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Additional Material : The Changing Family Read the article and then check your answers and predictions . Using a dictionary , make a list of new words and their definitions . THE CHANGING FAMILY 1 Until the end of the twentieth centu 1 y , the traditional nuclear family in Western society included a husband , a wife and children . However , the picture of the nuclear family today is different from what it was even 30 years ago . Today , it is also common to find a family that consists ofa single parent with children , or two divorced or widowed spouses and their children . 2 All evidence suggests that the nuclear household is shrinking in numbers while other family forms are growing rapidly . A well-known social critic , Alvin Toffler , writes in his book , The Third Wave , that we are living in an entirely new period of human history . Scientific and technological discoveries and advances have affected the family structure . Whereas most people once lived within the structure of the traditional nuclear family , today , as many as two-thirds to three-fourths of the population live outside this structure . 3 The way we define the family today is changing . To begin with , in the past three decades , there has been an explosion of "solos" - people who live alone . In the United States between 1970 and 1978 , the number of people aged 14 to 35 who lived alone nearly tripled - increasing from 1 . 5 million to 4 . 3 million . Since the 1980 s , one fifth of all households in the United States has consisted of a person living alone . 4 The definition of a family has also begun to include couples who choose not to have children . Although they are a minority in most countries , these childless families have changed how society defines what a family is . 5 Furthermore , divorces , breakups and separations have resulted in single-parent households . In the United States , one in seven American children is raised by a single parent , and in urban areas , this number is even higher - one in four . Not surprisingly , the changing form of the nuclear family is not a purely American phenomenon . In Britain , nearly one family in ten is a single-parent family and approximately 15 percent of these are headed by men . 6 Some countries have made special arrangements to help single-parent families . In Germany , there are apartment buildings especially for single-parent families , and daytime care is provided for children so that parents can work . In Scandinavia , there are special welfare rights specifically for single-parent families . In Sweden , for example , one-parent households are allowed to register their children at nursery and daycare facilities first .
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