function of the family essay

Psychology Discussion

Essay on family: definition, function, social systems and changes | psychology.

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Essay on Family

Essay # 1. definition of family:.

It is a well-known fact that family is found everywhere and it is concomitant with group life. Society and State derive from a circle of intermarrying families banded together to satisfy their basic needs. Sociologically and historically, the family may be viewed as a group consisting of two or more parents and their children.

Such a view suggests itself because there have been great variations in the number of parties entering into the marriage union. Although the family is universal, no particular form of it is primary or inevitable. Like all other institutions, it is a social product subject to change and modification.

In response to varying conditions, different forms of the family have appeared from time to time. But in the present day world Patriarchal family organised under the system of monogamy is most prevalent institution. In such a kill-group that it is both an association and institution and very essential to the life of society.

Essay # 2. Function of Family:

It is an open secret that family plays an important role in the life of society. There is no other human group that dominates the life of the individuals, more than family. It is in the light of this hard fact that, Maciver says, “Of all the organizations, large or small, which society unfolds, none transcends the family in the intensity of its sociological significance. It influences the whole life of society in innumerable ways, and its changes, reverberate through the whole social structure. It is capable of endless variation and yet reveals a remarkable continuity und persistence through change.”

The family occupies a vital place in the working of social order and it is so because it performs certain characteristically significant functions. Davis has characterized the main social functions of the family in four divisions. These are reproduction, maintenance, placement and socialization of the young. It also performs individual functions but these are the corollary of its social functions.

However, Davis has said, “From a sociological point of view we are mainly concerned with the social functions and consequently we stress the four functions mentioned here as being the core functions with which the family is always and everywhere concerned. There may be great variation from one society to another in the precise manner and degree of fulfilment of the functions, but the four mentioned above seem to be the ones which universally require a family organization.”

Lundberg has also mentioned a number of basic functions of the family. In them he has included the regulation of sexual behaviour and reproduction, care and training of children, co-operation and division of labour and primary group satisfactions. Besides, there are many auxiliary functions as well.

Maciver divides the functions of the family into two categories. They are the essential and non-essential functions of the family. Under the essential he includes three functions- (i) Stable satisfaction of sex need, (ii) Production and rearing of children, and (iii) Provision of a home. Under the nonessential functions he mentions religious, educational, economic, health and recreation, which he says have now been transferred to specialized agencies in society.

In short, the various functions of the family can be mentioned in the following way:

1. Essential Functions of Family:

The essential functions of the family are those functions, which it has to perform exclusively. They can neither be shared with any other group nor can they be delegated to any other association. They are the functions, which in every age and in any form the family must perform and there can be no deviation from them.

Some of them are:

(i) Satisfaction of sex need

(ii) Provision of a home

(iii) Production and rearing of children.

They are in a way the primary functions of the family, for the doing of which some sort of family group has ever to remain in existence.

This fact is aptly testified by Reuben Hill in these words, “Family life is probably more than a social habit. The family may be viewed as a device for solving certain fundamental problem, which must be faced by any group of people who live and work together in a society. As a problem-solving device it has simplified the social life of many of its members. Through it sex partners are sorted out and their sex drives are harnessed and linked with the love sentiments to weld together conjugal units into which children can be born, cared for and reared to adulthood. Within it all the basic elemental needs are met and kept from becoming individual problems, which if left unsolved might demand collective action. It simplifies life to live in a family and that is true for adults as well as for children. Certain basic needs of affection, intimate response, recognition, personality, expression, growth and security are met through the family which are not met satisfactorily elsewhere.”

In view of these facts the important essential functions of the family can be explained in some detail in the following manner:

(i) Satisfaction of Sex Need:

This is the first essential function, which the family performs. Satisfaction of sex instinct brings the desire for life-long partnership among male and female. The satisfaction of sex instinct makes for normal personality. If sex instinct is suppressed, it may produce personality maladjustments and disrupt social relations.

The modern family can satisfy this instinct in greater degree and in a better way than the traditional family. In the old family the sexual act was combined with reproduction and the fear of pregnancy as a result of intercourse prevented the couple to satisfy their sex urge. But in modern family the task of sexual satisfaction has been eased by the invention of contraceptives and other methods of birth-control.

It has now become a primary function of the modern family. According to Reed, “The fundamental function of the family is to regulate and gratify sexual needs. Manu accepts sexual satisfaction besides production as the aim of family. Vatsyayan also regards sexual satisfaction as the primary objective of the family.

(ii) Provision of Home:

The desire for a home is a powerful incentive for men as well as women after marriage. Man after the hard toil of the day returns home where in the midst of his wife and children he sheds off his fatigue.

Though, in modern times there are hotels and clubs which also provide recreation to the man but the joy that a man feels within the congenial circle of women, parents and children stands far above the momentary pleasure, which is provided by club and hotel. In spite of these re-creative agencies the home is still the heaven and sanctuary where its members find comfort and affection.

(iii) Production and Rearing of Children:

The inevitable result of sexual satisfaction is procreation. The task on race perpetuation has always been an important function of the family. It is an institution par excellence for the production and rearing of children. The function of child-rearing is better performed today than in the past because now more skill and knowledge are devoted to the care of the unborn and new-born children.

The infant death rate has shown a market declare. In the achievement of this result specialized agencies like nursing child welfare centres have come to the aid of the family. A close study of the available statistical data reveals that the number of illegitimate children is falling down, the practice of prostitution is vanishing away and the number of marriages is increasing rapidly.

It is a pointer to the fact that the function of procreation of race is only performed through family. In most human societies of the world the child is believed to be the nucleus of the family. Procreation perpetuates the family. It increases the population of the country.

(iv) Protection and Care of the Young:

It is another essential function of the family and it may be said to be a corollary of its sexual and procreative functions. According to Groves the protection and care of children is one necessary function of the family. The human child is the most helpless and weak being. A family is needed in order to maintain its existence and to ensure its coordinated and balanced development.

Its balanced development is achieved with difficulty and that too with the care of the parents and other family members. It is right that in the modern age this function of the family is losing much of its past significance and it is being handed over to the subsidiary agencies. But all the same it still continues to be one of the essential functions of the family and the Indian families are particularly known for this function.

(v) Provision of Psychological Satisfaction and Security :

Another fundamental and universal function of the family is to meet the psychological needs of its members. Ogburn has included affectional functions in the necessary or vital functions of the family. According to Groves it is the functions of the family to provide opportunities for the establishment of intimate relations.

Burgess and Lock have written, “Mutual affection is becoming the essential basis of marriage and family:” The individual receives affection, sympathy, love and psychological security in the family. The relations between man and woman in the family are not exclusively physical. Profound conjugal affection for each other is generated in husband and wife by working together in the family and by sharing each other’s joys and sorrows.

An all-around development of individual is not possible in the absence of family love. The family has an important part to play especially in the development of the child’s personality. Ralph Linton has written that merely the satisfaction of bodily needs is not sufficient for the proper development of the infant.

2. Non-Essential Functions of the Family :

The non-essential functions of the family are those functions which it performed in the traditional society but which it is giving up one by one in the modern times. These functions are being either delegated to the subsidiary agencies or they can be shared with other groups.

They are no longer the exclusive function of the family but still in some societies the family is associated with them in some form or the other. The Indian society is one such example where the family despite so many modifications and being placed under limits has been laying its claims on the so-called non-essential functions along with the essential functions.

Some of the nonessential functions of the family can be enumerated in the following order:

i. An Economic Unit:

A very important non-essential function of the family is that it serves as an economic unit. In the traditional family most of the goods for consumption were made at home. The members of the family were all engaged in the family occupation. The ancient Hindu joint family served as a sort of mutual insurance society. It was a unit of production and the centre of economic activities.

However, in the present time the importance of family as an economic unit has been lessened because most of its economic activities have been taken over by some outside agencies. The members of the modern family do not work together as they did in the old family.

They are engaged in different activities outside the come. Moreover the family has not even remained the unit of production as most the goods for consumption including even the food are purchased ready-made from the market.

But with all these shifts in the family as an economic unit, it has not been reduced to a passive body. This is to say that the old pattern has not been destroyed, it has been merely changed. In the family one or the other profession is still carried on though of a different sort and in a different atmosphere. In the West the family might have lost much of its role as an economic unit but in India it still to a certain extent continues to perform this traditional function.

ii. Centre of Religious Activities:

Another non-essential function, which the family performs is of a religious character. It is a centre for the religious training of the children who learn from their parents various religious virtues. In the old family, different religious practices like idol worship, yagya, religious discourses and sermons by pandits were carried on which made the outlook of the children religious in India. The modern family, however, does not observe religious practices and has become secular in outlook.

iii. Centre of Education:

One more function performed in the family is the education of children. The family is an important education agency. The child learns the first letters under the guidance of parents though today he learns them in a nursery-school. The traditional family was the centre of vocational education because the children from the early childhood were associated with the family task.

The modern family has delegated the task of vocational education to technical institutes and colleges. But despite all this the role of the family as a center of education has not vanished completely and in a somewhat modified form it still continues to perform some of the educational functions.

For instance, it is even now in and through family that the people learn their social habits and moral virtues. It is in no way an in significant function for which the Indian families are conspicuously known and popular.

iv. Guardian of Culture:

The family keeps the culture of society, alive. It moulds its members according to the social culture. The children are educated in the various aspects of culture from their infancy. The family creates such an environment for them that they learn to live and behave in acccordance with their culture.

The elderly members of the family impart training in matters of conduct, thinking religion and ethics etc. to the children. The family is aptly described as the maker and guardian of Culture.

v. Centre of Recreation:

The old family provided recreation to its members. They used to sing and dance together and visit the family relations. In modern times family relationship is individual rather than collective. The present forms of recreation such as bridge tennis carrom and movies, provide for only individual or couple participation.

Moreover, recreation is now had in club or hotel rather than in home. In this way> there has also occurred a shift in the recreational functions of-the family. However, it needs be said that in countries like India having close ties of ancient culture the family is still acting as a centre of recreation at least in the rural areas.

It is clear from the foregoing facts that there has come about a great change in the functions of the family whereas about a hundred years back the family was more of a community, it has become today more of an association. The very importance of the family has been loosened. It is no longer a home for recreation of its members, a school of education for children or a centre for their religious training.

Many family duties, which were performed formerly by the parents have now been transferred to external agencies. The functions of a modern family are very much limited both in their number and extent. Even the task of procreation has suffered a setback. Of course the task of satisfaction of sex need is better performed, by modern family.

In short, the family has lost some of its former functions. It is to be, however, remembered that though there is a loss of functions the family is not going to perish. There are certain functions for this performance of which no human society can do without family. Thus it may be said in the end that despite its structural and functional changes, the family still plays a significant role in social strength and social solidarity.

Essay # 3. Family as a Social System:

It is customary to regard family as a social system. In fact there are many kinds of social systems and these are composed of variety of elements. So far as family is concerned, it fulfils many of the conditions, which go to make it a social system. It is for this reason that family is characterised as being a perfect social system and this notion fully holds good at least in the case of joint family.

Defining social system Talcott Parsons writes, “The social system is composed of the patterned interaction of members. It consists of interaction of a plurality of individual actors, whose relations to each other are mutually oriented through the definition and mediation of a pattern of structured and shared symbols and expectations.”

Similarly C.P. Loomis is also of the opinion, “Sociologists frame of reference is inter action, characterised by patterned social relation that display in their uniformities social elements articulated by social processes, the dynamics of which account for the emergence, maintenance and change of social system.”

When these observations are applied on family, it becomes clear that the family is contained in a number of elements, which are found in every social system. These are some of those elements of which most family groups consist and on the basis of which family is entitled to be called a social system.

Every family consists of a number of persons and all of them have a certain status. This status of the members of a family is normally determined on the basis of age and sex. But sometimes learning and occupation also have some effect in this matter. The status of parents is always higher than that of the children.

Similarly in a family sons enjoy better status than daughters. Status helps in making gradation in the position of the different members of their family and their social relations are determined in accordance with their position.

Since father’s status in the family is the highest of all, he is authorised to perform all the family responsibilities. The eldest son being next in importance to his father automatically obtains the same position after his father’s death.

All the members of the family perform a certain role and it is by this means that the working of the family is made possible. The roles that the different persons perform are determined and conditioned by the status that they hold in the family. In fact every status has a correspondent role attached to it.

Role is the outward manifestation of the status and, thus both of them go together. Every member of the family while performing his role keeps in view his status in the family and does the things accordingly.

The role maintains the balance of status system and thereby keeps intact the structure of the family. Since, there are a variety of status differing from person to person, so there are a number of roles varying from person to person according to his status.

For Instance, the role of parents in the family is quite different from that of the children but it needs be said that the functioning of the family can go well only if all of its members perform their respective roles properly.

3. Privilege:

In a social system every unit is gifted with a certain kind of privileges. These privileges also go with the roles that they perform and the status that they hold in a social structure. It is through the enjoyment of privileges that a unit is enabled to do its responsibilities nicely under all circumstance. It is this element that gives stability and continuity to a social system. The same thing can be said in the case of family as well. The members of the family are always in the enjoyment of certain privileges according to their status. It is by the exercise of these privileges enjoyed by the members that structure and functioning of the family remain intact.

4. Necessities and Aims:

Every social system consists of the needs, aims and ends of the people. They are related to the level of cultural and economic progress of the society. Sometimes they are also concerned with the social development of the people. Men have some basic needs and the fulfilment of them is the chief aim of a social system. For realization of these aims a social system has to set before it its certain ideals and ends.

In this way needs and alms play a vital role in the efficient working of any social system. Family as a social system is concerned with fulfilling some-physical and social needs of the people. There are some basic needs like sex impulse, procreation of race and the provision of home, which cannot be met elsewhere except in the family.

These needs aim at ensuring good life to the people. It is right that in the modern times many of the functions of the family have been taken over by some other associations, but all the same there are some primary functions which must be performed in the family in all civilized societies.

