diversity which is increasingly based upon affectivity and achievement emanating from an emphases on relationship cooperation, friendship, individual choice and expressive communications, were supported by examining changes in American family structure, attitudes toward such structural changes, and changing attitudes toward marital and family patterns over the last quarter century. However, little support was found for the greater use of, and reliance on, (3) the mass media. Mixed results were found on the fourth construct, greater variance in, and/or loss of, personal happiness or personal or family life satisfaction. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed. Given the growing importance and acceptance of organizational and cultural diversity, future studies of family structure and processes may profit from more narrowly defined localized and pragmatic parameters of finely delimited social aggregates. Such studies are more consistent with the realities of contemporary American social organization and cultural values of family life, the behaviors and attitudes of Americans, and the modified post-modern perspective.