The author of FAMILY VALUE paints a rather bleak vision of signs where the traditional fam

ily is headed in our postindustrial age. Divorce is raging. More people are living alone. Couples are often living together without the commitment of marriage. These statistics are Britain today, but the phenomena are occurring throughout the postindustrial world as well. Sociologists do not agree as to the causes of this bleakness. Some lay blame on single mothers who set up a cycle of economic deprivation, emotional instability and lack of parental authority. Others feel that women working full time having fewer children, living much longer than their grandmothers, yielding to advertising and financial stress, and striving to "succeed" in terms of a man dominated world are the real causes. Also, families may be becoming more private as time and outside stress demand too much of its members. It seems, there is no sense of place in a time of continuous movement, old people need a purpose, and aging must be acknowledged.