An Empirical Evaluation of the Family Life Cycle

The concept of 'family life has become increasingly prominent in the study of development' '-the formation, maintefnance, change, and dissolution of marriage and family relations. While researchers have found the family life cycle concept appealing, it has been accepted rather uncritically and its utility has never been empirically established. An evaluation of this concept is accomplished by examining the relationships between three possible stratification schemes for studying family development: stage of the family life cycle, marriage cohort, and birth cohort. An analysis using the 1/10, 000 subsample of the 1970 United States Census Public Use Data attempts to compare these stratification schemes using three methodological approaches. Cross-classification analysis, analysis of variance, and log-linear analysis for multidimensional contingency tables provide a triangulation of approaches to the question of whether or not one stratification scheme is superior to another for studying 'family development. No method emerged as superior for either prediction or analytical utility. It is concluded that family life cycle as a stratification scheme for study-' ing family development has demonstrated no more empirical value than marriage cohort or age cohort. While the article's primary contribution is methodological, it has both practical and theoretical implications. The findings suggest that data sets heretofore untappedforfamily analysis which include age or length of time married, but not stage of the family life cycle, may now be appropriate for examination of developmental questions by marriage and family researchers. The findings also suggest the need for the development of other stratification schemes as alternatives to the family life cycle stages.