Family Structures and Fertility Rates: Perspectives from Italy and the US

Family and social structure play a central role in everyday life both for the Italians and a considerable percentage of the United States population as it is also the case with many diverse cultures across the world. In both nations, a lot of family structures and norms have remarkably changed over the last few years. Currently, a lot of families in Italy have been reluctant to have children where the fertility rate has remained constant at 1.3 to 1.4 percent, and a significant contributor to the ongoing growth in population can be adequately attributed to the increased number of immigrants entering the nation every year (OECD, 2018). In the United States, on the other hand, the birth rates are still high with the average number of children born to one woman is 2.05 compared to 1.45 in Italy. This, however, implies that large families are a significant norm in the country particularly in regions of the Midwest and Southern States.

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However, a lot of information gained from the cross-cultural family comparison assignments throughout this semester has proven to be of great importance towards enhancing my understanding regarding the family and social structures both in the U.S. and Italy. Profound knowledge of the household structure differences will enormously help in critically analyzing the critical current trends concerning family life in both countries and thus evaluate their forceful impacts on the overall development. An excellent example of the various useful things learned in class that has significantly improved or changed my understanding regarding families is the discussion on the paramount practices and customs in marriage in the U.S. as well as in Italy. From the assignments, it is apparent that in the U.S. a lot of people are engaged at an early age while most of the marriages are civic, in contrast to what happens in Italy where the required age to marry is 30 and most marriage ceremonies are carried out in church (Statista, 2018). One aspect concerning marriage that challenged my beliefs is on the issue of divorce, where I always believed that in an incidence of the same both parties should share the properties as indicated on the agreement but learned that there are extreme cases in the U.S. where one party may be forced pay alimony (Geiger & Livingston, 2019). As such, I will be able to use this information while doing further research on the changes or trends in sociology especially on matters concerning the family and social structures.

References

Geiger, A., & Livingston, G. (2019, February 13). 8 facts about love and marriage in America. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/

OECD. (2018). Family Database : By Country - The Structure Of Families. Retrieved From https://Stats.Oecd.Org/Index.Aspx?Queryid=68249#

Statista. (2018). Woman's age at first marriage in Italy by region 2017 | Statistic. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/569582/women-average-age-at-first-marriage-in-italy-by-region/