HOUSEHOLD LIFE CYCLE
INTRODUCTION
The family has always been regarded as the basic social institution. It is the first venue for children to learn attitudes, values and behaviors that would help shape his or her future personality. The critical function of the family gives emphasis on marriage. The marital union of a man and a woman is the legal basis for starting a family. One of the most common motivations of couples to engage in marriage is the idea of starting and raising their own family. The traditional family structure composed of the married couple and the children has always been the ideal.
Recent studies however, suggest the opposite. According to (1999) the face of the American family had changed as evidenced by the drop of the percentage of America households made up of married couples with children from 45% in the early 1970s to just 26% in 1998 (p. 1). The decrease is attributed to many factors including postponement of marriage and child-bearing, high incidence of divorce, and the old generation who are contributing to childlessness and single-person households. Many people today are engrossed with the past-paced modern lifestyle that marriage and family are seen as hindrance to living substantially and successfully. Also, many Americans are seen as becoming more tolerant of divorce partly because many of them who are starting their own families may be products of divorce themselves ( 1999, p. 1). The overall result is one and the same: the decline in the traditional family structure.
DRIVERS OF THE HOUSEHOLD LIFE CYCLE
Age
The average age of the household, and its relationship to the age of the individual, is shown to have some interesting and consistent properties which provide greater insight into the structure of households, particularly as an individual grows older. When the average person is born, they join a household whose average age is about twenty. Over the next twenty years of their life, their household grows by an average of ten years in age as younger members join the household and older members leave. Over the next fifteen years, from age twenty to thirty five, the average person experiences a decrease in the average age of their household as they leave their familial home to create new households and then start adding new children to this household ( 2005, ). The median age at home leaving according to (2004) was youngest for the group of persons born in 1951-1956, at an average of 21.5 years for men and 19.9 years for women. In 2001, 41.1 percent of persons aged 20-29 were living with their parents, compared to 27.5 percent in 1981. Home leaving indicates other successful transitions to adult life, but living at home can also help young people to complete education, experiment with relationships and obtain employment. A critical event occurs at about age twenty eight, when people start to live in a household that is younger than themselves ( 2005, ). By age 25-29, the majority of women and about two thirds of men are living in conjugal unions ( 2004). From about age thirty five onwards, the average household age increases at slightly more than proportional rate as children grow up, leaving their parents by themselves. Above the age of seventy the relationship begins to scatter as many different household structure emerge (the elderly, the widow or widower living alone, and the extended family where the parents move back in with their children). It has also been found out that more females of all ages tend to live in single parent families, and that major differences between the genders appear in the later years of life. Older males tend to remain in two-person household, while older females tend to be lone person households and single parent households ( 2005, ).
Marriage and Children
(n.d.) argued that families follow five stages over a lifetime: young singles, young married, parenthood (full nest), post-parenthood (empty nest), and dissolution. The first stage is premised on the principle of accepting financial and emotional responsibility for oneself through differentiation of self in relation to family of origin, development of intimate peer relationships, and establishment of self in relation to work and financial independence. Marriage, on the other hand, is the commitment to a new system where realignment of relationships with extended families and friends to include the spouse takes place ( 1999, cited in 2006). In most functional marriages, partners combine their beliefs and behaviors in a synergetic way. Synergy in the family life cycle is the ability to take two different points of view and create an option that neither person had considered. Some of the issues in this stage include the transition into the new family system, including the spouse in personal relationships established in singlehood, commitment to making the marriage work, and putting the needs of the partner ahead of own needs ( 2005a).
The entry of children in the system entails the married couple to provide some space for them and to support each other in child rearing, and financial and household tasks ( 1999, cited in 2006). The decision to have children affects the individual development of the man and the woman, the identity of the family and the entire marital relationship. This stage tests the ability of the couple to communicate well in order to resolve issues and maintain a healthy relationship ( 2005b). There is also realignment of relationships with extended family to accommodate parenting and grandparenting roles. Furthermore, when children grow up, the family is expected to increase flexibility in its boundaries to include children’s independence and grandparents’ frailties. The couple needs to shift their focus to the mid-life marital and career issues facing them as well as to leniency to the children to explore outside the family system. This is also the time for realignment of relationships to include in-laws and grandchildren, and dealing with disabilities and death of grandparents. The last stage is characterized by the age of physiological decline, exploration of new familial and social role options, making room for the older generation, and preparation for own death. This stage is the period of life review and integration ( 1999, cited in 2006).
