Types of family

TYPES OF FAMILY

Plan:

1. 
   Family Structures
   
2. 
   Single Parent Family
   
3. 
   Extended Family
   

The following types of families exist today, with some families naturally falling into multiple categories. For example, a single parent family who lives in a larger, extended family. While these types of families are distinct in definition, in practice the lines are less clear. As laws and norms change, so do family structures. For example, the 2020 U.S. Census will be the first to give respondents the chance to indicate that they are part of a same-sex couple, either married or unmarried.

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Nuclear Family

The nuclear family is the traditional type of family structure. This family type consists of two parents and children. The nuclear family was long held in esteem by society as being the ideal in which to raise children. Children in nuclear families receive strength and stability from the two-parent structure and generally have more opportunities due to the financial ease of two adults. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, almost 70 percent of children live in a nuclear family unit.

Single Parent Family

The single parent family consists of one parent raising one or more children on his own. This family may include a single mother with her children, a single dad with his kids, or a single person with their kids. The single parent family is the biggest change society has seen in terms of the changes in family structures. One in four children is born to a single mother. Single parent families are generally close and find ways to work together to solve problems, such as dividing up household chores. When only one parent is at home, it may be a struggle to find childcare, as there is only one parent working. This limits income and opportunities in many cases, although many single parent families have support from relatives and friends.

Extended Family

The extended family structure consists of two or more adults who are related, either by blood or marriage, living in the same home. This family includes many relatives living together and working toward common goals, such as raising the children and keeping up with the household duties. Many extended families include cousins, aunts or uncles and grandparents living together. This type of family structure may form due to financial difficulties or because older relatives are unable to care for themselves alone. Extended families are becoming increasingly common all over the world.

Childless Family

While most people think of family as including children, there are couples who either cannot or choose not to have children. The childless family is sometimes the "forgotten family," as it does not meet the traditional standards set by society. Childless families consist of two partners living and working together. Many childless families take on the responsibility of pet ownership or have extensive contact with their nieces and nephews.

Step Family

Over half of all marriages end in divorce, and many of these individuals choose to get remarried. This creates the step or blended family which involves two separate families merging into one new unit. It consists of a new husband, wife, or spouse and their children from previous marriages or relationships. Step families are about as common as the nuclear family, although they tend to have more problems, such as adjustment periods and discipline issues. Step families need to learn to work together and also work with their exes to ensure these family units run smoothly.

Grandparent Family

Many grandparents today are raising their grandchildren for a variety of reasons. One in fourteen children is raised by his grandparents, and the parents are not present in the child's life. This could be due to parents' death, addiction, abandonment or being unfit parents. Many grandparents need to go back to work or find additional sources of income to help raise their grandchildren.

Variety of Structures

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to what is the best type of family structure. As long as a family is filled with love and support for one another, it tends to be successful and thrive. Families need to do what is best for each other and themselves, and that can be achieved in almost any unit.

What constitutes a family varies across the globe depending on a variety of factors including subsistence practices and economic behaviors. Family defines obligations that group members have to one another, both economically and socially. Generally, family members live together, but that is not always the case.

Family Types

Nuclear family: This is also known as the conjugal family or family of procreation. Nuclear families are comprised of married partners and their offspring. This is common in industrial societies, but it is not the most common type of family in the world, although the practice is spreading through modern development. Some anthropologists identify a second type of nuclear family, the non-conjugal family. In this type of nuclear family, there is one parent with dependent children. Additionally, there is the polygymous family, which is comprised of multiple spouses and dependent children (Lavenda and Schultz 2010; note that Lavenda and Schultz refer to a polygynous family, not a polygymous family, but that term does not encompass a married woman living with multiple husbands and dependent children).

Extended family: The extended family is the most common type of family in the world. Extended families include at least three generations: grandparents, married offspring, and grandchildren.

Joint family: Joint families are composed of sets of siblings, theirs spouses, and their dependent children.

Blended family: Blended families are becoming more common, especially in industrial societies like the United States. A blended family is formed when divorced or widowed parents who have children marry.

Family by Choice: A relatively newly recognized type of family, again especially in industrial countries like the United States, is the family by choice. The term was popularized by the LGBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community to describe a family not recognized by the legal system. Family by choice can include adopted children, live-in partners, kin of each member of the household, and close friends. Increasingly family by choice is being practiced by unmarried people and families who move away from the consanguine family.

