Household Structure and Family Strategies

这项研究考察了家庭在应对大规模社会变化时发生变化的方式。调查人员将利用1850年至1900年美国人口普查时间表的数据，绘制加州洛杉矶环境从1850年一个小而孤立的国内经济到1900年一个主要城市中心的转变对家庭的影响。通过研究性别、代际和阶级地位与家庭组成、教育和就业之间的关系，研究者可以检验一个理论模型，即在重大经济动荡的条件下，家庭如何履行其责任。19世纪末洛杉矶的人口普查数据为将家庭变迁与大规模社会变迁联系起来提供了一个战略切入点。这项研究将测试现有的关于家庭策略的假设，即家庭对家庭成员应该工作的选择，以及谁应该上学、结婚、生孩子的决定。这项研究很重要，因为它调查了更大的经济如何影响家庭和个人做出选择的选择范围。通过将家庭决策视为社会结构和个人选择相互作用的结果，这项研究有助于我们理解美国的家庭生活及其变化。

This research examines the ways in which families change in response to large scale social changes. The investigator will draw on data from U.S. census schedules between 1850 and 1900 to chart the consequences, for families, of the transformation of the Los Angeles, California environment from a small, isolated, domestic economy in 1850 to a major urban center in 1900. By examining relationships between gender, generation, and class position, on the one hand, and household composition, education, and employment, on the other, the investigator can test a theoretical model of how families meet their responsibilities under conditions of major economic upheaval. The census data for Los Angeles in the late 19th century provide a strategic entry point in which to link family change with large-scale social change. This study will test existing assumptions about family strategies, that is, the choices families make as to which family members should work as well as decisions about who should go to school, marry, have children. This research is important because it investigates the manner in which the larger economy affects the range of alternatives from which families and individuals make their choices. By viewing family decisions as a consequence of the interplay between social structure and individual choice, this research can contribute to our understanding of family life and how it has been transformed in the United States.