The Structural Family Changes Important to the Changes and Implications of the New Supporting Social Policies

Abstract

This study gives us a theoretic panorama, based on the up-to-date literature, of the problematics related to the family structural changes phenomena all over the world. This is a theoretical study which treats in details the factors causing the social and demographic changes reflected in the family structural changes. Data reviewing report that during the last decades the interest in marriage in Europe has decreased whereas the interest on other alternative forms of long-term relationships has increased. Marriages have lost their stability leading to other forms of families, different from the traditional ones, and family life organization. The number of children of European families is getting smaller and the size of European families is even smaller. The fertility decreases as well as the aging of the population have become tender issues in the European agenda because of their direct connection to the economic power, the political and cultural influence reduction and to the role that Europe plays in the international arena. Therefore, these changes in new family structure during the last decades, in the families of societies going through the second transition require new supporting strategies, social policies which encourage these changes. The new input of this study in the analysis of the data gathered from the literature.