What is family?
Defining family is hard because there are wide ranges of family in this society today; however the conventional definition is that it involves married couple with one or more children. Most people are likely to describe the term family as a mum, dad and children. This is often seen as the typical and ‘common’ type of family. Most people call it “cereal packet family” however the correct team for this would be “nuclear family”. A research shows that this type of family is considered as an important type of family. However In UK there are only about 25 per cent of the households that are made up of nuclear family. Now days there are different / wide variety of families that are becoming much more important, these growing types of families include: the single-parent family, extended family, reconstituted or step families, cohabiting couples and their children, beanpole families, singletons (people who live by themselves) and same sex families.
Single –parent family: A single parent family is also known as lone parenthood, this is when the parents are separated due to divorce then the one of the parent are given custody of their children in order to look after them.
Extended family: an extended family is when three or more generation are living together. Extended family is not considered to be much more important these days due to geographical mobility (the ability to move around the country.)How ever a research shows that 90 per cent had received financial help from their extended family. And it is also known that women are much more activity involved with the extended family.
Reconstituted or step family: reconstituted family is made up of an adult couple, married or unmarried, living with at least on child from previous relationship of one of the partners. Reconstituted family is also known as step-or blended family. This type of family is now growing in our society due to the increase in divorce since the 1970’s. Research shows that about 10 per cent of all children live in a stepfamily.
Cohabiting couples: this is when a living arrangement in which an unmarried couple lives together in a long-term relationship that resembles a marriage. This could be due to financial problems or legal requirement and so on.
Bean pole families: a beanpole family is a nuclear family with one or more children who maintain regular contact with grandparents. As the family size shrinks, the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren becomes much more intense. This is due to fewer children being born and longer life expectancy. Grandparents are increasingly being used to look after their grandchildren.
Singletons: a singleton is someone who lives by themselves for different reasons. One of the reason could be that more people in their 20’s and 30’s can afford to live by themselves without having to worry or face as much pressure to marry people or have a family. Another reason could be that more men in their 40’s and 50’s tent to live by themselves due to divorce. Divorced women usually gain the custody of their children, so men are left by themselves unless they find different partner or re-marry.
Same sex family : this family type had only increased in recent years as the same sex family/partnership were not legally recognised and still is no legal in some countries. Organic analogy and family:
The term organic analogy means viewing society as having the same functions as a biological organism. Also, it proposes that every aspect of society has its own function that is vital to the entire process of functioning of the society. This part of the theory was further developed by structural functionalists like Bronislav Malonowski and Radcliffe-Brown. An example in society would be if