In focussing on cultural change, we concentrate on cultural concepts underlying models of demographic change. We start with a short introduction on related terminology and theoretical concepts that form the basis of relevant approaches, outlining a few peculiarities of debates on culture. We proceed by pointing out a few aspects of family lives in Europe that have remained particularly stable throughout the last century, despite all changes occurring. We then focus on the main historic patterns of change in family lives. In alignment with the temporal division in modernisation on the one hand (which is the transformation from agricultural to industrial societies and the complex set of related processes, such as urbanisation, secularisation, and the replacement of religious belief by rational reflection) and late modernity on the other hand, and we assign each theoretical approach to one of these two eras. In the context of modernisation, we refer to the concept of the First Demographic Transition, the Value of Children approach, the modernisation theory, and the establishment of the nuclear family. In the context of late modernity, our discussion includes the concept of the Second Demographic Transition, the individualisation shift thesis as well as an overview of further sociological approaches to changing gender roles and pluralisation of family lives, ideas regarding the change of family relations as well as concepts of life course change. A further chapter refers to theories on cross-cultural differences. Finally, in a short conclusion, we discuss the importance of including cultural aspects in studies on family demography.