5. Sanctions:

The sanctions determined by the social values and Ideals play in important part in the field of human conduct. The social sanctions make a distinction between what is right and what is wrong in the activities and behaviour of the individuals. Society permits its members to do certain things and forbids them to do others and thereby lays down a standard for the general conduct of its members.

The members are allowed to do only those things, which are beneficial for the life and stability of the social order. In this way sanctions also help a lot in the strengthening of a social system. They maintain discipline and orderly conditions in it. This element is found in abundance in the working of the family as well. There are some set rules and codes of behaviour which are binding on the members and which they cannot ignore easily.

Thus the family as a social system depends largely for its life and sound working on a set of rules, which operate in the form of social sanctions. The more active and forceful are these social sanctions, the more solid and the longer lasting will be the structure of the family. This is why in the past families were more integrated and well-disciplined because there was more force behind the social sanctions.

In every social system there exists a supreme power which acts as a controlling figure in it. It, on the one hand, resolves the conflicts of different units and on the other, keeps intact the unity of that social system. The family as a social system vests its supreme power in the father or husband who supervises and controls the activities of other members.

There can be no challenge or disobedience to the command of the head of the family. Only such families last long in which there is unity of command and a well-knit controlling power.

7. Ideal Principles:

The family, as a social system, derives its life out of the inter-relations and inter-actions of its members. Every member of the family has a special function to do and a particular role to play for its well-being. There is great need of making. It certain that all the members of the family do their part well. For this purpose there exists some ideal principles. These principles maintain solidarity and balance in the family. These principles are in the form on unwritten maxim and are based on common consent. They are so vital to the social life that they cannot be set aside easily and in their absence a good family life cannot be made possible.

8. Sentiments:

Sentiments occupy an important place in a social system. The sentiments especially influence collective life. It is under their influence that an individual gives preference to collective interest over his own individual gain. They develop general working patterns of different groups, which afford stability and uniformity to a social system.

Family as a social system gives expression to a number of sentiments. The chief among these are a sentiment of love, the sentiment of co-operation, sentiment of sympathy and the sentiment of respect. These sentiments form the be all and end all of family life.

Thus it is clear from the above facts that family is truly a social system because it contains most of the basic elements of a social system. It is right that in the modern times family is undergoing great changes. As a result of this fact it is feared that family may not lose in course of time, its character of being a social system.

But such doubts appear to be unfounded because there are so many elements of social system, which cannot vanish from family. Thus in the end it can be said that family is definitely a social system with this much exception that it has been more apparent in a joint family.

Essay # 4. Changes in the Modern Family:

It is a well-known fact that change is the Law of Nature. There is no human organisation on social institution which has remained uniform and static at all times and under all circumstances. It has to move and change with the changing conditions, or it is apt to become obsolete and go out of existence. This rule is fully applicable on the age-old institution of family as well. The family as it is now is much different from what it was a few generations ago.

Several changes have taken place in its nature and structure with the result that it has undergone an overall transformation. Whereas about a century back the family was more of a community, it has become today more of an association.

According to Ogburn and Nimcoff, “The family has changed a good deal in the past and has assumed many different forms and functions. The family has proved to be a very resilient and flexible institution. Despite radical changes in form and function, the family has continued to exist in every society known to us.”

It points to the fact that in the recent times many changes have occurred in the family and some of them may briefly be mentioned here.

Referring to some of the changes occurred in the modern family and the forces bringing about them Davis writes, “Modern civilization characterized by an elaborate industrial technology, a high degree of urbanization, and a great amount of geographical and social ability, has sheered away the extended kingship bonds. The role effective kinship group is now the immediate family and even this unit has lost in size and function. True, the immediate family has gamed in importance by being freed from the control of extended kindred, but it has declined in importance in other ways.”

It is clear from this statement that in the modern time a large number of changes have occurred in the organization and working have the family and several factors has been operating to bring about these changes.

Some of the more important changes in family life need be mentioned here in order to reveal its present position:

(i) To begin with, the joint family system is declining and in its place single-family system is coming into prominence. Unlike the large family of traditional society the modern families are small in size. They consist of the husband, wife and their minor children. This is of course the first and the fundamental change that has occurred in the structure of family.

(ii) In the modern time there has occurred a change in the mutual relation of parents and children. The control of parents over their children has lessened a great deal and now the family discipline is not as tight as it was in the ancient families. The children have become less obedient to their parents and they are very particular about their freedoms and rights.

(iii) There has taken place a change in the mutual relation of husband and wife in the family. Unlike old times women have become independent and self-reliant in many ways. Now that the women have gamed equal fights with men, their mutual relationship has undergone much change. Mowrer has correctly written of modern woman that ‘she is no longer the drudge and slave of other days.’

(iv) The modern family is no longer a permanent association. It is precarious and can be rendered void at any time. Marriage has been reduced to a mere social contract, which it is not difficult to break in the event of even the slightest friction. According to Maciver, “The Modern family in comparison with the ancient and medieval families is very weak and unstable.”

(v) There has come about a good deal of change in the extent of family functions. Many of the functions which family performed previously are no longer under its care. They have been transferred to several external agencies. The family has ceased to be an economic as well as social unit. When compared with the family of medieval times, the functions of the modern family are few. All but gone are its economic educational, religious and protective functions. They have been transferred to the State, the church, the school, and industry.

(vi) The modern family is under less religious control. It has been replaced by legal control. With the decline of the Influence of religion the family morals have also become comparatively loose. The modern family has become secular in outlook and it has given up many of its religious activities.

(vii) The rigidity traditionally associated with marital and sexual relationships no longer characterizes the modern family. The use of contraceptive and means of birth control has rendered the size of the family very small. There is not much affinity among the blood relations of the family. In this way the relations in the family have become more formal and mechanical in Nature.

(viii) The family seems to be coming on the verge of disorganization. The number of divorces is on the increase. The control, which the family exercises over the individual is being lessened rapidly. Thus the family has undergone a good deal of transformation in the present century.

Factors Responsible for Changes in the Family :

It is clear from the foregoing facts that a large number of changes have occurred in the structure of family. This process has not completed yet and is liable to continue till indefinitely even in the unknown future. There is not one but many factors which are working at the root of all these changes.

Referring to some of these factors Jay Rumney and Joseph Maier write, “The modern family which is still essentially patriarchal in character has been shorn of much of its power. The State is tending to become a super-parent, having arrogated to itself much of the patriarch’s authority. Profound economic changes since the Industrial Revolution have deprived the family of its economic functions as a unit of production. It is now mainly a unit of consumption. The new economy, requiring the use of womanpower opened up new occupations to women, they became economically in dependent of their husbands. The political and economic emancipation of woman as well as periods of prolonged unemployment undermined the authority of the father, especially if his earnings were surpassed by those of his wife and children. A new morality emerged in conflict with the traditional moral standards. Large families became rare. Urbanization led to a wide dissemination of contraceptive knowledge. The small independent if it, consisting of parents and one or two offspring became the rule.”

Thus, lit short, some of the causes and factors of family changes may be explained in the following order:

1. Impact of Industrialization:

The first important factor bringing about changes in the structure of family has been the force of industrialization. The Industrial Revolution substituted the power machine for the manual tool. As new techniques of production advanced they shelved the old family of its economic functions. New factories with heavy machines have been set up which have taken both the work and the workers out of the family.

Now cloth is produced not on the family handloom but in the textile mill. Thousands of workers who are drawn out of home are required to work in the factory. Not only males but females also have begun to go to the factory for work. The work of women has become specialized like that of men. They instead of being busy with the multifarious tasks of the family have started going to workshops and factories for work.

As a result of it women have become as good the earning members of the family as men. This earning power of the women has made them free from dependence on men. In this way industrialization has greatly affected the character of modern family. As Maciver says, ” The family has changed from a production to consumption unit.”

2. Decline of Religious Control:

The modern family has become secular in its outlook because of the decline of the force of religions. Marriage has become a civil contract rather than a religious sacrament. It can be broken at any time. The authority of religion over the conditions of marriage and divorce has suffered a great decline.

Divorce is a frequent occurrence in modern family while in traditional family it was a rare phenomenon. Religion has been a great uniting and solidifying factor in the, family. And with the loss of its force the family is bound to undergo disintegration.

3. Effect of Urbanism:

An inevitable result of industrialization has been the, growth of urbanism. Urbanism has materially affected not merely the size of the home but also the essentials of the family life. It has substituted legal controls for informal controls and has brought the family into competition with specialized agencies. The result is that many of the family functions have been taken over by the external agencies.

For example, the educational, health and recreational functions of the family are now performed by schools, hospitals and recreational centres respectively. Under the joint force of industrialization and urbanization the family has ceased to be a social as well as economic unit. The joint family system is vanishing and in its place the single-family system is becoming the order of the day. It has even affected the mutual relations of the different members of the family.

To quote Davis,” It has forced individuals to co-operate with countless person who are not kinsmen. It has also encouraged them to join special interest groups thus drawing them out of the unspecialized and heterogeneous family with its wide sex and age differences.” In this way urbanism and industrialization have caused considerable modifications in the structure of family.

4. Effect of Changing Mores:

The mores concerning family life are constantly changing and this factor has. Also greatly affected the organization of family. Now the mutual relations of different members of the family have undergone remarkable change and it is all the result of changing mores. According to Maciver and Page “The basis of husband wife relationship in the family is no longer domination but cooperation”.

Previously everywhere, the wife was dominated by the husband and so the family stability survived because of the unity of command. But with the removal of this dominance the family organization has been exposed to powerful perils. Thus as a result of all these factors the family organization is not stable and it is undergoing quick modifications. But notwithstanding all these facts the family still continues to be a strategic social Institution.

5. Social Mobility:

The critics are of the opinion that social mobility has cut still deeper into the family organization. In so far as individuals improve their class status by virtue of their own achievement rather than by birth, an intrinsic function of the family is lost to it.

In this connection Davis writes, “In a completely open society where all vertical positions were filled purely by individual accomplishment, there could scarcely be a family organization; each family member would tend to find himself in a different. Social stratum, from the others, and the invidious sentiments thus brought into the family circle would prove incompatible with family sentiment.”

The organizations of the family can remain intact only if its members feel dependent on it for their personal advance in life. If this requirement is fulfilled by some external factors, it adversely affects the family organization. This is exactly what is happening in the present society, people do not feel themselves so much. Attached to family because so many external factors are on their disposal to help them in their individual development.

Essay # 5. Sociology Significance of the Family:

The family is by far the most important primary group in society. Historically it has been transformed from a more or less self-contained unity into a definite and limited organization of minimum size, consisting primarily of the original contracting parties: On the other hand it continues to serve as a total community for the lives born within it, gradually relinquishing this character as they grow toward adulthood. The family more profoundly than any other organization, exists only as a process.

Referring to the sociological of the family Maciver and Page opine, “Of all the organizations, large or small, which society unfolds, none transcends the family in the intensity of its sociological significance. It influences the whole life of society in innumerable ways, and its changes reverberate through the whole social structure. It is capable of endless variation and yet reveals a remarkable continuity and persistence through change”.

Thus, in short, family is the first and foremost organ of society and this fact can be proved by the following arguments:

1. Universal in Character:

The family is the most nearly universal of all social forms. It is found in all societies, at all stages of social development, and exists far below the human level, among a myriad species of animals. Almost every human being is or has been a member of some family. There is no other social group that can equal family in this matter.

2. Formative Influence:

Family is also significant because it exerts the profoundest formative influence on the life of the individuals. It is the earliest social environment of man’s life and plays a vital role in moulding it. No other organization can compete with family in this respect. According to Maciver, “In particular it moulds the character of the individual by the impression both of organic and of mental habits”.

Its influence in infancy determines the personality structure of the individual. It is largely from his parents that the child receives his physical inheritance and mental training, on the basis of which he leads the whole of his life. It is well-said by a critic, “To be well-born is to possess the greatest of all gifts. To be ill-born there is nothing which this world can afford that will be adequate compensation for the lack of good heredity.” Thus family has come to surpass all other social organizations in the matter of formative influence on human personality.

3. Nuclear Position in the Social Structure:

Family is the nucleus of all the social organizations. Frequently in the simpler societies, as well as in the more advanced types of patriarchal society the whole social structure is built of family units. Only in the higher complex civilizations does the family cease to fulfill this function, but even in them the local community, as well as its divisions of social classes tends to remain unions of families. One of the first definitions ever given of a community made it “a union of families” and for the local community the definition, with some qualification, still holds today.

4. Performance of Basic Functions:

The significance of the family as a social institution may be measured by the number of basic functions it performs. Compared with the family of medieval times, the functions of the modern family are few. All but gone are its economic, educational, religious and protective functions. They have been transferred to the State, the church, the school and industry. Notwithstanding the loss of functions, the family remains a strategic social institution. It is our parents that first cure us of our natural wildness, and break in us the spirit of independency we are all born with.

It is to them that we owe the first rudiments of our submission and to the honour and deference which children pay to parents all societies are obliged for the principle of human obedience, writes Mandeville.

In addition to performing this all-important function of socializing the individual, the family regulates sexual relationships, provides for the affectional needs of its members, makes possible the prolonged care, which children require and transmits the values of the culture.

It remains a powerful agent of social and political control and economic differentiation. Children generally stay in the social class to which their parents belonged. They inherit both the property and the cultural advantages, which its possession offers.

5. Proper Organization of Society Dependent upon Family:

Proper social organization largely depends upon sound organization of families. If in a particular society families disintegrate, that society can never be safe and sooner or later it is found to meet its doom. This is why at all times one major cause of social disorganization has been family disorganization.

Families develop the characters of the members of the society. In the opinion of ADLER, a man’s role in the family determines his role in society. There is no exaggeration in calling family a cornerstone of society.

6. An Important Agency of Social Control:

Family is an important agency of social control. Family controls sex passions in society. A strict control over sex relationships is necessary for maintaining the order otherwise society will disintegrate. In all cultures, family exercises some degree of control over the unmarried members from falling into bad habits.

