St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)

May 23, 2004 Sunday Five Star Lift Edition

FACE OF FAMILIES LIKELY TO CHANGE, NOT THE STRUGGLES

BYLINE: Aisha Sultan

SECTION: SPECIAL SECTION; Pg. 6

LENGTH: 839 words

LOOKING AHEAD

* More children are growing up with single parents and parents of different races or the same gender. But these future families will face familiar economic issues and overextended schedules.

Ozzie and Harriet are dead. The Cosbys are relics, and even the Osbornes are old school.

The "ideal" family of the future is more likely to resemble someone Mick Jagger's age (60) chasing a toddler or a childless cohabitating couple tending to their aged parents.

Social demographers say they expect current trends to continue: Couples marry later, if at all; they have fewer children later in life or without a partner; and they are more likely to cross racial, ethnic and gender boundaries.

The biggest changes ahead may be the ones we can't yet imagine. In the early part of this century, St. Louis saw its first ovary transplant among twin sisters. Fast-forward a hundred years, and St. Louisans may see "expectant" fathers in a whole new light. Families may have nothing in common biologically or they may be biological duplicates.

Though the technological frontier is unknown, some of the challenges facing families of the future are all too familiar -- economic insecurity, overextended schedules and the struggle to stay connected. Whether the St. Louis area remains a great place to raise a family depends on how its leaders and residents respond to families already in crisis, according to the experts in Illinois and Missouri who study the data of how children are faring.

Jerry Stermer, president of Voices for Illinois Children, explains the connection: "Children do well when their families support them. And families do well when their communities support them."

So far, the community is failing its urban core, said Cande Iveson, spokeswoman for Kids Count in Missouri. The group has collected and analyzed data for 12 years ranking how well children are doing in each region of the state. Every year, St. Louis city has finished dead last. The percent of students eligible for free or reduced price lunches is 81 percent in St. Louis, compared with a state average of 38 percent. The rate of child abuse and neglect is 71 per 1,000, compared with 44 per 1,000 in the state.

On the other hand, the high school dropout rate has fallen, as have the rates of teen pregnancy and violent death.

Iveson believes the state is at a crossroads. The decisions made now will determine whether the divide between the haves and have-nots swells even wider in decades ahead. Without access to jobs that can support a family and affordable, quality child care and health care, families struggle to stay stable, she said.

The legal system plays a role in defining who gets to be a family. Former high school principal Franklin McCallie is crusading to get gay and lesbian couples recognized legally. He is one of 100 straight people who have added their names to a neighborhood newspaper ad showing their support for gay marriage. And he believes this latest addition to the family structure will become legally accepted within the next decade or so.

He says people in the future will look back in disbelief on the efforts to ban gay marriages. McCallie expects it will sound as incredible as a ban on interracial marriage sounds today. His own family is part of an upcoming trend of crossing racial boundaries. They unofficially adopted an African-American girl when she was in high school, incorporating her into their Caucasian household.

The latest census figures show 2 percent of married couples in 2000 were of different races, but twice as many unmarried couples living together came from different racial backgrounds.

The higher birth rate among Hispanics and African-Americans, along with continued immigration, is likely to broaden the white, middle-class notions of family, as well.

For Brian Carpenter, a psychology professor at Washington University, the diversification of families will make society more interesting. Although there is data to suggest that children tend to have better outcomes in life when they are raised by two parents rather than one, the same may not hold true for nontraditional families.

"There is no evidence that the new forms of families that have emerged have any sort of negative impact on the development of kids or how healthy people are mentally or physically," Carpenter said.

There are some people who disagree with the idea that families are simply different, not weaker. Steve Ruggles, director of the Minnesota Population Center, says a much higher percentage of the American population lives without any family now than any other period in history. There are far fewer intergenerational families, he said.

Lynn White, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, is hopeful. While divorce causes many family breakups today, the untimely death of spouses and children affected many families a hundred years ago, she said.

"Families are a real flexible institution that have coped with a lot of challenges to its stability," she said.

PERSON:  MICK JAGGER (57%);

COUNTRY:  UNITED STATES (94%);

STATE:  MISSOURI, USA (94%); ILLINOIS, USA (92%); KENTUCKY, USA (79%);

CITY:  SAINT LOUIS, MO, USA (91%);

SUBJECT:  FAMILY (90%); CHILDREN (90%); PARENTS (90%); HIGH SCHOOLS (89%); SINGLE PARENTS (78%); TRENDS (78%); STUDENTS & STUDENT LIFE (78%); CHILD ABUSE (78%); GAYS & LESBIANS (76%); CHILD CARE (73%); ADOLESCENTS (73%); TWINS & MULTIPLE BIRTHS (73%); PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH (73%); SCHOOL PRINCIPALS (72%); EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION (72%); CITY LIFE (63%); CITIES (63%);

LOAD-DATE: May 23, 2004

LANGUAGE: English

NOTES: SPECIAL SECTION -- 2004: A PIVOTAL ERA/ FAMILY/ Aisha Sultan -- Covers education and family issues for the Post-Dispatch./ E-mail: asultan@post-dispatch.com/ Phone: 314-340-8300

GRAPHIC: PHOTO; (1) Color Photo by DAWN MAJORS / POST-DISPATCH - THE FACE OF FAMILIES IS CHANGING: Clyde Nelson, 81, of St. Louis, holds granddaughters Kathryn (left), 9, and Isabelle Nelson, 6, while he and son-in-law Daniel Linck, 43, watch the Kentucky Derby after a family fish fry. Biracial families, families of mixed ethnic and religious backgrounds, and families made up of gay parents will be increasingly common in the future, social demographers say./ (2) Color Photo by DAWN MAJORS / POST-DISPATCH - THE FAMILY THAT PRAYS TOGETHER...: Chris Longtin (left), 40 and wife Michelle, 36, say the rosary with son Zachary, 7, who is now old enough to share in the prayers. Michelle, a St. Louis native, said she loves raising their four children here. Religion is often an anchor in traditional families./ (3) Color Photo Headshot - Aisha Sultan