Which of the Following Best Defines a Family?

The modernistic concept of family is far more encompassing than in by decades. What do you call back constitutes a family unit? (Photograph (a) courtesy Gareth Williams/flickr; photo (b) courtesy Guillaume Paumier/ Wikimedia Commons)

Spousal relationship and family are key structures in nearly societies. While the two institutions have historically been closely linked in U.S. culture, their connection is condign more complex. The human relationship between union and family is an interesting topic of study to sociologists.

What is marriage? Different people ascertain information technology in unlike means. Not fifty-fifty sociologists are able to agree on a unmarried meaning. For our purposes, we'll define matrimony equally a legally recognized social contract between two people, traditionally based on a sexual human relationship and implying a permanence of the spousal relationship. In practicing cultural relativism, we should also consider variations, such as whether a legal union is required (remember of "common law" marriage and its equivalents), or whether more than than two people tin can be involved (consider polygamy). Other variations on the definition of spousal relationship might include whether spouses are of opposite sexes or the same sex and how ane of the traditional expectations of matrimony (to produce children) is understood today.

Sociologists are interested in the relationship betwixt the institution of marriage and the establishment of family unit considering, historically, marriages are what create a family, and families are the most basic social unit upon which guild is built. Both marriage and family create condition roles that are sanctioned by society.

And so what is a family unit? A husband, a wife, and two children—peradventure even a pet—has served every bit the model for the traditional U.S. family unit for virtually of the twentieth century. But what about families that deviate from this model, such as a single-parent household or a homosexual couple without children? Should they be considered families also?

The question of what constitutes a family is a prime expanse of debate in family unit sociology, as well as in politics and religion. Social conservatives tend to ascertain the family in terms of structure with each family fellow member filling a certain role (like father, female parent, or child). Sociologists, on the other hand, tend to define family more in terms of the way in which members relate to one another than on a strict configuration of status roles. Here, we'll define family as a socially recognized grouping (ordinarily joined past blood, wedlock, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an emotional connectedness and serves as an economical unit of measurement of club. Sociologists identify unlike types of families based on how one enters into them. A family of orientation refers to the family into which a person is built-in. A family of procreation describes 1 that is formed through marriage. These distinctions have cultural significance related to issues of lineage.

Cartoon on ii sociological paradigms, the sociological agreement of what constitutes a family can exist explained past symbolic interactionism as well every bit functionalism. These ii theories indicate that families are groups in which participants view themselves every bit family members and act accordingly. In other words, families are groups in which people come together to form a strong primary grouping connection and maintain emotional ties to ane another over a long period of fourth dimension. Such families may include groups of close friends or teammates. In addition, the functionalist perspective views families equally groups that perform vital roles for society—both internally (for the family unit itself) and externally (for society every bit a whole). Families provide for one another's physical, emotional, and social well-existence. Parents intendance for and socialize children. Later in life, adult children frequently intendance for elderly parents. While interactionism helps us understand the subjective feel of belonging to a "family," functionalism illuminates the many purposes of families and their roles in the maintenance of a counterbalanced club (Parsons and Bales 1956).

Challenges Families Face

People in the U.s. every bit a whole are somewhat divided when information technology comes to determining what does and what does non constitute a family. In a 2010 survey conducted by professors at the University of Indiana, nearly all participants (99.viii pct) agreed that a husband, wife, and children plant a family. Ninety-two percent stated that a husband and a wife without children still constitute a family. The numbers drop for less traditional structures: single couples with children (83 per centum), single couples without children (39.6 pct), gay male couples with children (64 percent), and gay male couples without children (33 percent) (Powell et al. 2010). This survey revealed that children tend to exist the key indicator in establishing "family" status: the percentage of individuals who agreed that unmarried couples and gay couples constitute a family about doubled when children were added.

The written report as well revealed that 60 percent of U.Southward. respondents agreed that if you consider yourself a family, you lot are a family unit (a concept that reinforces an interactionist perspective) (Powell 2010). The authorities, all the same, is non then flexible in its definition of "family." The U.S. Demography Bureau defines a family equally "a group of two people or more (1 of whom is the householder) related by birth, spousal relationship, or adoption and residing together" (U.Due south. Census Agency 2010). While this structured definition tin be used as a means to consistently track family-related patterns over several years, it excludes individuals such equally cohabitating unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples. Legality aside, sociologists would argue that the general concept of family is more than diverse and less structured than in years past. Society has given more leeway to the design of a family unit making room for what works for its members (Jayson 2010).

Family is, indeed, a subjective concept, only it is a adequately objective fact that family unit (whatever one's concept of it may exist) is very important to people in the Usa. In a 2010 survey by Pew Inquiry Eye in Washington, DC, 76 percentage of adults surveyed stated that family is "the well-nigh important" element of their life—simply one percent said information technology was "not important" (Pew Research Centre 2010). It is also very of import to society. President Ronald Regan notably stated, "The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedoms" (Lee 2009). While the blueprint of the family may accept inverse in recent years, the fundamentals of emotional closeness and support are even so present. Nigh responders to the Pew survey stated that their family unit today is at least equally close (45 percent) or closer (40 per centum) than the family with which they grew upwards (Pew Inquiry Center).

Think It Over

According to research, what are people's general thoughts on family in the The states? How do they view nontraditional family structures? How do you retrieve these views might change in twenty years?

Practice

ane. Sociologists tend to define family in terms of

1. how a given gild sanctions the relationships of people who are connected through blood, spousal relationship, or adoption
2. the connexion of bloodlines
3. the status roles that be in a family structure
4. how closely members attach to social norms

ii. Research suggests that people more often than not feel that their current family unit is _______ than the family they grew upwardly with.

1. less close
2. more close
3. at least every bit shut
4. none of the above

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-what-is-marriage-what-is-a-family/

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