Studies of Family Living in the United States and Other Countries: An Analysis of Material and Method

Excerpts from the Introduction: The importance of planning systematically for production and distribution, and of taking account in that planning of consumer demand both at home and abroad, has come to be very generally recognized in the United States. With this recognition has come a realization of the need for satisfactory information on consumption habits and consumption needs. Most of the studies of consumption made in the United States in recent years have included relatively small groups. Furthermore, very different methods of collecting and analyzing data have been used in these investigations, and it is, therefore, extremely difficult to utilize the results in planning for the production and distribution of consumer goods. The increased recognition of the need for data on consumption will undoubtedly result in extensive investigations in the field of family living in the near future, since most of our population live in family groups. It is, therefore, especially important at the present time to evaluate for research workers in this field the methods which have been used in gathering and analyzing data on family living, and to index the material already published. There are many studies of family living which are not easily accessible. Approximately 1,500 studies of family living made in 52 countries are included in the bibliography presented herein. These studies analyze the consumption of family groups in many different ways. They are alike in presenting data from individual families and in giving figures on either the total money income or the total money expenditures of the families studied for the period of the report, since, in order to limit the field of this survey to manageable proportions, it was agreed to include only studies fulfilling these conditions.