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How nuclear family function
Nuclear family eaasay
Nuclear family eaasay
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The Structure Within a Family In the United States, there are numerous opportunities as to how one structure his or her family. The different structures all play a role in the success of the family and in the life of the children if they are present. In today’s society, there are numerous family structures. Those include many different forms but they are all based on the “legal guardians”. Whether is a husband and wife, one’s grandparents, or a stepparent, the parental situation defines the structure of the family. The traditional family structure in the United States is considered a family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their children. The nuclear family can provide children with consistency, in addition to stability. Children who have both stability and consistency in their lives are more likely to behave positively, do better in school and become more …show more content…
However, this two-parent, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and alternative family forms have become more common. With that being said, the most successful and most efficient way to raise up a family is within the nuclear family structure. In a nuclear family, one has two parents who work together to produce one unit. The nuclear family is the traditional type of family structure. This family structure consists of two parents and children. “The most prevalent type of family structure in which children in the United States are raised today is the traditional one, in which both biological parents are present in the home and married. But in the past 30–40 years, it has become increasingly common for children to experience alternative family structures, such as living with the mother with no father present, the mother and a stepfather, and
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
There are different structures of families in America. In the nuclear family arrangement, partners and their children constitute the primary relationship. In the extended family arrangement, relatives provide the fundamental relationship. The man is, usually, the head of the family in such family arrangements. Gay families constitute of marriages between parties of the same sex. Other structures of the family include a single parent family, peer families and relationships based on the idea that both parties are equal.
“In the 1950’s, 86 percent of children lived in two-parent families, and 60 percent of children were born into homes with a male breadwinner and a female homemaker” (Conley 451). In contrast, “in 1986, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. families consisted of a male breadwinner, a female housewife, and their children, a figure that has since fallen to 6 percent” (Conley 455). Modern families come in all shapes and sizes. They no longer follow the strict nuclear family layout. There are many reasons why the nuclear family is no longer the most common family type. Some of these reasons include increased divorces, increased acceptance of different sexual orientations, increased amount of couples choosing not to get married/common-law marriages, increased amount of people choosing not to have children (rise of birth control methods), increased amount of families with both parents working/needing to work, etc. Personally, I do not believe the decrease in the nuclear family model is a bad thing. By definition a family is just a group of people who are related or married/in a relationship and it can still be a healthy and well-functioning unit no matter the size or combination of people it is made up
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
As we have learned through Skolnick’s book, as well as Rubin’s research, the make up of the family is influenced by many factors. The economy, culture, education, ethnicity/race, and tradition all help to create the modern family. The last few decades have heavily influenced the family structure, and while some try to preserve the past, others embrace the future. Through it all, we find you can have both.
Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different structure due to social and racial values or economic constraints. The 1950’s also brought about a change in technology that brought the world to everyone’s homes and gave people plenty to think about.
Do you know what the American Family is? I don’t. American families have changed dramatically over time. The “Nuclear Family”, which is defined as containing a man, woman and their children,was and is regarded as a basic social unit; the seed of ‘The American Family Tree”. But over time this has evolved and modernized into different meanings concerning how people view the traditional American family. The ways the traditional family has modernized include, Stepfamily, Single Parent Family, Same Gender Family, Childless Family, Divorced Family, and many more. These few different types of family systems show how peoples definition of a family in the past and current years in America have changed. The origins of the continuous branching family
Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider themselves a family. The roots of these modern families may stem from ethnic origins, sexual orientations, or even seen as a rebellion of sorts from traditional ways. Children may live in homes of single parents, which is an exceedingly more common phenomenon as the divorce rate well publicized at around fifty percent. They may also live with homosexual parents either as a biological child of one partner or adopted by both. Also, the traditional married couple may choose to adopt locally or internationally, potentially blending ethnic backgrounds into one household. Whatever the background of the new nuclear family the challenges and experiences follow similar patterns.
Originally, the nuclear family consisted of a married man and woman along with their biological children living under the same roof. Today, the structure of a family involves a variety of models with great diversity. “Over the past three decades, the number of children born out of wedlock…tripled from 10% to 33%...10% live in patchwork families and 15% live with only one parent. Every fifteenth child…raised by grandparents” (Stanglin, 2017). By 2030, forecasters predict 40 percent of families will consist of only one parent (Stanglin, 2017). Other factors effecting members of a family unit are incarceration and foster care. According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2016) policy report, “5 million children have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives” (p. 1). When the mother is incarcerated, most children end up in the foster care system. The foster care system has a total of nearly 428,000 children on any given day. The traditional nuclear family has transformed to include other definitions of membership, what a family unit looks like, and numerous factors influencing group changes along life’s
The sociological definition of the family is “a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society” (Schaeffer, 2009, p. 288). While the nuclear family (a man, a woman, and their children) was once the primary definition of family, now it refers to many familial configurations. Single-parent families, blended families, same-sex couples, traditional nuclear families and single-parents who have adopted are just a few of the configurations that society in general now views as a family. A healthy family will provide a place of unconditional love, acceptance and support.
The family discussed in this paper is a traditional nuclear family. The family composition of this nuclear family unit consists of a mother (MD) age 28 and father (KD) age 26 in a monogamous marriage with four children (DD, MD, ED, and BD), whose ages are 7, 6, 5 and 18 months respectively, two dogs and a cat. The father and the mother are the children’s biological parents. Both father and mother act as the family’s head and decision makers.
Once upon a time, a traditional family structure was created by one man marrying one woman and procreating. Within the last few years, this has begun to change. Family structures are now being changed and created through divorce and remarriage, same-sex partners, and single-parents. When the leaders of these family structures can no longer co-exist, divorce or separation comes. If children are involved, a custody agreement needs to be arranged.
The unit of a family is the most prominent essential for all of us. As social human beings, we seek social support in order to thrive, and that is where family comes into play. A family is where you receive love, support, encouragement, and many other social benefits. The total number of households in the United States increased from 63 million in 1970 to 113 million in 2008 (Weeks, 2012). The family has influenced multitudes of people in many ways. The traditional family in the United States consists two-married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring also know as the nuclear family. However, the term of a true family has ultimately changed over the last 50 years especially for African Americans.
The family has been referred to as the most vital of the social institutions (Alexander, 2010). The definition of what it means to be a family has evolved over the past several generations. In technical terms, the U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as a group of two or more people residing together related by birth, marriage, or adoption. (U.S. Census, 2010). Categories of families that fit this definition include married couples with and without children, blended families, single parent, and extended family households. Same-sex and unmarried couples with and without children and individuals living alone are not included in this group, though they are a rising segment of the population. The make-up of family and household types at any given time has major consequences for society (Katz & Stern, 2007). Major systems such as economic political, legal, and other social institutions are all impacted by changes in family dynamics. This paper will explore the evolution of the family unit and examine the reciprocal link between this shift and surrounding systems. The relationship between these changes and contemporary systems theory will also be discussed.
My family and life structure would be considered a nuclear one. According to Berger (2016), a nuclear family is one that consists of both parents raising a child under 18 years old. My husband and I are legally married and function as a team while raising our daughter and providing for our household. We both depend on each other a lot. We both work full time day jobs, so we alternate pick up and drop off of our daughter for childcare. We both have other interests and commitments that neither of us could do without the help of the other. I attempt to have structure in our household, and keep everyone and everything organized, but it isn’t always easy. We are definitely dysfunctional. The day to day things get done religiously, but everything else gets done eventually. I have to play everything ahead for it to have any functionality or structure.