Changing Family Structure and Youthful Well-Being

The vanishing nuclear family constitutes one of the most significant demographic and social transformations in recent history. A voluminous body of theoretical and empirical literature in family studies, proceeding on the assumption that the nuclear family is the optimum child-rearing structure, suggests this change will have dire consequences for the well-being of future generations. The present essay challenges that conclusion, pointing out various methodological and conceptual problems with the extant research on which this prediction is based.