Family and family life plan: Conjugal (nuclear) family

Conjugal (nuclear) family[edit]
The term "nuclear family" is commonly used, especially in the United States of America, to refer to conjugal families. A "conjugal" family includes only the spouses and unmarried children who are not of age.^{[20][failed verification]} Some sociologists^[which?] distinguish between conjugal families (relatively independent of the kindred of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindred).^[21][22]
Other family structures – with (for example) blended parents, single parents, and domestic partnerships – have begun to challenge the normality of the nuclear family.^[23][24][25]
Single-parent family[edit]
A single-parent family consists of one parent together with their children, where the parent is either widowed, divorced (and not remarried), or never married. The parent may have sole custody of the children, or separated parents may have a shared-parenting arrangement where the children divide their time (possibly equally) between two different single-parent families or between one single-parent family and one blended family. As compared to sole custody, physical, mental and social well-being of children may be improved by shared-parenting arrangements and by children having greater access to both parents.^[26][27] The number of single-parent families have been^[when?] increasing, and about half of all children in the United States will live in a single-parent family at some point before they reach the age of 18.^[28] Most single-parent families are headed by a mother, but the number of single-parent families headed by fathers is increasing.^[29][30][31]