Emerging and Declining Family Roles

The assumption that the family as an institution is experiencing a continuous and rapid loss of functions is challenged. Instead, the institution is seen as assuming new sets of responsibilities in the areas of sexual intercourse, recreation, and therapeutic services. These responsibilities are conceptualized as new roles in the positions of parent and spouse. The reverse process is seen in the decline of the norms ascribing housekeeper and kinship duties to family members. Initial data from a sample of210 couples, parents of children in the third grade, provide support for the above thesis of changes in the family institution.