Doctoral Dissertaton Research: Public Discourse and Public Opinion, Perspectives on Single-Parent Families, Working Wives and Mothers and Family Size

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This project explores public discourse regarding three developments that transformed the American family during the twentieth century. They are the rise in single-parent families, the increase in wives and mothers working outside the home, and the decline in family size. Public discourse on these topics may differ in popular magazines and scholarly journals, and may change with demographic developments and public opinion. The project therefore addresses these central questions: 1) What causes the quantity of media and scholarly discourse on these topics to change over time? 2) How important are demographic trends, conditions within journalism and academia, competition from other social problems, and interaction between scholars and journalists in explaining the changing quantity of this discourse? 3) How does the content of media and scholarly discourse on these topics compare and relate over time? 4) How do changes in the content of media and scholarly discourse relate to changes in public opinion on these topics? Using time-series data to answer the first two questions, and content analysis to answer the second two, the study examines both the quantity and content of public discourse over an entire century.