The Family: 1: The distinction between households and families, and between types of families: lone parent, nuclear and extended.

Reconstituted family

"Step-family" the break-up of one family and its reassembly as a new family through marriage or cohabitation

What does Roseneil (2006) suggest as an additional household category

'Couples who live apart' which are people who are in a stable relationship and who spend a significant amount of time together, but who do not share a home

Family (Murdock 1949)

- common residence -economic co-operation -Adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relay -one or more children, own or adopted

How many types of household structures are there? What are they?

3: 1- Single person households 2- Couple households 3- Shared households

What does Popenoe (1988) suggest?

A contemporary exclusive definition can encompass both single parents and homosexuals

One disadvantage of an inclusive definition

If the definition is too broad, it may have include groups that most people would not normally consider to be families

One advantage of an inclusive definition

It covers a variety of possible family forms and relationships

Why is it sometimes called "isolated" nuclear family

To reflect its physical separation from wider kin and economic isolation from the rest of society

Describe Single-Person households

Where an adult lives alone, either because of the death of a partner, the breakdown of a relationship or through personal choice

What does Gordon (1972) suggest as the "modified extended family"

Wider family members keep in touch both physically through visits or exchanges of help and services, and emotionally, via telephone and email perhaps, without necessarily having frequent personal contact.

Polygamy

Having more than one sexual or marriage partner at the same time

Single parent family

Headed by a lone parent, does not result from a family breakup

What are kin relationships based on

-Biology, such as mother and child - affinity,such as two adults living together -law, such as marriage

Describe how typical nuclear families work

-Contact with wider kin, such as grandparents, tend to be infrequent and impersonal rather than meeting regularly in person -self-contained economic unit whose members are expected to support each other socially and psychologically

Why would couples choose 'couples who love apart'

-Demands and different routines -Want to maintain independence

Families involve 2 or more people, bound by ties of mutual consent, who assume responsibility for:

-The physical maintenance and care of group members -procreation or adoption -socialization and social control of children - the production, consumption and distribution of goods and sevices

Extended families: How many and what are they

2: Vertically: 3 or more generations living in, or close to, the same household Horizontally: those with branches withon generations, such as aunts and uncles, living with or close to each other

Describe shared households

A group of unrelated people living together (may be temporary such as when students live together, or permanent, such as people who live in communes)

Common-law family

Adult couple and children living together as a family without the adults being legally married

What is Amberts (2003) suggesting

An alternative definition should focus on both kinship (inclusive) and function (exclusive)

What does Gideon's (2006) suggest?

An alternative, inclusive, definition that focuses on kinship and the general relationships that make families different from other social groups.

Partnership

Being part of a couple, often living as married people but without any legal ties

Describe Couple households

Consists of two people without children. These households may include: -couples who have not yet started a family -those who's children have left home -those who have chosen to remain childless

Modified Extended Family

Contemporary form of extended family: family members maintain contact but rarely live in close proximity to one another

Is the functionalist definition of family inclusive or exclusive? Why?

Exclusive, because it is based on the idea that families have characteristics that make them different from other social groups (i.e schools)

Extended families

Family structure containing more than the parents and children of nuclear structures

Patrifocal family

Family structure focused on men

Matrifocal families

Family that focused on women, such as a female grandparent, parent and children

Nuclear families

Family unit based on two generations- parents and their dependent children

Monogamy

Having a single sexual or marriage partner at any given time

Divorce

Legal dissolution of a marriage

Explain Willmotts (1988) 3 variations on modified extended family

Locally- involve two or three nuclear families in separate households' living close together and providing mutual help and assistance Dispersed- involves less frequent personal contact with when family members Attenuated- includes 'young couples before they have children, gradually separating from their original families

Polygyny

One man married to a number of women

Polyandry

One woman married to a number of men

Household

Residential unit consisting of unrelated individuals

Civil partnership

Same-sex relationship giving the participants similar legal rights to married couples

Communes

Shared household involving a group of largely unrelated people living together

Lone-parent family

Single adult plus dependent children, sometimes called a broken nuclear family

What types of families do exclusive definitions exclude from?

Single-parent and homosexual