No parents would like their children to adopt the career of crime. The children under the influence of their parents drop bad habits and learn good habits. In the making of great men families have always played a major role. In this way the making of a good citizen in society depends upon the parents.

7. Family is the Conveyer of Culture:

The family not only moulds character and personality of the individuals, but it also imparts its culture to them. It is while living in the family that the child acquires knowledge about the culture of society. It is an efficient vehicle for the transmission of culture from one generation to another. It is a very good socializing agency that makes the people social and cultured beings.

According to Deway and Tufts, “The family is a social agency for the education and protection of the race.” It is through family that the individuals come to know the customs, traditions, social values and cultural background of their community. Family provides them knowledge and understanding of the past or d thereby prepares them to live well in the future. Thus in all these ways family plays a vital role in the field of preservation and transmission of social culture.

8. Family is Vital to the Process of Socialization :

Another point of significance of family is that it plays a vital role in the process of socialization of the individuals. Merrill is of the opinion that family is an enduring association of parent and offspring whose primary functions are the socialization of the child and the satisfaction of the members.

It is in the family that child learns all good and human qualities like sincerity, sympathy, self-submission, consciousness of responsibility and so forth. It is the character developed in the family, which helps the child in becoming an important and responsible member of society.

F. J. Wright was quite correct in saying that in every family, the child gets an opportunity for free expression of thoughts and developing his entire personality. It has been conclusively proved that the proper development of the child is impossible without a good environment in the family. The tendencies and habits, which he acquires in the family remain with him for the whole of his life.

It is in view of this fact that Freud says, “The view-point of a child towards the senior in the family determines his attitude and viewpoint towards the elders in society.” Thus it is obvious that ‘family is the cradle of social virtues and no other social group contributes more than family in the process of socializing the individuals. Confucius remarked quite correctly that if you want to improve society, improve its families. Society will improve automatically when the families improve.”

It is clear from the above account that family is the most important social institution. No other human organization can overshadow it in the matter of sociological significance. This fact is true not only from the structural view-point, but also from the functional stand-point.

There are some functions of the family, which no other group can undertake successfully. There are some clear uses of the family, which no one can derive from any other group. Without family the process of socialization would remain incomplete, the task of preserving and transmitting culture to posterity would be half done and there would be no organization to safeguard their social and cultural values. Its significance also lies in the fact of its being the oldest and universal human organization.

It is even the parent of society whose structure is raised on the foundations of family. If family were to vanish, it would expose the whole human race to the horrors of complete decay. The present changes in the family need not be taken to mean the signal of its possible downfall in the future; it is rather a process of its adjustment to the current needs and the changing times. Family in the past has remained an indispensable social system and it is sure to continue as such in the future as well.

Thus on account of its strategic position the family more than any other group exerts persistent, intimate and far reaching influence on the habits, attitudes and social experiences of the people. It plays the foremost role in the formation of personality. It occupies a key place in social organization.

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Importance of Family in Society Essay

The family institution has always played an essential role in forming society, civilization, and culture. The definition of family has changed throughout the history, and the reason for this was various factors: from ancient religious concepts and philosophies to modern political ideologies and economics. However, this essay provides a look at a family from a particular perspective. The family both forms and changes the worldview of parents who have taken responsibility for people close to them, and it brings up the children born in it as well. Thus, a family is two or more people united by love for each other and, most importantly, by strength and will to take responsibility for each other.

Family values, in their essence, have several elements necessary to create a strong foundation of mutual understanding and dialogue within the group. The central family values include, for example, internal ones: the unity of culture and faith in the family, mutual understanding, love, and support between parents and children. Moreover, dialogue between all family members is significant because mutual understanding and communication are the essential elements of any strong relationship between people. External values are of no lesser meaning; these imply autonomy from the influence of the state and information coming from mass media. Additionally, public school education, school clubs, communities of children, and other activities imposed by the state fall into this category. The influence of these organizations alienates a person from the family, making them operators of political interests that encourage fragmentation within small communities and ideological centralization. To summarize, family values comprise adherence to its firm foundation, consisting of love, shared views and dialogue within it, and autonomy from external influences outside it.

Next, responsibility plays an essential role in the formation of a healthy family. First of all, the authority of the parents as the prominent family members is relevant to this question. Family life for many modern people seems to be a heavy burden, which is easier to quit than to continue the long and challenging building of a strong union. This view comes from numerous factors inherent in modern society, mired in infantilism, skepticism, and reckless atheism, depriving a person of any responsibility to himself and community. Parents are responsible not only for their partners or children. More importantly, parents are responsible for themselves and their will, which keeps the family together. Thus, each parent’s responsibility is to be a person who can maintain the family’s coherence.

On the other hand, children have a colossal responsibility before their families. Sometimes this responsibility is higher than the parental responsibility even. Children might not meet the parents’ expectations to a great extent but instead accept the proper care, time, and resources that have been given to them. However, children succumb to the most crucial test of their will due to childish frivolity and youthful maximalism and the strength of those convictions that their parents helped them find. Therefore, children are responsible for themselves and the proper use of the family’s opportunities, which is sometimes difficult and requires discipline.

As to the discipline, there is a misconception that it should be supported by a steady hand, violence, and emotional pressure on children and partners. This approach has shown its inconsistency throughout the entire history of civilized humankind. For example, research from Howarth et al. (272) reveals that domestic violence “is associated with a significant risk to children’s physical and psychological safety and well‐being across the lifespan.” The key to maintaining discipline without aggression and trauma is dialogue, which includes communication, joint problem solving and discussing essential family members’ life details. In brief, a key to healthy discipline is dialogue instead of punishment and other violent actions among family members.

As a result, a particular foundation is needed for conducting a dialogue and determining the moral and ethical conditions. As such, religion dominates the family and acts as a vital factor in the consolidation and direction of family members’ development. In this essay, the suggested belief system is Christianity for several reasons. The basis of religion is love and compassion; this and the simple way of explaining humanistic values and Christian life in a community imply the importance of dialogue. Faith within the family allows for a discussion within the framework of common morality and ethics, allowing each member to reveal the essence of their thoughts and ideas. Thus, religion creates a moral and ethical consensus in the family, creating a general framework for discourse and setting its vector.

It could be seen that such a perception of the institution of the family is prevalent. In this context, the words of William Bennett (par. 5) are relevant: “it is the values that a child is taught that will more determine that child’s fate”. Looking at modern society, one can notice that the influence of the family is the most critical factor of the personality, both in its initial period and in later life. In his article, Bennett reveals the issue of the family from the point of view, nowadays defined as “conservative.” This is reflected in criticism of the school system and popular culture in the lives of children. In short, Bennett considers the family’s moral and ethical ideals and imperative concepts to be the family’s foundation.

In addition, Bennett also expresses ideas about what positively affects the family in general and children in particular. His ideas include a strong religious and cultural unity within the family. Furthermore, he emphasizes a responsible and humanistic approach of parents to the upbringing of their children, i.e., guidance and upbringing with love and care, instead of harsh prescription and aggression. It also describes a critical element of the family: two parents, especially a father, in the process of raising a child. This is explained by the fact that in modern society, the irresponsible approach of parents to conceiving a child and forming a family leads to the absence of paternal guidance and maternal care. It is this that most fully corresponds to the definition of family discussed in this essay. Hence, Bennett’s position insists on the fundamental factors of family formation in the face of a humanistic approach and love and the presence of fatherhood and motherhood in education.

In conclusion, the family is the foundation of society, allowing an individual to live harmoniously, develop and stick together with people close to her, based on personal responsibility, love, and mutual understanding. Family values are essential since they create relationships in a group, allowing the family to conduct a dialogue and understand each other. Importantly, dialogue requires mutual support; discipline and faith are critical for the comfortable living of several individuals in a unity named family. It is generally held together by the responsibility of both parents and children and the humanism and communication of its members.

Works Cited

Bennet, William. “Remarks by William Bennet — The Forerunner.” The Forerunner . Web.

Howarth, Emma, et al. “Towards an Ecological Understanding of Readiness to Engage With Interventions for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence and Abuse: Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis of Perspectives of Children, Parents and Practitioners.” Health & Social Care in the Community , vol. 27, no. 2, 2018, pp. 271–92. Crossref . Web.

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15.2 Sociological Perspectives on the Family

Learning objective.

Summarize understandings of the family as presented by functional, conflict, and social interactionist theories.

Sociological views on today’s families generally fall into the functional, conflict, and social interactionist approaches introduced earlier in this book. Let’s review these views, which are summarized in Table 15.1 “Theory Snapshot” .

Table 15.1 Theory Snapshot

Social Functions of the Family

Recall that the functional perspective emphasizes that social institutions perform several important functions to help preserve social stability and otherwise keep a society working. A functional understanding of the family thus stresses the ways in which the family as a social institution helps make society possible. As such, the family performs several important functions.

First, the family is the primary unit for socializing children . As previous chapters indicated, no society is possible without adequate socialization of its young. In most societies, the family is the major unit in which socialization happens. Parents, siblings, and, if the family is extended rather than nuclear, other relatives all help socialize children from the time they are born.

One of the most important functions of the family is the socialization of children. In most societies the family is the major unit through which socialization occurs.

Colleen Kelly – Kids Playing Monopoly Chicago – CC BY 2.0.

Second, the family is ideally a major source of practical and emotional support for its members. It provides them food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials, and it also provides them love, comfort, help in times of emotional distress, and other types of intangible support that we all need.

Third, the family helps regulate sexual activity and sexual reproduction . All societies have norms governing with whom and how often a person should have sex. The family is the major unit for teaching these norms and the major unit through which sexual reproduction occurs. One reason for this is to ensure that infants have adequate emotional and practical care when they are born. The incest taboo that most societies have, which prohibits sex between certain relatives, helps minimize conflict within the family if sex occurred among its members and to establish social ties among different families and thus among society as a whole.

Fourth, the family provides its members with a social identity . Children are born into their parents’ social class, race and ethnicity, religion, and so forth. As we have seen in earlier chapters, social identity is important for our life chances. Some children have advantages throughout life because of the social identity they acquire from their parents, while others face many obstacles because the social class or race/ethnicity into which they are born is at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Beyond discussing the family’s functions, the functional perspective on the family maintains that sudden or far-reaching changes in conventional family structure and processes threaten the family’s stability and thus that of society. For example, most sociology and marriage-and-family textbooks during the 1950s maintained that the male breadwinner–female homemaker nuclear family was the best arrangement for children, as it provided for a family’s economic and child-rearing needs. Any shift in this arrangement, they warned, would harm children and by extension the family as a social institution and even society itself. Textbooks no longer contain this warning, but many conservative observers continue to worry about the impact on children of working mothers and one-parent families. We return to their concerns shortly.

The Family and Conflict

Conflict theorists agree that the family serves the important functions just listed, but they also point to problems within the family that the functional perspective minimizes or overlooks altogether.

First, the family as a social institution contributes to social inequality in several ways. The social identity it gives to its children does affect their life chances, but it also reinforces a society’s system of stratification. Because families pass along their wealth to their children, and because families differ greatly in the amount of wealth they have, the family helps reinforce existing inequality. As it developed through the centuries, and especially during industrialization, the family also became more and more of a patriarchal unit (see earlier discussion), helping to ensure men’s status at the top of the social hierarchy.

Second, the family can also be a source of conflict for its own members. Although the functional perspective assumes the family provides its members emotional comfort and support, many families do just the opposite and are far from the harmonious, happy groups depicted in the 1950s television shows. Instead, and as the news story that began this chapter tragically illustrated, they argue, shout, and use emotional cruelty and physical violence. We return to family violence later in this chapter.

Families and Social Interaction

Social interactionist perspectives on the family examine how family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis and arrive at shared understandings of their situations. Studies grounded in social interactionism give us a keen understanding of how and why families operate the way they do.

Some studies, for example, focus on how husbands and wives communicate and the degree to which they communicate successfully (Tannen, 2001). A classic study by Mirra Komarovsky (1964) found that wives in blue-collar marriages liked to talk with their husbands about problems they were having, while husbands tended to be quiet when problems occurred. Such gender differences seem less common in middle-class families, where men are better educated and more emotionally expressive than their working-class counterparts. Another classic study by Lillian Rubin (1976) found that wives in middle-class families say that ideal husbands are ones who communicate well and share their feelings, while wives in working-class families are more apt to say that ideal husbands are ones who do not drink too much and who go to work every day.

Other studies explore the role played by romantic love in courtship and marriage. Romantic love , the feeling of deep emotional and sexual passion for someone, is the basis for many American marriages and dating relationships, but it is actually uncommon in many parts of the contemporary world today and in many of the societies anthropologists and historians have studied. In these societies, marriages are arranged by parents and other kin for economic reasons or to build alliances, and young people are simply expected to marry whoever is chosen for them. This is the situation today in parts of India, Pakistan, and other developing nations and was the norm for much of the Western world until the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Lystra, 1989).

Key Takeaways

The family ideally serves several functions for society. It socializes children, provides practical and emotional support for its members, regulates sexual reproduction, and provides its members with a social identity.
Reflecting conflict theory’s emphases, the family may also produce several problems. In particular, it may contribute for several reasons to social inequality, and it may subject its members to violence, arguments, and other forms of conflict.
Social interactionist understandings of the family emphasize how family members interact on a daily basis. In this regard, several studies find that husbands and wives communicate differently in certain ways that sometimes impede effective communication.

For Your Review

As you think how best to understand the family, do you favor the views and assumptions of functional theory, conflict theory, or social interactionist theory? Explain your answer.
Do you think the family continues to serve the function of regulating sexual behavior and sexual reproduction? Why or why not?

Komarovsky, M. (1964). Blue-collar marriage . New York, NY: Random House.

Lystra, K. (1989). Searching the heart: Women, men, and romantic love in nineteenth-century America . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Rubin, L. B. (1976). Worlds of pain: Life in the working-class family . New York, NY: Basic Books.

Tannen, D. (2001). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation . New York, NY: Quill.

