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Publication #FAR5000

 

Family-Friendly Communities for Dual Earner Families1

Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
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The residential landscape of the U.S. has changed dramatically in the past 50 to 100 years as families moved from farms, to cities, to suburbs. The suburbs of the '50s and '60s were teeming with children and stay-at-home moms, while often dad went off to work each day. In more recent years, as more families have become dual-earning households, neighborhoods have become less of the social center of families' lives. While much research has followed the plight of urban decay, little research has tracked the changing dynamics of suburban neighborhoods. However, in a recent study published in Family Relations, researchers explored what families are looking for in what they consider a "family-friendly" community today.

The researchers found that the men and women in their study had more friends on the job than in their neighborhoods, and that the workplace, in many regards, has become their community. Likewise, couples no longer select communities because of proximity of relatives. Rather, parents indicated that they chose their neighborhoods to favor convenient access to the husband's job, as well as proximity to quality schools. Safety, housing quality, recreational opportunities, and availability of parks, libraries, and community events also played important roles in their decisions (Sweet, Swisher, & Moen, 2005).

As dual-earner families face many challenges in juggling families and jobs today, they also are redefining the roles of their communities. Community planners are also beginning to respond to the needs of dual-career parents with new neighborhoods designed to support working family lifestyles.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/369.mp3

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/369.wav

Reference

Sweet, S., Swisher, R., & Moen, P. (2005, December). Selecting and assessing the family-friendly community: adaptive strategies of middle-class, dual-earner couples. Family Relations, 54, 596-606.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR5000, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 369 in January 2007. Published on EDIS September 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Reviewed by Mark Brennan, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, University of Florida.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.