Abstract

ABOIM, Sofia. Evolução das estruturas domésticas. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2003, n.43, pp.13-30. ISSN 0873-6529.

On the basis of Laslett (1972) concept of a household, the aim of this article is to establish the principal aspects of how the organization of family life in Portugal has developed in the last 40 years, through an analysis of the 1960, 1991 and 2001 censuses. Under the impact of the modernization of Portuguese society, family life has registered certain noteworthy changes. Important examples are the decrease in the average family size and the rise in one-person households or the fall in the number of large households and of complex families. Furthermore, probably as a reflection of the reduction and postponement seen with regard to childbearing, and of the rising divorce rate and the ageing of the population, the number of families consisting of a couple with children has fallen while that of families consisting of couples without children or lone-parent families has risen.

Keywords : Household; family; modernization; regional diversity.

        · abstract in Portuguese | French | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )