Can the nuclear family be revived?

Based on accumulated social research, there now can be little doubt that successful and well-adjusted children in modern societies are most likely to come from two-parent families consisting of the biological father and mother. Alternative family forms which are attempted, such as single-parent and stepfamilies, have been demonstrated to be inferior in child outcomes. The recent movement away from the twonatural-parent family has led to considerable social malaise among the young, not to mention social decay in general.

It can be argued that child well-being would be enhanced if families lived among care-giving relatives and in supportive communities, but this has become an ever-diminishing situation. Historically, a substantial stripping down has occurred of both the extended family and the cohesive neighborhood, and this trend is probably irreversible. The state has tried to fill the vacuum, but without much success. The two-parent nuclear family therefore may be more important today for children, and for society in general, than ever before in history.

Constituting one of the greatest dilemmas faced by modern societies, however, is the fact that nuclear families themselves are breaking apart at dramatically high rates. The chances in some societies are now less than 50-50, thanks mainly to divorce and out-of-wedlock births, that a child will live continuously to adulthood with both natural parents. This is despite the fact that, unlike in times past, parents now almost always live to see their children reach maturity.

One fundamental reason for the high break-up rate is that the nature of marriage has changed. Not so long ago marriage was an economic bond of mutual dependency, a social bond heavily upheld by extended families, and a religious bond of sacramental worth. Today, marriage is none of these. The economic bond has become displaced by affluence, by female economic pursuit, and by state support; extended family pressures on marriages have all but vanished; and modern societies have become increasingly secular. Marriage has become a purely individual pursuit; an implied and not very enforceable contract between two people; a relationship designed to satisfy basic needs for intimacy, dependency and sex. When these needs change, or when a presumptively better partner is discovered, marriages are easily dissolved. Moreover, more of the everyday needs traditionally met by marriage can be met...