The Large Family System--A Research Report

C URRENT thinking concerning child and personality development has become so family-minded that it even counts its tasks in terms of families rather than of children; this in spite of the obvious fact that a family with twelve children is twelve times as important statistically as a family with one child. Examination of census data on types of families by size will reveal the contrast that has just been made. Of all households (35,087,440) enumerated in 1940, only 2.2 per cent (765,560) had six or more related children under eighteen years of age. Reckoning in terms of household units, families of such size seem relatively unimportant. Counting in terms of children, however, a total of 5,134,159, or 13 per cent of all children under 18, were found in these families. To put it another way, one out of every 46 families had six or more children under eighteen years of age, but almost one out of every seven children were reared in families of such size. If the same comparison is made for households with five or more related children under 18, the percentage of all households is 4.2 but the percentage of

demographic modeling and climate adaptation · Global Socioeconomic and Political Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology

• Traditional Families? From Culturally Prescribed to Negotiated Roles in Farm Families

  Gordon F Streib, Damian F Hannan et al.•Journal of Marriage and the Family•1978

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• The Housing Satisfaction of Large Urban Families

  Elizabeth C Rogers, Stan R Nikkel•Housing and Society•1979

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• Traditional Families? From Culturally Prescribed to Negotiated Roles in Farm Families

  Michael Gordon, Damian F Hannan et al.•Social Forces•1978

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