I will add this…….
You are stating that there is a CORRELATION between the changing family structure and educational and delinquency problems that may ( or may not) be on the increase. However, CORRELATION does not prove causation. You can show that any difficulties that children are experience are due to the family structure ( i.e. not having a mom and a dad) or divorce of the parents without controlling for numerous intervening variables such as the degree of harmony between the spouses, quality of the relationship between parents and children, educational levels, social environment and a whole host of other factors. Only if you do can you say that WITH ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, children in “traditional families “ fair better than those in nontraditional families. You should brush up on the basic principles of social research.
Maybe the reason for families suffering is because the middle class is suffering, and why is that? Again you can’t assign a cause and effect relationship between these problems and the evolving norms and values that we see. That is driven by social forces that cannot be controlled by anyone and there is no turning back. So, we can either be accepting and supporting of parents who are in nontraditional relationships so that they can be the best parents possible, or we can ridicule them, marginalize them, discriminate against them and further undermine the family. And yes, even though you may not approve of them, they are still families.