Essay about Family: What It Is and How to Nail It

Humans naturally seek belonging within families, finding comfort in knowing someone always cares. Yet, families can also stir up insecurities and mental health struggles.

Family dynamics continue to intrigue researchers across different fields. Every year, new studies explore how these relationships shape our minds and emotions.

In this article, our dissertation service will guide you through writing a family essay. You can also dive into our list of topics for inspiration and explore some standout examples to spark your creativity.

What is Family Essay

A family essay takes a close look at the bonds and experiences within families. It's a common academic assignment, especially in subjects like sociology, psychology, and literature.

So, what's involved exactly? Simply put, it's an exploration of what family signifies to you. You might reflect on cherished family memories or contemplate the portrayal of families in various media.

What sets a family essay apart is its personal touch. It allows you to express your own thoughts and experiences. Moreover, it's versatile – you can analyze family dynamics, reminisce about family customs, or explore other facets of familial life.

If you're feeling uncertain about how to write an essay about family, don't worry; you can explore different perspectives and select topics that resonate with various aspects of family life.

Tips For Writing An Essay On Family Topics

A family essay typically follows a free-form style, unless specified otherwise, and adheres to the classic 5-paragraph structure. As you jot down your thoughts, aim to infuse your essay with inspiration and the essence of creative writing, unless your family essay topics lean towards complexity or science.

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Focus on a Specific Aspect: Instead of a broad overview, delve into a specific angle that piques your interest, such as exploring how birth order influences sibling dynamics or examining the evolving role of grandparents in modern families.
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Use Real-life Examples: Illustrate your points with concrete examples or anecdotes. Draw from sources like movies, books, historical events, or personal interviews to bring your ideas to life.
Explore Cultural Diversity: Consider the diverse array of family structures across different cultures. Compare traditional values, extended family systems, or the unique hurdles faced by multicultural families.
Take a Stance: Engage with contentious topics such as homeschooling, reproductive technologies, or governmental policies impacting families. Ensure your arguments are supported by solid evidence.
Delve into Psychology: Explore the psychological underpinnings of family dynamics, touching on concepts like attachment theory, childhood trauma, or patterns of dysfunction within families.
Emphasize Positivity: Share uplifting stories of families overcoming adversity or discuss strategies for nurturing strong, supportive family bonds.
Offer Practical Solutions: Wrap up your essay by proposing actionable solutions to common family challenges, such as fostering better communication, achieving work-life balance, or advocating for family-friendly policies.

Family Essay Topics

When it comes to writing, essay topics about family are often considered easier because we're intimately familiar with our own families. The more you understand about your family dynamics, traditions, and experiences, the clearer your ideas become.

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So, take a moment to peruse the list. Choose the essay topics about family that resonate most with you. Then, dive in and start exploring your family's stories, traditions, and connections through your writing.

Supporting Family Through Tough Times
Staying Connected with Relatives
Empathy and Compassion in Family Life
Strengthening Bonds Through Family Gatherings
Quality Time with Family: How Vital Is It?
Navigating Family Relationships Across Generations
Learning Kindness and Generosity in a Large Family
Communication in Healthy Family Dynamics
Forgiveness in Family Conflict Resolution
Building Trust Among Extended Family
Defining Family in Today's World
Understanding Nuclear Family: Various Views and Cultural Differences
Understanding Family Dynamics: Relationships Within the Family Unit
What Defines a Family Member?
Modernizing the Nuclear Family Concept
Exploring Shared Beliefs Among Family Members
Evolution of the Concept of Family Love Over Time
Examining Family Expectations
Modern Standards and the Idea of an Ideal Family
Life Experiences and Perceptions of Family Life
Genetics and Extended Family Connections
Utilizing Family Trees for Ancestral Links
The Role of Younger Siblings in Family Dynamics
Tracing Family History Through Oral Tradition and Genealogy
Tracing Family Values Through Your Family Tree
Exploring Your Elder Sister's Legacy in the Family Tree
Connecting Daily Habits to Family History
Documenting and Preserving Your Family's Legacy
Navigating Online Records and DNA Testing for Family History
Tradition as a Tool for Family Resilience
Involving Family in Daily Life to Maintain Traditions
Creating New Traditions for a Small Family
The Role of Traditions in Family Happiness
Family Recipes and Bonding at House Parties
Quality Time: The Secret Tradition for Family Happiness
The Joy of Cousins Visiting for Christmas
Including Family in Birthday Celebrations
Balancing Traditions and Unconditional Love
Building Family Bonds Through Traditions

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Final Outlook

In wrapping up, let's remember: a family essay gives students a chance to showcase their academic skills and creativity by sharing personal stories. However, it's important to stick to academic standards when writing about these topics. We hope our list of topics sparked your creativity and got you on your way to a reflective journey. And if you hit a rough patch, you can just ask us to ' do my essay for me ' for top-notch results!

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FAQs on Writing an Essay about Family

Family essays seem like something school children could be assigned at elementary schools, but family is no less important than climate change for our society today, and therefore it is one of the most central research themes.

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How to Write an Essay About Your Family History?

How to write an essay about a family member, how to write an essay about family and roots, how to write an essay about the importance of family, related articles.

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11.3: Sociological Perspectives on the Family

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Learning Objectives

Summarize understandings of the family as presented by functional, conflict, and social interactionist theories.

Table 11.1 Theory Snapshot

Social Functions of the Family

Figure 11.3

One of the most important functions of the family is the socialization of children. In most societies the family is the major unit through which socialization occurs.

Third, the family helps regulate sexual activity and sexual reproduction . All societies have norms governing with whom and how often a person should have sex. The family is the major unit for teaching these norms and the major unit through which sexual reproduction occurs. One reason for this is to ensure that infants have adequate emotional and practical care when they are born. The incest taboo that most societies have, which prohibits sex between certain relatives, helps to minimize conflict within the family if sex occurred among its members and to establish social ties among different families and thus among society as a whole.

Fourth, the family provides its members with a social identity . Children are born into their parents’ social class, race and ethnicity, religion, and so forth. As we have seen in earlier chapters, social identity is important for our life chances. Some children have advantages throughout life because of the social identity they acquire from their parents, while others face many obstacles because the social class or race and ethnicity into which they are born is at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The Family and Conflict

Families and Social Interaction

Some studies, for example, focus on how husbands and wives communicate and the degree to which they communicate successfully (Tannen, 2001).Tannen, D. (2001). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation . New York, NY: Quill. A classic study by Mirra Komarovsky (1964)Komarovsky, M. (1964). Blue-collar marriage . New York, NY: Random House. found that wives in blue-collar marriages liked to talk with their husbands about problems they were having, while husbands tended to be quiet when problems occurred. Such gender differences seem less common in middle-class families, where men are better educated and more emotionally expressive than their working-class counterparts. Another classic study by Lillian Rubin (1976)Rubin, L. B. (1976). Worlds of pain: Life in the working-class family . New York, NY: Basic Books. found that wives in middle-class families say that ideal husbands are ones who communicate well and share their feelings, while wives in working-class families are more apt to say that ideal husbands are ones who do not drink too much and who go to work every day.

The family ideally serves several functions for society. It socializes children, provides practical and emotional support for its members, regulates sexual reproduction, and provides its members with a social identity.
Reflecting conflict theory’s emphases, the family may also produce several problems. In particular, it may contribute for several reasons to social inequality, and it may subject its members to violence, arguments, and other forms of conflict.
Social interactionist understandings of the family emphasize how family members interact on a daily basis. In this regard, several studies find that husbands and wives communicate differently in certain ways that sometimes impede effective communication.

For Your Review

As you think how best to understand the family, do you favor the views and assumptions of functional theory, conflict theory, or social interactionist theory? Explain your answer.
Do you think the family continues to serve the function of regulating sexual behavior and sexual reproduction? Why or why not?

Functionalist Perspective on the Family

Charlotte Nickerson

Research Assistant at Harvard University

Undergraduate at Harvard University

Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Functionalists view the family as a vital institution that performs essential functions for society. These include socializing children, providing emotional support, contributing to economic stability, and offering a sense of belonging for its members.

Key Takeaways

Functionalists believe that the institutions that make up societies have roles beneficial and essential to them. Family is one example of such an institution.
Functionalists perspectives on the family hold that families perform functions such as socializing children, providing emotional and practical support, regulating sexual activity and reproduction, and providing social identity.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, family members tended to perform productive tasks that were differentiated by sex and age. However, the emergence of factory labor shifted this dynamic, provoking families to serve complementary roles in providing support for workers.
Murdock argued that families consist of instrumental and expressive roles. Instrumental roles provide financial support and establish family status, while expressive roles involve providing emotional support and physical care.
Parsons devised the functional fit theory of the family, and argued that nuclear families, although performing a narrower scope of functions than those of the past, were essential to socializing members and stabilizing adult personalities through the emotional security of marital relationships.

Illustration of a mother and father leading their children to school

The Functionalist View of Society

Functionalism is what sociologists call a structural-consensus theory. By structural, sociologists mean that functionalists argue that there exists a social structure that shapes individual behavior through the process of socialization.

Functionalists believe that a successful society is based on value consensus , where people agree about shared norms and values . In this way, people can join forces in society to cooperate and work toward shared goals (Holmwood, 2005).

Functionalists posit that successful societies have a stable social structure in which different institutions perform unique functions that contribute to the maintenance of all of society. This is similar to how different organs in the body perform different functions to keep an animal alive.

Functionalists assume that each of these institutional organs does things that are beneficial, or even essential, for the individual and society.

Thus, the essence of the functionalist view of the family is that the family performs several essential functions for society.

Families socialize children, provide emotional and practical support for their members, regulate sexual activity and reproduction, and provide members with a social identity.

A corollary of this essentialist view of the family is the belief that a sudden or far-reaching change to family structure or processes threatens the stability of the institution of family in itself, potentially weakening society (Holmwood, 2005).

Functions of the Family in Pre-Industrial Society

Pre-industrial families (before factories) — meaning those from the 17th to 19th centuries — tended to have large numbers of children. Economies in pre-industrial society were dominated by family-based economies — what Siskind (1978) calls the kinship mode of production .

Typically, all family members worked at productive tasks differentiated by sex and age. The family itself would have consisted of a structure, such as a head of household, their spouse and children, the head’s parents and possibly ancillary relatives.

Together, this unit worked productively, producing the things needed to sustain the family’s survival. The kinship relation, in this time, represented a binding obligation to work for the subsistence of the family.

In the pre-industrial era, marriages were arranged largely for social and economic purposes, rather than for romantic love. Marriage served as a contractual agreement based on a specific division of labor.

Although people would generally attend to their assigned roles within family units, these tasks may have been flexible, depending on the needs of the family.

The tasks and the needs that the family structure could fulfill in pre-industrial society included:

Being a unit of production

Caring for the young, old sick and poor

The primary socialization and control of children

The education of children

Murdock’s Four Functions of the Nuclear Family

The nuclear family is a family that consists of 2 generations: a parental married couple and their kin.

In 1949, the sociologist George Murdock conducted a survey of 250 societies and determined that there are four universal residual functions of the nuclear family: sexual, reproductive, educational, and economic.

Murdock considered the family to regulate sexual relations between adults, ensuring that they are controlled and socially acceptable. While Murdock did not deny the existence of sexual relationships outside of marriage, he considered family to be the socially legitimate sexual outlet for adults.

Murdock believed that stable satisfaction of the sex drive within monogamous heterosexual relationships would prevent sexual jealousy (Murdock, 1949).

2. Reproduction

This sexual function of the family gives way to reproduction, which, Murdock argues, is necessary for ensuring the survival of society.

3. Socialization

The family plays a vital role in training children for adult life. The family, as a primary agent of socialization and enculturation, teaches young children ways of thinking and behaving that follow social and cultural norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes.

Parents, through teaching their children manners and civility, reflect themselves in their offspring (Murdock, 1949).

4. Economic Needs

Additionally, parents teach children gender roles. Murdock argued that these gender roles are an important part of the economic function of the family.

Murdock thought of each family as having a division of labor that consists of instrumental and expressive roles . Instrumental roles are those that provide financial support and establish family status, which Murdock purported were taken on by men.

Expressive roles typically involve work inside of the family, providing emotional support and physical care for children.

Functionalists consider this gender differentiation of roles to be an essential part of the family, because they ensure that the family is well-balanced and coordinated. When family members move outside of these roles, Murdock believes that the family is thrown out of balance and at risk of collapse if not recalibrated.

For example, suppose a father decides to quit his job in favor of caring for children during the daytime. In that case, the mother must take on an instrumental role, such as getting paid employment, in order for the family to maintain balance and function (Murdock, 1949).

Parsons: Functions of the Nuclear Family

According to Parsons (1951), although the nuclear family performs functions that are reduced in comparison to what it did in the past, it is still the only institution that can perform the core functions of primary socialization and the stabilization of adult personalities.

1. Primary Socialization

Primary socialization refers to the early period in a person’s life where they learn and develop themselves through interactions and experiences around them. This results in a child learning the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture.

This socialization is important because it sets the groundwork for all future socialization. For example, if a child sees their mother denigrating a minority group, the child may then think that this behavior is acceptable, provoking them to continue to have this opinion about minority groups (Parsons, 1951).

Functionalists stress gender role socialization as a vital part of primary socialization. If primary socialization is done correctly, functionalists believe, boys learn to adopt the instrumental role in a family, provoking them to go to work and earn wages.

Meanwhile, girls learn to adopt an expressive role, provoking them to do care work, housework, and bring up children (Parsons, 1951).

2. The Stabilization of Adult Personalities

Parsons argued that the traditional family provides emotional support and stress relief for its adult members (particularly the husband after a workday).

This “warm bath” of relaxation helps maintain societal order by preventing disruptive behavior.

The stabilization of adult personalities, otherwise known as “warm bath theory,” emphasizes the emotional security found within marital relationships. This stabilization serves to balance out the stresses and strains of life faced by most adults.

In addition, the stabilization of adult personalities within marriage allows adults to act on the child-like dimension of their personality by playing with their children, using their toys, and so forth (Parsons, 1951).

Another factor that aids the stabilization of adult personalities is the sexual division of labor within nuclear families. Within isolated nuclear families, people are allocated particular roles in order to allow the unit to function correctly.

There are the aforementioned expressive and instrumental roles (Parsons, 1951).

Parsons: Functional Fit Theory

Talcott Parsons (1951) maintained a functional fit theory of the family and devised a historical perspective on the evolution of the nuclear family.

According to functional fit theory, the type of family that fits a society’s structure, and the functions it performs, change as societies change.

For example, from the 17th to 20th centuries, as Western societies industrialized, the main family type changed from the extended to the nuclear family.

The nuclear family is indicative of greater shifts in the structure of society, and how people subsisted within it. Labor becomes decentralized and specialized, with workers in industrial plants taking on small tasks.

The emergence of factories allowed items that were once made by hand or within families, such as canned goods and clothing, to be manufactured on a mass scale. The family unit no longer needed to account for the large undertaking of self-sufficiency.

Instead, instrumental family members could earn wages which other members could then use to buy necessities. As young children could not contribute to this wage system in the same way that they could to, say, a farm, the need for large families to carry out labor lessened.

Additionally, declining infant and childhood mortality gave rise to the expectation that most children would live to adulthood.

Out of these broad-level societal changes came the nuclear family, which suited more complex industrial society better, but performed a reduced number of functions. This smaller, nuclear family unit suited the need of industrial societies for a mobile workforce, one that could move to find work in a rapidly changing and growing economy.

Additionally, the need for extended family lessened as more and more functions, such as education and healthcare, were gradually subsumed by the state (Parsons, 1951).

Criticisms of the Functionalist Perspective on the Family

The possibility that other institutions could perform the functions of the family. For example, a school or workplace may provide daycare services, or government subsidies may help a family stay afloat instrumentally.

Murdock assumes that all nuclear families function well, ignoring families that are dysfunctional despite the presence of both instrumental and expressive roles.

Feminist sociologists posit that Murdock’s argument that the family is essential is ideological, and that traditional family structures typically disadvantage women.

Parson’s view of the instrumental and expressive roles of men and women may have applied during the 1950s, but is now out of date. Women now go out to work and the biological roles as set out by Parsons no longer apply as clearly.

Anthropological research shows that there are some cultures that do not fit the traditional model of the nuclear family. One such example is that of the Nair, a group of Indian Hindu castes, who lived historically in large family units called Tharavads that housed the descendants of one common female ancestor.

The marriage customs among this group have evoked much discussion and controversy among Indian jurists and social scientists (Panikkar, 1918).

Some functionalist sociologists disagree with Parson’s idea that the nuclear family only performs basic instrumental and expressive functions. Fletcher (1988), for example, argues that the family carries out three essential functions that no other social institution can.

These are the long-standing satisfaction of the sexual and emotional needs of parents, having and rearing children in a stable environment, and the provision of a common residence where all family members can return after work or school.

However, Fletcher argues that the family also retains its education, health, and welfare function. Child-rearing and socialization in families are made more effective by state institutions offering resources such as prenatal care, health clinics, doctors, social workers, schools and teachers, and housing officers.

He notes that most parents take primary responsibility for their children’s health – such as by teaching them hygiene and caring for and treating minor illnesses.

Additionally, parents can guide and encourage their children on an educational and occupational level, as well as provide material and welfare support, well beyond childhood. Children often reciprocate these supports when their parents enter old age.

Fletcher, while acknowledging that the nuclear family has largely lost its economic function of production, highlights that it has shifted into a major unit of consumption.

Families spend a large proportion of their income on home or family-oriented consumer goods. Willmott and Young (1975) suggest that this can motivate family members to earn as much as possible.

Historians have suggested that Parson’s interpretation of the functions of the family was overly simplistic. These historians have noted the evidence suggesting that industrialization follows different historical patterns in different industrial societies.

For example, in Japan, industrialization stresses the importance of holding a job for life with the same company, and employees are encouraged to view their colleagues as part of an extended family. This extends the kinship network (Jansenns, 2002).

Chambers, D., & Gracia, P. (2021). A sociology of family life: Change and diversity in intimate relations . John Wiley & Sons.

Crano, W. D., & Aronoff, J. (1978). A cross-cultural study of expressive and instrumental role complementarity in the family. American Sociological Review , 463-471.

Fletcher, R. (1988). The Shaking of the Foundations: family and society . Routledge.

Holmwood, J. (2005). Functionalism and its Critics. Modern social theory: An introduction , 87-109.

Janssens, A. (2002). Family and social change: The household as a process in an industrializing community (No. 21). Cambridge University Press.

Murdock, G. P. (1949). Social structure .

Panikkar, K. M. (1918). Some Aspects of Nayar Life. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 48, 254-293.

Parsons, T. E., & Shils, E. A. (1951). Toward a general theory of action .

Siskind, J. (1978). Kinship and mode of production. American Anthropologist, 80 (4), 860-872.

Young, M., & Willmott, P. (1975). Michael Gordon,” The Symmetrical Family”(Book Review). Journal of Social History, 9 (1), 120.

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The Importance of Family: a Foundation for Life

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Family, culture, and communication.

V. Santiago Arias V. Santiago Arias College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University
and Narissra Maria Punyanunt-Carter Narissra Maria Punyanunt-Carter College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.504
Published online: 22 August 2017

Through the years, the concept of family has been studied by family therapists, psychology scholars, and sociologists with a diverse theoretical framework, such as family communication patterns (FCP) theory, dyadic power theory, conflict, and family systems theory. Among these theories, there are two main commonalities throughout its findings: the interparental relationship is the core interaction in the familial system because the quality of their communication or coparenting significantly affects the enactment of the caregiver role while managing conflicts, which are not the exception in the familial setting. Coparenting is understood in its broader sense to avoid an extensive discussion of all type of families in our society. Second, while including the main goal of parenting, which is the socialization of values, this process intrinsically suggests cultural assimilation as the main cultural approach rather than intergroup theory, because intercultural marriages need to decide which values are considered the best to be socialized. In order to do so, examples from the Thai culture and Hispanic and Latino cultures served to show cultural assimilation as an important mediator of coparenting communication patterns, which subsequently affect other subsystems that influence individuals’ identity and self-esteem development in the long run. Finally, future directions suggest that the need for incorporating a nonhegemonic one-way definition of cultural assimilation allows immigration status to be brought into the discussion of family communication issues in the context of one of the most diverse countries in the world.

parental communication
dyadic power
family communication systems
cultural assimilation

Introduction

Family is the fundamental structure of every society because, among other functions, this social institution provides individuals, from birth until adulthood, membership and sense of belonging, economic support, nurturance, education, and socialization (Canary & Canary, 2013 ). As a consequence, the strut of its social role consists of operating as a system in a manner that would benefit all members of a family while achieving what is considered best, where decisions tend to be coherent, at least according to the norms and roles assumed by family members within the system (Galvin, Bylund, & Brommel, 2004 ). Notwithstanding, the concept of family can be interpreted differently by individual perceptions to an array of cultural backgrounds, and cultures vary in their values, behaviors, and ideas.

The difficulty of conceptualizing this social institution suggests that family is a culture-bound phenomenon (Bales & Parsons, 2014 ). In essence, culture represents how people view themselves as part of a unique social collective and the ensuing communication interactions (Olaniran & Roach, 1994 ); subsequently, culture provides norms for behavior having a tremendous impact on those family members’ roles and power dynamics mirrored in its communication interactions (Johnson, Radesky, & Zuckerman, 2013 ). Thus, culture serves as one of the main macroframeworks for individuals to interpret and enact those prescriptions, such as inheritance; descent rules (e.g., bilateral, as in the United States, or patrilineal); marriage customs, such as ideal monogamy and divorce; and beliefs about sexuality, gender, and patterns of household formation, such as structure of authority and power (Weisner, 2014 ). For these reasons, “every family is both a unique microcosm and a product of a larger cultural context” (Johnson et al., 2013 , p. 632), and the analysis of family communication must include culture in order to elucidate effective communication strategies to solve familial conflicts.

In addition, to analyze familial communication patterns, it is important to address the most influential interaction with regard to power dynamics that determine the overall quality of family functioning. In this sense, within the range of family theories, parenting function is the core relationship in terms of power dynamics. Parenting refers to all efforts and decisions made by parents individually to guide their children’s behavior. This is a pivotal function, but the quality of communication among people who perform parenting is fundamental because their internal communication patterns will either support or undermine each caregiver’s parenting attempts, individually having a substantial influence on all members’ psychological and physical well-being (Schrodt & Shimkowski, 2013 ). Subsequently, parenting goes along with communication because to execute all parenting efforts, there must be a mutual agreement among at least two individuals to conjointly take care of the child’s fostering (Van Egeren & Hawkins, 2004 ). Consequently, coparenting serves as a crucial predictor of the overall family atmosphere and interactions, and it deserves special attention while analyzing family communication issues.

Through the years, family has been studied by family therapists, psychology scholars, and sociologists, but interaction behaviors define the interpersonal relationship, roles, and power within the family as a system (Rogers, 2006 ). Consequently, family scholarship relies on a wide range of theories developed within the communication field and in areas of the social sciences (Galvin, Braithwaite, & Bylund, 2015 ) because analysis of communication patterns in the familial context offers more ecological validity that individuals’ self-report measures. As many types of interactions may happen within a family, there are many relevant venues (i.e., theories) for scholarly analysis on this subject, which will be discussed later in this article in the “ Family: Theoretical Perspectives ” section. To avoid the risk of cultural relativeness while defining family, this article characterizes family as “a long-term group of two or more people related through biological, legal, or equivalent ties and who enact those ties through ongoing interactions providing instrumental and/or emotional support” (Canary & Canary, 2013 , p. 5).

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the most relevant theories in family communication to identify frustrations and limitations with internal communication. Second, as a case in point, the United States welcomes more than 50 million noncitizens as temporary visitors and admits approximately 1 million immigrants to live as lawful residents yearly (Fullerton, 2014 ), this demographic pattern means that nearly one-third of the population (102 million) comes from different cultural backgrounds, and therefore, the present review will incorporate culture as an important mediator for coparenting, so that future research can be performed to find specific techniques and training practices that are more suitable for cross-cultural contexts.

Family: Theoretical Perspectives

Even though the concept of family can be interpreted individually and differently in different cultures, there are also some commonalities, along with communication processes, specific roles within families, and acceptable habits of interactions with specific family members disregarding cultural differences. This section will provide a brief overview of the conceptualization of family through the family communication patterns (FCP) theory, dyadic power theory, conflict, and family systems theory, with a special focus on the interparental relationship.

Family Communication Patterns Theory

One of the most relevant approaches to address the myriad of communication issues within families is the family communication patterns (FCP) theory. Originally developed by McLeod and Chaffee ( 1973 ), this theory aims to understand families’ tendencies to create stable and predictable communication patterns in terms of both relational cognition and interpersonal behavior (Braithwaite & Baxter, 2005 ). Specifically, this theory focuses on the unique and amalgamated associations derived from interparental communication and its impact on parenting quality to determine FCPs and the remaining interactions (Young & Schrodt, 2016 ).

To illustrate FCP’s focus on parental communication, Schrodt, Witt, and Shimkowski ( 2014 ) conducted a meta-analysis of 74 studies (N = 14,255) to examine the associations between the demand/withdraw family communication patterns of interaction, and the subsequent individual, relational, and communicative outcomes. The cumulative evidence suggests that wife demand/husband withdraw and husband demand/wife withdraw show similar moderate correlations with communicative and psychological well-being outcomes, and even higher when both patterns are taken together (at the relational level). This is important because one of the main tenets of FCP is that familial relationships are drawn on the pursuit of coorientation among members. Coorientation refers to the cognitive process of two or more individuals focusing on and assessing the same object in the same material and social context, which leads to a number of cognitions as the number of people involved, which results in different levels of agreement, accuracy, and congruence (for a review, see Fitzpatrick & Koerner, 2005 ); for example, in dyads that are aware of their shared focus, two different cognitions of the same issue will result.

Hereafter, the way in which these cognitions are socialized through power dynamics determined socially and culturally by roles constitutes specific interdependent communication patterns among family members. For example, Koerner and Fitzpatrick ( 2006 ) provide a taxonomy of family types on the basis of coorientation and its impact on communication pattern in terms of the degree of conformity in those conversational tendencies. To wit, consensual families mostly agree for the sake of the hierarchy within a given family and to explore new points of view; pluralistic families allow members to participate equally in conversations and there is no pressure to control or make children’s decisions; protective families maintain the hierarchy by making decisions for the sake of achieving common family goals; and laissez-faire families, which are low in conversation and conformity orientation, allow family members to not get deeply involved in the family.

The analysis of family communication patterns is quintessential for family communication scholarly work because it influences forming an individual’s self concept in the long run. As a case in point, Young and Schrodt ( 2016 ) surveyed 181 young adults from intact families, where conditional and interaction effects between communication patterns and conformity orientation were observed as the main predictors of future romantic partners. Moreover, this study concluded that FCPs and interparental confirmation are substantial indicators of self-to-partner confirmation, after controlling for reciprocity of confirmation within the romantic relationship. As a consequence, FCP influences children’s and young adults’ perceptions of romantic behavior (e.g., Fowler, Pearson, & Beck, 2010 ); the quality of communication behavior, such as the degree of acceptation of verbal aggression in romantic dyads (e.g., Aloia & Solomon, 2013 ); gender roles; and conflict styles (e.g., Taylor & Segrin, 2010 ), and parental modeling (e.g., Young & Schrodt, 2016 ).

This suggests three important observations. First, family is a very complex interpersonal context, in which communication processes, specific roles within families, and acceptable habits of interactions with specific family members interact as subsystems (see Galvin et al., 2004 ; Schrodt & Shimkowski, 2013 ). Second, among those subsystems, the core interaction is the individuals who hold parenting roles (i.e., intact and post divorced families); the couple (disregarding particular sexual orientations), and, parenting roles have a reciprocal relationship over time (Le, McDaniel, Leavitt, & Feinberg, 2016 ). Communication between parenting partners is crucial for the development of their entire family; for example, Schrodt and Shimkowski ( 2013 ) conducted a survey with 493 young adult children from intact (N = 364) and divorced families (N = 129) about perceptions of interparental conflict that involves triangulation (the impression of being in the “middle” and feeling forced to display loyalty to one of the parents). Results suggest that supportive coparental communication positively predicts relational satisfaction with mothers and fathers, as well as mental health; on the other hand, antagonist and hostile coparental communication predicted negative marital satisfaction.

Consequently, “partners’ communication with one another will have a positive effect on their overall view of their marriage, . . . and directly result[ing in] their views of marital satisfaction” (Knapp & Daly, 2002 , p. 643). Le et al. ( 2016 ) conducted a longitudinal study to evaluate the reciprocal relationship between marital interaction and coparenting from the perspective of both parents in terms of support or undermining across the transition to parenthood from a dyadic perspective; 164 cohabiting heterosexual couples expecting their first child were analyzed from pregnancy until 36 months after birth. Both parents’ interdependence was examined in terms of three variables: gender difference analysis, stability over time in marriage and coparenting, and reciprocal associations between relationship quality and coparenting support or undermining. The findings suggest a long-term reciprocal association between relationship quality and coparenting support or undermining in heterosexual families; the quality of marriage relationship during prenatal stage is highly influential in coparenting after birth for both men and women; but, coparenting is connected to romantic relationship quality only for women.

Moreover, the positive association between coparenting and the parents’ relationship relates to the spillover hypothesis, which posits that the positive or negative factors in the parental subsystem are significantly associated with higher or lower marital satisfaction in the spousal subsystem, respectively. Ergo, overall parenting performance is substantially affected by the quality of marital communication patterns.

Dyadic Power

In addition, after analyzing the impact of marital interaction quality in families on marital satisfaction and future parental modeling, it is worth noting that marital satisfaction and coparenting are importantly mediated by power dynamics within the couple (Halstead, De Santis, & Williams, 2016 ), and even mediates marital commitment (e.g., Lennon, Stewart, & Ledermann, 2013 ). If the quality of interpersonal relationship between those individuals who hold parenting roles determines coparenting quality as well, then the reason for this association lies on the fact that virtually all intimate relationships are substantially characterized by power dynamics; when partners perceive more rewards than costs in the relationship, they will be more satisfied and significantly more committed to the relationship (Lennon et al., 2013 ). As a result, the inclusion of power dynamics in the analysis of family issues becomes quintessential.

For the theory of dyadic power, power in its basic sense includes dominance, control, and influence over others, as well as a means to meet survival needs. When power is integrated into dyadic intimate relationships, it generates asymmetries in terms of interdependence between partners due to the quality of alternatives provided by individual characteristics such as socioeconomic status and cultural characteristics such as gender roles. This virtually gives more power to men than women. Power refers to “the feeling derived from the ability to dominate, or control, the behavior, affect, and cognitions of another person[;] in consequence, this concept within the interparental relationship is enacted when one partner who controls resources and limiting the behavioral options of the other partner” (Lennon et al., 2013 , p. 97). Ergo, this theory examines power in terms of interdependence between members of the relationship: the partner who is more dependent on the other has less power in the relationship, which, of course, directly impact parenting decisions.

As a case in point, Worley and Samp ( 2016 ) examined the balance of decision-making power in the relationship, complaint avoidance, and complaint-related appraisals in 175 heterosexual couples. Findings suggest that decision-making power has a curvilinear association, in which individuals engaged in the least complaint avoidance when they were relatively equal to their partners in terms of power. In other words, perceptions of one another’s power potentially encourage communication efficacy in the interparental couple.

The analysis of power in intimate relationships, and, to be specific, between parents is crucial because it not only relates to marital satisfaction and commitment, but it also it affects parents’ dyadic coping for children. In fact, Zemp, Bodenmann, Backes, Sutter-Stickel, and Revenson ( 2016 ) investigated parents’ dyadic coping as a predictor of children’s internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and prosocial behavior in three independent studies. When there is a positive relationship among all three factors, the results indicated that the strongest correlation was the first one. Again, the quality of the marital and parental relationships has the strongest influence on children’s coping skills and future well-being.

From the overview of the two previous theories on family, it is worth addressing two important aspects. First, parenting requires an intensive great deal of hands-on physical care, attention to safety (Mooney-Doyle, Deatrick, & Horowitz, 2014 ), and interpretation of cues, and this is why parenting, from conception to when children enter adulthood, is a tremendous social, cultural, and legally prescribed role directed toward caregiving and endlessly attending to individuals’ social, physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive development (Johnson et al., 2013 ). And while parents are making decisions about what they consider is best for all family members, power dynamics play a crucial role in marital satisfaction, commitment, parental modeling, and overall interparental communication efficacy in the case of postdivorce families. Therefore, the likelihood of conflict is latent within familial interactions while making decisions; indeed, situations in which family members agree on norms as a consensus is rare (Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990 ).

In addition to the interparental and marital power dynamics that delineates family communication patterns, the familial interaction is distinctive from other types of social relationships in the unequaled role of emotions and communication of affection while family members interact and make decisions for the sake of all members. For example, Ritchie and Fitzpatrick ( 1990 ) provided evidence that fathers tended to perceive that all other family members agree with his decisions or ideas. Even when mothers confronted and disagreed with the fathers about the fathers’ decisions or ideas, the men were more likely to believe that their children agreed with him. When the children were interviewed without their parents, however, the majority of children agreed with the mothers rather than the fathers (Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, 1990 ). Subsequently, conflict is highly present in families; however, in general, the presence of conflict is not problematic per se. Rather, it is the ability to manage and recover from it and that could be problematic (Floyd, 2014 ).

One of the reasons for the role of emotions in interpersonal conflicts is explained by the Emotion-in-Relationships Model (ERM). This model states that feelings of bliss, satisfaction, and relaxation often go unnoticed due to the nature of the emotions, whereas “hot” emotions, such as anger and contempt, come to the forefront when directed at a member of an interpersonal relationship (Fletcher & Clark, 2002 ). This type of psychophysical response usually happens perhaps due to the different biophysical reactive response of the body compared to its reaction to positive ones (Floyd, 2014 ). There are two dimensions that define conflict. Conflict leads to the elicitation of emotions, but sometimes the opposite occurs: emotions lead to conflict. The misunderstanding or misinterpretation of emotions among members of a family can be a source of conflict, as well as a number of other issues, including personality differences, past history, substance abuse, mental or physical health problems, monetary issues, children, intimate partner violence, domestic rape, or maybe just general frustration due to recent events (Sabourin, Infante, & Rudd, 1990 ). In order to have a common understanding of this concept for the familial context in particular, conflict refers to as “any incompatibility that can be expressed by people related through biological, legal, or equivalent ties” (Canary & Canary, 2013 , p. 6). Thus, the concept of conflict goes hand in hand with coparenting.

There is a myriad of everyday family activities in which parents need to decide the best way to do them: sometimes they are minor, such as eating, watching TV, or sleeping schedules; others are more complicated, such as schooling. Certainly, while socializing and making these decisions, parents may agree or not, and these everyday situations may lead to conflict. Whether or not parents live together, it has been shown that “the extent to which children experience their parents as partners or opponents in parenting is related to children’s adjustment and well-being” (Gable & Sharp, 2016 , p. 1), because the ontology of parenting is materialized through socialization of values about every aspect and duty among all family members, especially children, to perpetuate a given society.

As the findings provided in this article show, the study of family communication issues is pivotal because the way in which those issues are solved within families will be copied by children as their values. Values are abstract ideas that delineate behavior toward the evaluation of people and events and vary in terms of importance across individuals, but also among cultures. In other words, their future parenting (i.e., parenting modeling) of children will replicate those same strategies for conflict solving for good or bad, depending on whether parents were supportive between each other. Thus, socialization defines the size and scope of coparenting.

The familial socialization of values encompasses the distinction between parents’ personal execution of those social appraisals and the values that parents want their children to adopt, and both are different things; nonetheless, familial socialization does not take place in only one direction, from parents to children. Benish-Weisman, Levy, and Knafo ( 2013 ) investigated the differentiation process—or, in other words, the distinction between parents’ own personal values and their socialization values and the contribution of children’s values to their parents’ socialization values. In this study, in which 603 Israeli adolescents and their parents participated, the findings suggest that parents differentiate between their personal values and their socialization values, and adolescents’ values have a specific contribution to their parents’ socialization values. As a result, socialization is not a unidirectional process affected by parents alone, it is an outcome of the reciprocal interaction between parents and their adolescent children, and the given importance of a given value is mediated by parents and their culture individually (Johnson et al., 2013 ). However, taking power dynamics into account does not mean that adolescents share the same level of decision-making power in the family; thus, socialization take place in both directions, but mostly from parents to children. Finally, it is worth noticing that the socialization of values in coparenting falls under the cultural umbrella. The next section pays a special attention to the role of culture in family communication.

The Role of Culture in Parenting Socialization of Values

There are many individual perceived realities and behaviors in the familial setting that may lead to conflict among members, but all of them achieve a common interpretation through culture; indeed, “all family conflict processes by broad cultural factors” (Canary & Canary, 2013 , p. 46). Subsequently, the goal of this section is to provide an overview of the perceived realities and behaviors that exist in family relationships with different cultural backgrounds. How should one approach the array of cultural values influencing parental communication patterns?

An interesting way of immersing on the role of culture in family communication patterns and its further socialization of values is explored by Schwartz ( 1992 ). The author developed a value system composed of 10 values operationalized as motivational goals for modern society: (a) self-direction (independence of thought and action); (b) stimulation (excitement, challenge, and novelty); (c) hedonism (pleasure or sensuous gratification); (d) achievement (personal success according to social standards); (e) power (social status, dominance over people and resources); (f) conformity (restraint of actions that may harm others or violate social expectations); (g) tradition (respect and commitment to cultural or religious customs and ideas); (h) benevolence (preserving and enhancing the welfare of people to whom one is close); (i) universalism (understanding, tolerance, and concern for the welfare of all people and nature); and (j) security (safety and stability of society, relationships, and self).

Later, Schwartz and Rubel ( 2005 ) applied this value structure, finding it to be commonly shared among over 65 countries. Nevertheless, these values are enacted in different ways by societies and genders about the extent to which men attribute more relevance to values of power, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, and self-direction, and the opposite was found for benevolence and universalism and less consistently for security. Also, it was found that all sex differences were culturally moderated, suggesting that cultural background needs to be considered in the analysis of coparental communication when socializing those values.

Even though Schwartz’s work was more focused on individuals and societies, it is a powerful model for the analysis of the role of culture on family communication and parenting scholarships. Indeed, Schwartz et al. ( 2013 ) conducted a longitudinal study with a sample of 266 Hispanic adolescents (14 years old) and their parents that looked at measures of acculturation, family functioning, and adolescent conduct problems, substance use, and sexual behavior at five time points. Results suggest that higher levels of acculturation in adolescents were linked to poorer family functioning; however, overall assimilation negatively predicted adolescent cigarette smoking, sexual activity, and unprotected sex. The authors emphasize the role of culture, and acculturation patterns in particular, in understanding the mediating role of family functioning and culture.

Ergo, it is crucial to address the ways in which culture affects family functioning. On top of this idea, Johnson et al. ( 2013 ) observed that Western cultures such as in the United States and European countries are oriented toward autonomy, favoring individual achievement, self-reliance, and self-assertiveness. Thus, coparenting in more autonomous countries will socialize to children the idea that achievement in life is an outcome of independence, resulting in coparenting communication behaviors that favor verbal praise and feedback over physical contact. As opposed to autonomy-oriented cultures, other societies, such as Asian, African, and Latin American countries, emphasize interdependence over autonomy; thus, parenting in these cultures promotes collective achievement, sharing, and collaboration as the core values.

These cultural orientations can be observed in parents’ definitions of school readiness and educational success; for Western parents, examples include skills such as counting, recognizing letters, or independently completing tasks such as coloring pictures, whereas for more interdependent cultures, the development of obedience, respect for authority, and appropriate social skills are the skills that parents are expecting their children to develop to evaluate school readiness. As a matter of fact, Callaghan et al. ( 2011 ) conducted a series of eight studies to evaluate the impact of culture on the social-cognitive skills of one- to three-year-old children in three diverse cultural settings such as Canada, Peru, and India. The results showed that children’s acquisition of specific cognitive skills is moderated by specific learning experiences in a specific context: while Canadian children were understanding the performance of both pretense and pictorial symbols skillfully between 2.5 and 3.0 years of age, on average, Peruvian and Indian children mastered those skills more than a year later. Notwithstanding, this finding does not suggest any kind of cultural superiority; language barriers and limitations derived from translation itself may influence meanings, affecting the results (Sotomayor-Peterson, De Baca, Figueredo, & Smith-Castro, 2013 ). Therefore, in line with the findings of Schutz ( 1970 ), Geertz ( 1973 ), Grusec ( 2002 ), Sotomayor-Peterson et al. ( 2013 ), and Johnson et al. ( 2013 ), cultural values provide important leverage for understanding family functioning in terms of parental decision-making and conflict, which also has a substantial impact on children’s cognitive development.

Subsequently, cultural sensitivity to the analysis of the familial system in this country needs to be specially included because cultural differences are part of the array of familial conflicts that may arise, and children experience real consequences from the quality of these interactions. Therefore, parenting, which is already arduous in itself, and overall family functioning significantly become troublesome when parents with different cultural backgrounds aim to socialize values and perform parenting tasks. The following section provides an account of these cross-cultural families.

Intercultural Families: Adding Cultural Differences to Interparental Communication

For a country such as the United States, with 102 million people from many different cultural backgrounds, the presence of cross-cultural families is on the rise, as is the likelihood of intermarriage between immigrants and natives. With this cultural diversity, the two most prominent groups are Hispanics and Asians, particular cases of which will be discussed next. Besides the fact that parenting itself is a very complex and difficult task, certainly the biggest conflict consists of making decisions about the best way to raise children in terms of their values with regard to which ethnic identity better enacts the values that parents believe their children should embrace. As a result, interracial couples might confront many conflicts and challenges due to cultural differences affecting marital satisfaction and coparenting.

Assimilation , the degree to which a person from a different cultural background has adapted to the culture of the hostage society, is an important phenomenon in intermarriage. Assimilationists observe that children from families in which one of the parents is from the majority group and the other one from the minority do not automatically follow the parent from the majority group (Cohen, 1988 ). Indeed, they follow their mothers more, whichever group she belongs to, because of mothers are more prevalent among people with higher socioeconomic status (Gordon, 1964 ; Portes, 1984 ; Schwartz et al., 2013 ).

In an interracial marriage, the structural and interpersonal barriers inhibiting the interaction between two parents will be reduced significantly if parents develop a noncompeting way to communicate and solve conflicts, which means that both of them might give up part of their culture or ethnic identity to reach consensus. Otherwise, the ethnic identity of children who come from interracial marriages will become more and more obscure (Saenz, Hwang, Aguirre, & Anderson, 1995 ). Surely, parents’ noncompeting cultural communication patterns are fundamental for children’s development of ethnic identity. Biracial children develop feelings of being outsiders, and then parenting becomes crucial to developing their strong self-esteem (Ward, 2006 ). Indeed, Gordon ( 1964 ) found that children from cross-racial or cross-ethnic marriages are at risk of developing psychological problems. In another example, Jognson and Nagoshi ( 1986 ) studied children who come from mixed marriages in Hawaii and found that the problems of cultural identification, conflicting demands in the family, and of being marginal in either culture still exist (Mann & Waldron, 1977 ). It is hard for those mixed-racial children to completely develop the ethnic identity of either the majority group or the minority group.

The question of how children could maintain their minority ethnic identity is essential to the development of ethnic identity as a whole. For children from interracial marriage, the challenge to maintain their minority ethnic identity will be greater than for the majority ethnic identity (Waters, 1990 ; Schwartz et al., 2013 ) because the minority-group spouse is more likely to have greater ethnic consciousness than the majority-group spouse (Ellman, 1987 ). Usually, the majority group is more influential than the minority group on a child’s ethnic identity, but if the minority parent’s ethnicity does not significantly decline, the child’s ethnic identity could still reflect some characteristics of the minority parent. If parents want their children to maintain the minority group’s identity, letting the children learn the language of the minority group might be a good way to achieve this. By learning the language, children form a better understanding of that culture and perhaps are more likely to accept the ethnic identity that the language represents (Xin & Sandel, 2015 ).

In addition to language socialization as a way to contribute to children’s identity in biracial families, Jane and Bochner ( 2009 ) indicated that family rituals and stories could be important in performing and transforming identity. Families create and re-create their identities through various kinds of narrative, in which family stories and rituals are significant. Festivals and rituals are different from culture to culture, and each culture has its own. Therefore, exposing children to the language, rituals, and festivals of another culture also could be helpful to form their ethnic identity, in order to counter problems of self-esteem derived from the feeling of being an outsider.

To conclude this section, the parenting dilemma in intercultural marriages consists of deciding which culture they want their children to be exposed to and what kind of heritage they want to pass to children. The following section will provide two examples of intercultural marriages in the context of American society without implying that there are no other insightful cultures that deserve analysis, but the focus on Asian-American and Hispanics families reflects the available literature (Canary & Canary, 2013 ) and its demographic representativeness in this particular context. In addition, in order to acknowledge that minorities within this larger cultural background deserve more attention due to overemphasis on larger cultures in scholarship, such as Chinese or Japanese cultures, the Thai family will provide insights into understanding the role of culture in parenting and its impact on the remaining familial interaction, putting all theories already discussed in context. Moreover, the Hispanic family will also be taken in account because of its internal pan-ethnicity variety.

An Example of Intercultural Parenting: The Thai Family

The Thai family, also known as Krob Krua, may consist of parents, children, paternal and maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, grandchildren, in-laws, and any others who share the same home. Thai marriages usually are traditional, in which the male is the authority figure and breadwinner and the wife is in charge of domestic items and the homemaker. It has been noted that Thai mothers tend to be the major caregivers and caretakers in the family rather than fathers (Tulananda, Young, & Roopnarine, 1994 ). On the other hand, it has been shown that Thai mothers also tend to spoil their children with such things as food and comfort; Tulananda et al. ( 1994 ) studied the differences between American and Thai fathers’ involvement with their preschool children and found that American fathers reported being significantly more involved with their children than Thai fathers. Specifically, the fathers differed in the amount of socialization and childcare; Thai fathers reported that they obtained more external support from other family members than American fathers; also, Thai fathers were more likely to obtain support for assisting with daughters than sons.

Furthermore, with regard to the family context, Tulananda and Roopnarine ( 2001 ) noted that over the years, some attention has been focused on the cultural differences among parent-child behaviors and interactions; hereafter, the authors believed that it is important to look at cultural parent-child interactions because that can help others understand children’s capacity to socialize and deal with life’s challenges. As a matter of fact, the authors also noted that Thai families tend to raise their children in accordance with Buddhist beliefs. It is customary for young Thai married couples to live with either the wife’s parents (uxorilocal) or the husband’s parents (virilocal) before living on their own (Tulananda & Roopnarine, 2001 ). The process of developing ethnicity could be complicated. Many factors might influence the process, such as which parent is from the minority culture and the cultural community, as explained in the previous section of this article.

This suggests that there is a difference in the way that Thai and American fathers communicate with their daughters. As a case in point, Punyanunt-Carter ( 2016 ) examined the relationship maintenance behaviors within father-daughter relationships in Thailand and the United States. Participants included 134 American father-daughter dyads and 154 Thai father-daughter dyads. The findings suggest that when quality of communication was included in this relationship, both types of families benefit from this family communication pattern, resulting in better conflict management and advice relationship maintenance behaviors. However, differences were found: American fathers are more likely than American daughters to employ relationship maintenance behaviors; in addition, American fathers are more likely than Thai fathers to use relationship maintenance strategies.

As a consequence, knowing the process of ethnic identity development could provide parents with different ways to form children’s ethnic identity. More specifically, McCann, Ota, Giles, and Caraker ( 2003 ), and Canary and Canary ( 2013 ) noted that Southeast Asian cultures have been overlooked in communication studies research; these countries differ in their religious, political, and philosophical thoughts, with a variety of collectivistic views and religious ideals (e.g., Buddhism, Taoism, Islam), whereas the United States is mainly Christian and consists of individualistic values.

The Case of Hispanic/Latino Families in the United States

There is a need for including Hispanic/Latino families in the United States because of the demographic representativeness and trends of the ethnicity: in 2016 , Hispanics represent nearly 17% of the total U.S. population, becoming the largest minority group. There are more than 53 million Hispanics and Latinos in the United States; in addition, over 93% of young Hispanics and Latinos under the age of 18 hold U.S. citizenship, and more than 73,000 of these people turn 18 every month (Barreto & Segura, 2014 ). Furthermore, the current Hispanic and Latino population is spread evenly between foreign-born and U.S.-born individuals, but the foreign-born population is now growing faster than the number of Hispanic children born in the country (Arias & Hellmueller, 2016 ). This demographic trend is projected to reach one-third of the U.S. total population by 2060 ; therefore, with the growth of other minority populations in the country, the phenomenon of multiracial marriage and biracial children is increasing as well.

Therefore, family communication scholarship has an increasing necessity to include cultural particularities in the analysis of the familial system; in addition to the cultural aspects already explained in this article, this section addresses the influence of familism in Hispanic and Latino familial interactions, as well as how immigration status moderates the internal interactions, reflected in levels of acculturation, that affect these families negatively.

With the higher marriage and birth rates among Hispanics and Latinos living in the United States compared to non-Latino Whites and African American populations, the Hispanic familial system is perhaps the most stereotyped as being familistic (Glick & Van Hook, 2008 ). This family trait consists of the fact that Hispanics place a very high value on marriage and childbearing, on the basis of a profound commitment to give support to members of the extended family as well. This can be evinced in the prevalence of extended-kind shared households in Hispanic and Latino families, and Hispanic children are more likely to live in extended-family households than non-Latino Whites or blacks (Glick & Van Hook, 2008 ). Living in extended-family households, most likely with grandparents, may have positive influences on Hispanic and Latino children, such as greater attention and interaction with loving through consistent caregiving; grandparents may help by engaging with children in academic-oriented activities, which then affects positively cognitive educational outcomes.

However, familism is not the panacea for all familial issues for several reasons. First, living in an extended-family household requires living arrangements that consider adults’ needs more than children’s. Second, the configuration of Hispanic and Latino households is moderated by any immigration issues with all members of the extended family, and this may cause problems for children (Menjívar, 2000 ). The immigration status of each individual member may produce a constant state of flux, whereas circumstances change to adjust to economic opportunities, which in turn are limited by immigration laws, and it gets even worse when one of the parents isn’t even present in the children’s home, but rather live in their home country (Van Hook & Glick, 2006 ). Although Hispanic and Latino children are more likely to live with married parents and extended relatives, familism is highly affected by the immigration status of each member.

On the other hand, there has been research to address the paramount role of communication disregarding the mediating factor of cultural diversity. For example, Sotomayor-Peterson et al. ( 2013 ) performed a cross-cultural comparison of the association between coparenting or shared parental effort and family climate among families from Mexico, the United States, and Costa Rica. The overall findings suggest what was explained earlier in this article: more shared parenting predicts better marital interaction and family climate overall.

In addition, parenting quality has been found to have a positive relationship with children’s developmental outcomes. In fact, Sotomayor-Peterson, Figueredo, Christensen, and Taylor ( 2012 ) conducted a study with 61 low-income Mexican American couples, with at least one child between three and four years of age, recruited from a home-based Head Start program. The main goal of this study was to observe the extent that shared parenting incorporates cultural values and income predicts family climate. The findings suggest that the role of cultural values such as familism, in which family solidarity and avoidance of confrontation are paramount, delineate shared parenting by Mexican American couples.

Cultural adaptation also has a substantial impact on marital satisfaction and children’s cognitive stimulation. Indeed, Sotomayor-Peterson, Wilhelm, and Card ( 2011 ) investigated the relationship between marital relationship quality and subsequent cognitive stimulation practices toward their infants in terms of the actor and partner effects of White and Hispanic parents. The results indicate an interesting relationship between the level of acculturation and marital relationship quality and a positive cognitive stimulation of infants; specifically, marital happiness is associated with increased cognitive stimulation by White and high-acculturated Hispanic fathers. Nevertheless, a major limitation of Hispanic acculturation literature has been seen, reflecting a reliance on cross-sectional studies where acculturation was scholarly operationalized more as an individual difference variable than as a longitudinal adaptation over time (Schwartz et al., 2013 ).

Culture and Family Communication: the “so what?” Question

This article has presented an entangled overview of family communication patterns, dyadic power, family systems, and conflict theories to establish that coparenting quality plays a paramount role. The main commonality among those theories pays special attention to interparental interaction quality, regardless of the type of family (i.e., intact, postdivorce, same-sex, etc.) and cultural background. After reviewing these theories, it was observed that the interparental relationship is the core interaction in the familial context because it affects children from their earlier cognitive development to subsequent parental modeling in terms of gender roles. Thus, in keeping with Canary and Canary ( 2013 ), no matter what approach may be taken to the analysis of family communication issues, the hypothesis that a positive emotional climate within the family is fostered only when couples practice a sufficient level of shared parenting and quality of communication is supported.

Nevertheless, this argument does not suggest that the role of culture in the familial interactions should be undersold. While including the main goal of parenting, which is the socialization of values, in the second section of this article, the text also provides specific values of different countries that are enacted and socialized differently across cultural contexts to address the role of acculturation in the familial atmosphere, the quality of interactions, and individual outcomes. As a case in point, Johnson et al. ( 2013 ) provided an interesting way of seeing how cultures differ in their ways of enacting parenting, clarifying that the role of culture in parenting is not a superficial or relativistic element.

In addition, by acknowledging the perhaps excessive attention to larger Asian cultural backgrounds (such as Chinese or Japanese cultures) by other scholars (i.e., Canary & Canary, 2013 ), an insightful analysis of the Thai American family within the father-daughter relationship was provided to exemplify, through the work of Punyanunt-Carter ( 2016 ), how specific family communication patterns, such as maintenance relationship communication behaviors, affect the quality of familial relationships. Moreover, a second, special focus was put on Hispanic families because of the demographic trends of the United States, and it was found that familism constitutes a distinctive aspect of these families.

In other words, the third section of this article provided these two examples of intercultural families to observe specific ways that culture mediates the familial system. Because one of the main goals of the present article was to demonstrate the mediating role of culture as an important consideration for family communication issues in the United States, the assimilationist approach was taken into account; thus, the two intercultural family examples discussed here correspond to an assimilationist nature rather than using an intergroup approach.

This decision was made without intending to diminish the value of other cultures or ethnic groups in the country, but an extensive revision of all types of intercultural families is beyond the scope of this article. Second, the assimilationist approach forces one to consider cultures that are in the process of adapting to a new hosting culture, and the Thai and Hispanic families in the United States comply with this theoretical requisite. For example, Whites recognize African Americans as being as American as Whites (i.e., Dovidio, Gluszek, John, Ditlmann, & Lagunes, 2010 ), whereas they associate Hispanics and Latinos with illegal immigration in the United States (Stewart et al., 2011 ), which has been enhanced by the U.S. media repeatedly since 1994 (Valentino et al., 2013 ), and it is still happening (Dixon, 2015 ). In this scenario, “ask yourself what would happen to your own personality if you heard it said over and over again that you were lazy, a simple child of nature, expected to steal, and had inferior blood? . . . One’s reputation, whether false or true, cannot be hammered, hammered, hammered, into one’s head without doing something to one’s character” (Allport, 1979 , p. 142, cited in Arias & Hellmueller, 2016 ).

