Thursday, March 8, 2007

My connection to the research topic

Question: Describe your personal connection to your research topic. What led you to choose this topic and how do you bring a unique perspective to it?

My research topic is “Divorce and single-motherhood lead to the declining of traditional family”. Recently, I saw an article from NEW YORK TIMES and it mentions that 51 % of Women are now living without spouse. This census result has shocked me a lot because the rate is increasing dramatically in these few years. There are some women in the article talks about all the advantages they have when they live alone without spouses or husbands. As a lady, what they say really influenced me at that moment. However, after that moment, when I thought about this issue once again, I thought I may not want to live without a spouse in my future. Moreover, I suddenly realize that the reason why traditional family is declining is because of the different perceptions of family nowadays. Since women prefer to be stay alone, there are more divorce and single-mothers in society. At the mean time, the traditional family, which is the nuclear family, is declining.
I came from Hong Kong, where the individualism is highly emphasized like the United States, but the divorce rate is much lower than the United States. In my research, I am trying to make a comparison of people’s perception of family between Hong Kong and The United States. Furthermore, by making the comparison, I will explore how divorce and single-motherhood has caused the declining of the traditional family.

1 comment:

lweinste said...

I think this is a great topic, especially since there is such a rise in single mothers. I also think that you are approaching the subject in a great way, seeing the benefits of living with only one parent. Your ideas seem focused, and I think your paper will be very interesting.