REGIONAL VARIATIONS AND TRENDS IN HOUSEHOLD LIFE CYCLE AND THEIR MARKETING IMPLICATIONS
(2003) reported that immigration and family building of Generation Xers are both significant in the presence of traditional families. Utah, Texas, California, New Jersey, Idaho and New Hampshire which all have growing immigrant populations registered a high percentage of the traditional married-with-children households. Regions that registered the largest rates of growth in married-with-children households in the 1990s can be found in much of the West; California; the Southwest’s Texas; and the Southeastern states of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Metropolitan areas with the most growth in traditional families are located primarily in these same regions, led by Las Vegas, where married-with-children households increased by 75 percent during the 1990s. Twenty one states on the other hand, registered declines in married-with-children households. They are largely located in the central part of the United States, including the Midwest and the Great Plains, as well as in some demographically stagnant parts of the South and New England (). According to the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy population growth rate is fastest in Western cities at 19 percent followed by Southern cities; and those cities with greater human capital and moderately high levels of immigrants had strong growth rates (cited in 2006).
(n.d.) reported that household or family life cycle models are useful for marketing segmentation because they mark stages or transitions associated with distinctive trends in expenditure for goods and services. The concept of family/household life cycle encompasses lifestyle, income and expenditure pattern differences brought about by family role traditions. (1996) added that the household’s pattern of production, consumption, resource allocation and decision making are also determinants of economic behavior. The six stages of family life cycle based on demographic data are: (1) young single people; (2) young couples with no children; (3) young couples with youngest child under six years; (4) couples with dependent children; (5) older couples with no children at home; and (6) older single people. Each stage has its characteristic purchasing patterns and financial circumstances (p. 1).
The approach to studying consumption patterns in many developed western countries is divided into two aspects. First, consumers are classified into four life cycles groups namely: dependent adults or single adults; pre-family or married adults without children; family with one or more children; and adults whose children have left home. These four groups are then broken down further by a combination of occupation and/or income to produce twelve major SAGACITY groupings which is a powerful discriminator between consumer groups for a wide range of products and services ( n.d.). Family life, as it progresses from the time of marriage to having children, to letting children marry and have a family of their own, to being grandparents, entails several financial issues and planning. Each stage brings with it new needs, new responsibilities and new trends in the market. The early earning stage or the post-college years as stated by (2006) are spent mostly on paying off college loans while learning how to handle cash flow issues and budgeting. Those who have children are inclined to invest in college funds as well as retirement savings. The established earning stage (35 to 55 years old) is characterized by emphasis on college education of the children and most financial issues are centered on it. The pre-retirement phase is the appropriate time for discerning on legacy planning and positioning assets more conservatively. Lastly, the retirement phase places high importance on life insurance and philanthropic spending to leave a legacy.
(2000) cited that families in the later stages of the family life cycle manifested greater similarities between the preferences of husbands and wives. Young people consumed less energy (except for gasoline), middle aged families with children consumed the most energy, and gasoline usage had inverse relation with the presence of children. “Second families” represent different consumption processes as having a young child increases the probability of greater material wealth to provide sufficient conditions for raising the child (). and (1990) further narrated that the consumer factor reveals that people in older life cycle stages read more than people in younger life cycle stages, who are more brand conscious. Younger adults and single parents make decisions on their own and younger families consult their spouses in decision making. Reasons for purchases show that single parents do not own the product, older families are replacing, and retirees want new product characteristics.
The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy concluded that considering the regional variations in household life cycle and the unique consumerism in each life cycle stage, the future of cities and suburbs depends on their being desirable places for consumers to live and there is a need to figure out what people are looking for and provide appropriate choices and opportunities (cited in 2006)
REFERENCES
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