Answer to Question 1
One reason for the declining role of parents over the years is that kinship is less important in modern societies, and one's kin, including one's parents, have considerably fewer stakes in who marries whom. A second reason is that children have a greater degree of economic independence from their parents in industrial societies, and parents therefore have less leverage with which to demand a say in the choice of a marriage partner.
Answer to Question 2
Since families perform fewer functions today than in the past, there are fewer pressures on couples to stay together if they are unhappy. In the past, the same unhappy couple might have remained married because neither spouse felt he or she could raise the children alone or he or she needed the family for support in old age. Today, single parents are better prepared to raise a child, and most people are supported by government or private retirement plans in their old age. This independence has caused an increase in the number of divorces and willingness to view divorce as normal.
The role of Hox genes 9–13 in specifying limb formation from the proximal to distal
Children Understanding Death
Role-Playing a Situation in Which a Patient Is from Another Culture
Auguste Renoir: MME. CHARPENTIER AND HER CHILDREN
Calorie Needs for Children and Adolescents
Children's behaviour rating scores on measures of aggression and anxiety