Family Is a Term That Is Difficult to Define

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

Marriage and family are central structures in nigh societies. While the two institutions have historically been closely linked in U.S. culture, their connection is becoming more than complex. The relationship betwixt marriage and family is an interesting topic of study to sociologists.

What is union? Different people ascertain it in different ways. Not fifty-fifty sociologists are able to agree on a single meaning. For our purposes, nosotros'll define matrimony as a legally recognized social contract between two people, traditionally based on a sexual human relationship and implying a permanence of the wedlock. In practicing cultural relativism, nosotros should also consider variations, such as whether a legal marriage is required (think of "common law" wedlock and its equivalents), or whether more than ii 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 aforementioned sexual activity and how ane of the traditional expectations of marriage (to produce children) is understood today.

Sociologists are interested in the relationship between the institution of union and the institution of family because, historically, marriages are what create a family, and families are the nigh basic social unit upon which society is built. Both marriage and family create status roles that are sanctioned by social club.

So what is a family? A husband, a wife, and two children—maybe fifty-fifty a pet—has served as the model for the traditional U.S. family unit for most of the twentieth century. But what nearly families that deviate from this model, such equally a single-parent household or a homosexual couple without children? Should they be considered families as well?

The question of what constitutes a family is a prime number expanse of debate in family folklore, equally well as in politics and religion. Social conservatives tend to define the family in terms of structure with each family member filling a certain function (like father, mother, or child). Sociologists, on the other hand, tend to define family more than in terms of the way in which members chronicle to one another than on a strict configuration of condition roles. Here, nosotros'll define family as a socially recognized group (usually joined past blood, wedlock, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an emotional connection and serves as an economic unit of measurement of society. Sociologists identify unlike types of families based on how one enters into them. A family of orientation refers to the family unit into which a person is built-in. A family of procreation describes one that is formed through marriage. These distinctions have cultural significance related to problems of lineage.

Drawing on two sociological paradigms, the sociological understanding of what constitutes a family tin exist explained by symbolic interactionism as well as functionalism. These two theories indicate that families are groups in which participants view themselves as family members and act accordingly. In other words, families are groups in which people come together to form a strong primary group connection and maintain emotional ties to one some other over a long flow of time. Such families may include groups of close friends or teammates. In addition, the functionalist perspective views families equally groups that perform vital roles for social club—both internally (for the family itself) and externally (for lodge as a whole). Families provide for one another's physical, emotional, and social well-beingness. Parents intendance for and socialize children. Later in life, adult children often care for elderly parents. While interactionism helps us sympathize the subjective feel of belonging to a "family," functionalism illuminates the many purposes of families and their roles in the maintenance of a balanced social club (Parsons and Bales 1956).

Challenges Families Face

People in the United States as a whole are somewhat divided when information technology comes to determining what does and what does not constitute a family. In a 2010 survey conducted past professors at the University of Indiana, well-nigh all participants (99.8 percent) agreed that a husband, wife, and children plant a family. 90-ii percent stated that a husband and a wife without children nevertheless constitute a family. The numbers drop for less traditional structures: unmarried couples with children (83 percent), unmarried couples without children (39.half dozen pct), gay male person couples with children (64 percentage), and gay male couples without children (33 pct) (Powell et al. 2010). This survey revealed that children tend to be the fundamental indicator in establishing "family" status: the percentage of individuals who agreed that unmarried couples and gay couples constitute a family almost doubled when children were added.

The study also revealed that 60 percent of U.S. respondents agreed that if you consider yourself a family, yous are a family (a concept that reinforces an interactionist perspective) (Powell 2010). The government, however, is not so flexible in its definition of "family." The U.South. Census Bureau defines a family as "a group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, wedlock, or adoption and residing together" (U.Due south. Demography Agency 2010). While this structured definition tin be used every bit a ways to consistently track family-related patterns over several years, it excludes individuals such equally cohabitating unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples. Legality aside, sociologists would contend that the general concept of family is more than various and less structured than in years past. Society has given more leeway to the design of a family making room for what works for its members (Jayson 2010).

Family unit is, indeed, a subjective concept, but it is a adequately objective fact that family (whatsoever ane'south concept of it may be) is very important to people in the United States. In a 2010 survey past Pew Research Middle in Washington, DC, 76 percent of adults surveyed stated that family unit is "the most important" chemical element of their life—just i pct said it was "not important" (Pew Research Center 2010). It is as well very of import to social club. 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 changed in recent years, the fundamentals of emotional closeness and back up are notwithstanding nowadays. Most responders to the Pew survey stated that their family today is at to the lowest degree as close (45 percent) or closer (twoscore percentage) than the family with which they grew up (Pew Inquiry Middle).

Think It Over

Co-ordinate to enquiry, what are people'south general thoughts on family in the United States? How do they view nontraditional family unit structures? How do yous remember these views might change in twenty years?

Practice

1. Sociologists tend to define family unit in terms of

1. how a given society sanctions the relationships of people who are connected through blood, wedlock, or adoption
2. the connection of bloodlines
3. the condition roles that exist in a family construction
4. how closely members adhere to social norms

2. Research suggests that people generally feel that their electric current family is _______ than the family they grew upwardly with.

1. less close
2. more close
3. at least every bit close
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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