Single-Parent Families and Their Impact on Children: Changing Portrayals in Popular Magazines in the U.S., 1900-1998

Survey data indicate that Americans have become increasingly accepting of single-parent families formed through divorce and non-marital childbearing since 1960 (Thornton 1989; Thornton and Young-DeMarco 2001; Pagnini and Rindfuss 1993). But knowledge of attitudes about single-parent families is limited in terms of both time period and detail. Most data series do not begin until after 1950 (Thornton 1995) and focus narrowly on measuring views of the demographic trends that have fueled the increase in single-parent families rather than on a broader set of attitudes about single-parent families or factors that might influence these attitudes.