Mark Jakob examines the relationship between social change, values-driven family policy, and scientific research based on archival sources and contemporary publications. As the author demonstrates, West German society underwent profound changes from the 1950s to the 1980s. Under the conditions of this social dynamics, family policy increasingly struggled to rely on a unified concept of society to embed and legitimize its policies. The promise of social science to provide objective findings and interpretations of social change as reference points for family policy measures could not compensate for this uncertainty. Consequently, the institutionalized communication between science and politics was only partially capable of formulating a rational program.