In the context of human society, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth), affinity (by marriage or other relationship), or co-residence (as implied by the etymology of the English word "family")[citation needed] or some combination of these.[citation needed] The purpose of families is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideally, families would offer predictability, structure, and safety as members mature and participate in the community.[1] In most societies, it is within families children acquire socialization for life outside the family. Additionally, as the basic unit for meeting the basic needs of its members, it provides a sense of boundaries for performing tasks in a heterosexual environment, ideally builds a person into a functional adult, transmits culture, and ensures continuity of humankind with precedents of knowledge.

Anthropologists generally classify most family organizations as matrifocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a wife, her husband, and children, also called the nuclear family); avuncular (for example, a grandparent, a brother, his sister, and her children); or extended (parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's family).

Members of the immediate family may include spouses, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters.[citation needed] Members of the extended family may include aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, and siblings-in-law.[citation needed] Sometimes these are also considered members of the immediate family, depending on an individual's specific relationship with them.[citation needed] Sexual relations among the members are regulated by rules concerning incest such as the incest taboo.

The word "families" can be used metaphorically to create more inclusive categories such as community, nationhood, global village, and humanism.

One of the primary functions of the family involves providing a framework for the production and reproduction of persons biologically and socially. This can occur through the sharing of material substances (such as food); the giving and receiving of care and nurture (nurture kinship); jural rights and obligations; and moral and sentimental ties.[3][4] Thus, one's experience of one's family shifts over time. From the perspective of children, the family is a "family of orientation": the family serves to locate children socially and plays a major role in their enculturation and socialization.[5] From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a "family of procreation", the goal of which is to produce, enculturate and socialize children.[6][7] However, producing children is not the only function of the family; in societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage, and the resulting relationship between two people, it is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household

Christopher Harris notes that the western conception of family is ambiguous and confused with the household, as revealed in the different contexts in which the word is used.[11] Olivia Harris states this confusion is not accidental, but indicative of the familial ideology of capitalist, western countries that pass social legislation that insists members of a nuclear family should live together, and that those not so related should not live together; despite the ideological and legal pressures, a large percentage of families do not conform to the ideal nuclear family type.

The total fertility rate of women varies from country to country, from a high of 6.76 children born/woman in Niger to a low of 0.81 in Singapore (as of 2015). Fertility is low in most Eastern European and Southern European countries; and high in most Sub-Saharan African countries.

In some cultures, the mother's preference of family size influences that of the children through early adulthood. A parent's number of children strongly correlates with the number of children that their children will eventually have.

Although early western cultural anthropologists and sociologists considered family and kinship to be universally associated with relations by "blood" (based on ideas common in their own cultures) later research[3] has shown that many societies instead understand family through ideas of living together, the sharing of food (e.g. milk kinship) and sharing care and nurture. Sociologists have a special interest in the function and status of family forms in stratified (especially capitalist) societies.[citation needed]

According to the work of scholars Max Weber, Alan Macfarlane, Steven Ozment, Jack Goody and Peter Laslett, the huge transformation that led to modern marriage in Western democracies was "fueled by the religio-cultural value system provided by elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation".Much sociological, historical and anthropological research dedicates itself to the understanding of this variation, and of changes in the family that form over time. Levitan claims:

"Times have changed; it is more acceptable and encouraged for mothers to work and fathers to spend more time at home with the children. The way roles are balanced between the parents will help children grow and learn valuable life lessons. There is [the] great importance of communication and equality in families, in order to avoid role strain."

References

Ahern, Susan and Kent G. Bailey. 1996. Family By Choice, Creating Family in a World of Stranger. Minneapolis: Fairview Press.

Bonvillain, Nancy. 2010. Cultural Anthropology, 2nd edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Crapo, Richley. 2002. Cultural Anthropology: Understanding Ourselves and Others. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Ember, Carol R. and Melvin Ember. 2011. Cultural Anthropology, 13th edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Harris, Marvin and Oran Johnson. 2007. Cultural Anthropology, 7th edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Lavenda Robert H. and Emily A. Schultz. 2010. Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology, 4th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Newcomb, Rachel. 2007. North Africa. In Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Vol. 4, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Jacqueline Siapno and Jane Smith, eds. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, p. 525-527.

Schlegel, Alica. 1996. Hopi. In Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 1, North America, David Levinson and Timothy O’Leary, eds. New York: macmillan Reference USA, p. 148-151.

Wynn, Lisa. 2007. The Gulf. In Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Vol. 4, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Jacqueline Siapno and Jane Smith, eds. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, p. 523-524.