During the 20th century the most popular and accepted family was the traditional nuclear American family. This family consisted of a mother, father, and children. The mother's role in the family was to stay home and care for the children. The fathers were known as the bread winners in the family. Over the years this traditional set up has become more and more less common. Is this shift in the traditional family affecting the next generation of children negatively? 

This topic has sparked an interest in me because I have personal experience with a nontraditional household. I grew up with two parents that have both been married twice and two half brothers. Having this blended family has not impacted me negatively but this is only one example of a nontraditional family. Homosexual marriages, single parent households, and cohabiting couples are some more types of families that are becoming more predominant in the United States. I've never thought about the different types and definition of families until I enrolled in the Sociology of Family class here at USC. This subject hits home with me because I greatly adore children and if there is a certain family set up that increases their chance of depression or disobedience, then I would like to know about it.

"The Changing Face of the American Family" is an article describing the shift of the nuclear American family. During the 1950's there was a dramatic increase in the traditional nuclear family, which many people referred to as the American dream. The fathers carried the role as the provider of the family, while the mothers to care of the home, children, and provided sex for the husband. Money spent on advertisements has risen from $6 billion to $13 billion to showcase this American dream family. There were Christmas commercials showing wives receiving new pots or the new top of the vacuum cleaner. This started to embed the idea of the wife only utilizing her cooking and cleaning skills throughout her life. These ads also popularized the idea of a 'good wife' while advertising products that will make them the 'perfect wife'. A woman named Betty Friedan wrote a book called The Feminine Mystique which laid the ground work for a feminist revolution that would redefine the nuclear unit forever. This book empowered woman to take control of their own lives by using birth control, acquiring higher education, and creating a career outside the home.

"Childhood Family Correlates of Heterosexual and Homosexual Marriages" is an article comparing the effects of heterosexual and homosexual marriages on children. Studies have shown that divorced parents are more likely to have children that marry homosexually. Children who have divorced parents are also more likely to not want to get married. When the parents are involved in a happy marriage then their children have more positive attitudes toward marriage. There are also other factors that weigh in when studying the likely hood of children getting married. Their birthplace, parental factors, and sibling factors weigh in on the future of the children. This article contains lots of charts and real data to further back up these claims. The information that is included is from accredited sites and companies making this article more legitimist.

"Gay Male Couples' Parental Involvement In Lesbian-parented Families" is an article that contains one of the most unique family designs. This design consists of a child growing up with four parents in their life. The two mothers are a lesbian couple and the two men are a gay couple. This style of parenting can vary in actual child involvement. Some couples only see the child every 2-3 weeks while others are more involved in their daily life. This article talks about a couple of real families. When comparing the stories you will see how diverse and somewhat beneficial this style is to the parents and children.

This research question is very arguable and controversial. Any type of shift of the "norm" is seen as crazy in the eyes of American people who don't like change. Religion also plays a role when determining people's family values. Children are a huge part of people's lives and people want them to have the best childhood they can obtain. To zoom in on a specific issue in the changing family, I will have to refine my list of families to talk about. Changing my research question to "How has the traditional family shifted, and what kind of impact do homosexual and single parent families have on children?"  This will help me to collect my ideas with one main central idea.

