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Social Mobility in an Era of Family Instability and Complexity

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  • Laura Tach

Abstract

Families play a central role in the study of social mobility—they are units of analysis for measuring social class as well as settings that shape the intergenerational transmission of resources. The American family has undergone important changes since the mid-twentieth century. Divorce, nonmarital childbearing, and cohabitation increased dramatically. The rise in divorce and cohabitation made the family a less stable unit of socialization and led to a proliferation of step and blended family arrangements with complex configurations of residential and biological ties. As a result of these changes, less than half of children spend their entire childhood in an intact, two-biological parent household, and families are no longer defined solely by shared residence or biology. The instability and complexity of family life requires stratification scholars to rethink how they measure origin and destination class and to consider how parents in nontraditional families transmit class-specific resources to the next generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Tach, 2015. "Social Mobility in an Era of Family Instability and Complexity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 83-96, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:657:y:2015:i:1:p:83-96
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716214547854
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. David B. Grusky & Timothy M. Smeeding & C. Matthew Snipp, 2015. "A New Infrastructure for Monitoring Social Mobility in the United States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 63-82, January.
    2. Emma Kahle Monahan, 2019. "Examining How Community Poverty, Family Structure, and Community Involvement Influence the Earnings of Youth," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1-2), pages 138-155, July.

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