Some aspects of family composition in Venezuela.

In discussing changes in family structure, scholars have recently reexamined past notions about differences between cultures with regard to family organization and patterns of change. One point at issue is the size of the household. In the past the assumption has been that large households were the result of high fertility and joint-household living arrangements, and that with industrialization the size of the household became smaller as fertility was reduced and a neolocal pattern of residence was widely adopted (Ogburn and Nimkoff, 1955; Smelser,. 1965; Kahl, 1959). More recently, studies by Levy (1965), Collver (1963), Kumar (unpublished), and others have shown that this idea has been exaggerated.