As a consequence, on this cultural canvas, it should not be surprising that Lichter, Carmalt, and Qian ( 2011 ) found that second-generation Hispanics are increasingly likely to marry foreign-born Hispanics and less likely to marry third-generation or later coethnics or Whites. In addition, this study suggests that third-generation Hispanics and later were more likely than in the past to marry non-Hispanic Whites; thus, the authors concluded that there has been a new retreat from intermarriage among the largest immigrant groups in the United States—Hispanics and Asians—in the last 20 years.

If we subscribe to the idea that cultural assimilation goes in only one direction—from the hegemonic culture to the minority culture—then the results of Lichter, Carmalt, and Qian ( 2011 ) should not be of scholarly concern; however, if we believe that cultural assimilation happens in both directions and intercultural families can benefit both the host and immigrant cultures (for a review, see Schwartz et al., 2013 ), then this is important to address in a country that just elected a president, Donald Trump, who featured statements racially lambasting and segregating minorities, denigrating women, and criticizing immigration as some of the main tenets of his campaign. Therefore, we hope that it is clear why special attention was given to the Thai and Hispanic families in this article, considering the impact of culture on the familial system, marital satisfaction, parental communication, and children’s well-being. Even though individuals with Hispanic ancentry were in the United States even before it became a nation, Hispanic and Latino families are still trying to convince Americans of their right to be accepted in American culture and society.

With regard to the “So what?” question, assimilation is important to consider while analyzing the role of culture in family communication patterns, power dynamics, conflict, or the functioning of the overall family system in the context of the United States. This is because this country is among the most popular in the world in terms of immigration requests, and its demographics show that one out of three citizens comes from an ethnic background other than the hegemonic White culture. In sum, cultural awareness has become pivotal in the analysis of family communication issues in the United States. Furthermore, the present overview of family, communication, and culture ends up supporting the idea of positive associations being derived from the pivotal role of marriage relationship quality, such that coparenting and communication practices vary substantially within intercultural marriages moderated by gender roles.

Culture is a pivotal moderator of these associations, but this analysis needs to be tethered to societal structural level, in which cultural differences, family members’ immigration status, media content, and level of acculturation must be included in family research. This is because in intercultural marriages, in addition to the tremendous parenting role, they have to deal with cultural assimilation and discrimination, and this becomes important if we care about children’s cognitive development and the overall well-being of those who are not considered White. As this article shows, the quality of familial interactions has direct consequences on children’s developmental outcomes (for a review, see Callaghan et al., 2011 ).

Therefore, the structure and functioning of family has an important impact on public health at both physiological and psychological levels (Gage, Everett, & Bullock, 2006 ). At the physiological level, the familial interaction instigates expression and reception of strong feelings affecting tremendously on individuals’ physical health because it activates neuroendocrine responses that aid stress regulation, acting as a stress buffer and accelerating physiological recovery from elevated stress (Floyd & Afifi, 2012 ; Floyd, 2014 ). Robles, Shaffer, Malarkey, and Kiecolt-Glaser ( 2006 ) found that a combination of supportive communication, humor, and problem-solving behavior in husbands predicts their wives’ cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)—both physiological factors are considered as stress markers (see 2006 ). On the other hand, the psychology of individuals, the quality of family relationships has major repercussions on cognitive development, as reflected in educational attainment (Sohr-Preston et al., 2013 ), and highly mediated by cultural assimilation (Schwartz et al., 2013 ), which affects individuals through parenting modeling and socialization of values (Mooney-Doyle, Deatrick, & Horowitz, 2014 ).

The Functionalist View of Family in Sociology

In the field of sociology, the functionalist perspective provides a unique lens through which to understand the role and significance of the family in society. Functionalism is a theoretical framework that emphasizes the importance of social institutions, such as the family, in maintaining social order and stability. This perspective views the family as a vital component of society, serving various functions that contribute to the overall well-being and functioning of individuals and the larger community.

Overview of Functionalism

Functionalism , also known as structural functionalism, is a sociological theory developed by scholars such as Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons. It posits that society is a complex system made up of interrelated parts that work together to maintain social equilibrium. According to functionalists, social institutions, including the family , have specific functions that contribute to the smooth functioning and stability of society.

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The functions of family.

The functionalist view of the family highlights several key functions that it fulfills within society:

1. Reproduction and Socialization

One of the primary functions of the family is to reproduce and socialize new members of society. Through the institution of marriage, families provide a socially accepted framework for procreation. Additionally, parents play a crucial role in socializing children, teaching them the norms , values, and behaviors necessary for their integration into society.

2. Economic Support

The family serves as an economic unit, providing financial support and resources to its members. Within the family, individuals contribute to the overall economic well-being through their work and income. This economic support ensures the fulfillment of basic needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing, and contributes to the overall stability of society.

3. Emotional Support

The family is a primary source of emotional support and nurturance for its members. This support system helps individuals cope with challenges, provides a sense of belonging and identity, and fosters emotional well-being. The emotional support within families contributes to the overall mental health and stability of individuals and society as a whole.

4. Social Control

The family plays a crucial role in maintaining social control and regulating behavior. Through socialization and the internalization of norms and values , families instill a sense of discipline and moral guidance in their members. This social control helps individuals conform to societal expectations, contributing to the overall order and stability of society.

5. Status Placement

The family also plays a role in determining an individual’s social status and position within society. Inheritance of social and economic resources, as well as social connections and networks, are often influenced by family ties. The family’s role in status placement contributes to the social stratification and hierarchy within society.

Critiques of the Functionalist View

While the functionalist view of the family provides valuable insights into its functions within society, it has also faced criticism. Critics argue that functionalism tends to idealize the family as a harmonious and stable institution, overlooking issues such as domestic violence, inequality, and the changing dynamics of modern families. Moreover, functionalism may neglect the agency and diversity of individuals and families, assuming a one-size-fits-all approach.

In conclusion, the functionalist view of the family provides a comprehensive understanding of its functions within society . From reproduction and socialization to economic and emotional support, the family plays a vital role in maintaining social order and stability. However, it is essential to recognize the limitations of this perspective and acknowledge the complexities and diversity of family structures and dynamics in contemporary society.

Mr Edwards has a PhD in sociology alongside 10 years of experience in sociological knowledge

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Families: Functionalism

Last updated 15 Sept 2022

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Functionalists argue that all institutions in society have important roles to play in the smooth and functional running of society, and the family is no different. They argue that the family has important functions both for society and for individuals.

George Murdock on Families

The classic functionalist statement on the roles of the family comes from George Murdock (1949) who looked at families across the world and found four functions that were common to all of them:

Educational : children are taught the norms and values of society (also known as primary socialisation)
Economic : the family provides an economic function to all its members by pooling resources and ensuring all have what they need.
Reproductive: produces the next generation of the society.
Sexual : ensures that adults’ sexual relationships are controlled and stable.

Talcott Parsons on Families

Talcott Parsons (1951) updated Murdock’s theory. He argued that in modern, Western societies, the state provided education and could perform an economic function (through welfare provisions) but that the family still had two irreducible functions:

Primary socialisation

Similar to Murdock’s educational role, Parsons agreed that families taught children social norms and values. However, he argued that it specifically taught children the norms and values associated with their family and/or community, while other institutions, such as schools, the media, religion, etc. taught children the universal norms and values of wider society. Parsons called this first process primary socialisation and the latter secondary socialisation .

Stabilisation of adult personalities

Parsons also argued that families helped to prevent adults from behaving in disruptive or dysfunctional ways, instead encouraging them to conform to social norms, especially at times of stress. The family provides emotional support to its members.

Parsons famously described this in his warm bath theory . This was the idea that when a man came home from a hard day at work, he could relax into is family like a warm bath and it would take away the stress and refresh him for the next day’s work.

Evaluating functionalist views of the functions of families and households

A standard criticism of functionalist views of the role of the family comes from conflict theorists like Marxists and feminists who argue that this paints too rosy and idealistic a picture of family life. Families are certainly not like that for everyone. Many people have negative experiences of family life, and indeed they can cause stress as well as relieve it.

Conflict theorists also question whether the roles families perform really benefit the whole of society or really just benefit powerful groups within it. In particular, feminists argue that families exist largely for the benefit of men.

The Marxist-feminist Fran Ansley offers a different perspective on Parsons’ warm bath theory when she describes women in the family as takers of shit. By this she means that men coming home from work may have their stress relieved by the family, but only by dumping it on their wives.

Furthermore, these theories are outdated and suggest families are all traditional nuclear families with men going to work and women in domestic roles. We will revisit this part of the discussion in a later section.

Functionalism

Families: family and household defined, families: marxism, families: feminism, the march of progress view: the family and gender equality (part 1).

14th February 2017

The March of Progress View: The Family and the Role of Children (Part 2)

16th February 2017

Meet the Perspectives: Functionalism (Part 1)

14th November 2016

Meet the Perspectives: Functionalism (Part 2)

15th November 2016

Meet the Perspectives: Functionalism (Part 3)

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Importance Of Family Essay - 100, 200, 500 Words

It is essential to have a family because members provide emotional and financial support and unwavering affection. They will never stop trying to find the best in you, even if you don't see it in yourself, and they'll push you to reach your potential. Here are a few sample essays on the Importance of Family.

100 Words Essay on The Importance of Family

200 words essay on the importance of family, 500 words essay on the importance of family.

Importance Of Family Essay - 100, 200, 500 Words

Family plays a crucial role in shaping our lives and provides us with love, support, and identity. A family is a source of unconditional love that teaches us the true meaning of love and helps us carry it with us throughout our lives. Loyalty and strong bonds are key elements of a family that help to strengthen relationships and create a sense of belonging. Family also teaches us important life skills such as patience and relationship-building, which help us to form meaningful connections with the outside world. Overall, the family is a source of strength and provides us with the foundation we need to grow and thrive.

The significance of one's family cannot be overstated. The family serves as a foundation for our personal and social growth, providing us with love, support, and guidance. Our homes should be places where we instill in our children important values such as love, respect, faith, hope, care, culture, ethics, tradition, and more. For many, nothing compares to the love and support provided by family. Family members are obligated to support each other emotionally and financially, making the family unit a crucial social institution.

Growing up in a family environment helps children develop strong principles and values, while also teaching important life lessons such as honesty, reliability, and compassion. The family is essential to our overall well-being, serving as our central support system and backbone of existence. Each family member plays a unique role, contributing to the whole, and providing us with the strength we need to reach our full potential.

The home is a crucial educational environment that plays a major role in shaping our lives. Having a family provides us with stability and support, aiding our intellectual and social development, as well as our physical and emotional growth. Despite asking for little, families provide us with as much love and support as they can, no matter what circumstances we face. The presence of family helps to bring out our individuality, and serves as our central support system and backbone of existence. Each family member is valuable and contributes their unique qualities to the whole, providing us with the support we need to soar and achieve our dreams.

Family is one of the most important aspects of an individual's life. It provides a sense of security, stability, and support that is essential for a person's overall well-being and development. The family unit is a crucial social institution, consisting of individuals who are obligated to support each other emotionally and financially. The love and support provided by family members helps individuals overcome life's challenges and reach their full potential.

How Family Supports Us

The family serves as the first educational environment for children, teaching them important values and principles. Children learn about their identity and the world around them through their family experiences. They develop their emotional, social, and cognitive skills within the home, and learn about relationships, communication, and respect. A strong family environment is crucial for a child's healthy development, and can shape their future relationships and behaviors.

Family provides individuals with a sense of belonging and connection. Family members share a unique bond, based on love, trust, and mutual support. Family relationships offer individuals the opportunity to build meaningful connections with others, which are essential for their emotional well-being. Family can offer comfort and support in times of need, and can provide a sense of belonging and security, even in the face of adversity.

One of the most important aspects of family is the love and support provided by its members. Family members are there for each other, offering comfort and guidance, no matter what life may bring. This unconditional love and support is essential for an individual's mental and emotional well-being, and can provide a sense of security and stability that is unmatched by any other type of relationship.

In addition to emotional and psychological support, families can also provide financial support, which is essential in times of need. Family members may help each other with expenses, offer financial advice, and support each other through financial difficulties. This type of support is particularly important for individuals who are facing financial hardship or unemployment, and can help alleviate the stress and anxiety associated with these challenges.

My family is a close-knit unit of four members. My parents are my biggest supporters and have always been there for me, no matter what. They have instilled in me strong values such as honesty, kindness, and respect for others. I have a younger brother who is my best friend and constant source of laughter.

Growing up, my family was always there to encourage me in my interests and support me in my endeavors. They pushed me to work hard in school and to chase my dreams. I have learned so much from my parents, such as the value of hard work, persistence, and determination. Their unwavering love and support has given me the confidence to strive for success in all aspects of my life.

Family is also about creating memories together. Whether it's taking a family vacation, cooking a meal together, or simply watching a movie, these moments bring us closer and help us bond. In my family, we make a point to spend quality time together and enjoy each other's company.

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Essay on Importance of Family for Students and Children

500 words essay on importance of family.

In today’s world when everything is losing its meaning, we need to realize the importance of family more than ever. While the world is becoming more modern and advanced, the meaning of family and what stands for remains the same.

A family is a group of people who are related by blood or heritage. These people are linked not only by blood but also by compassion, love, and support. A person’s character and personality are shaped by his or her family. There are various forms of families in today’s society. It is further subdivided into a tight and extended family (nuclear family, single parent, step-family, grandparent, cousins, etc.)

Family – A synonym for trust, comfort, love, care, happiness and belonging. Family is the relationship that we share from the moment we are born into this world. People that take care of us and help us grow are what we call family, and they become lifelines for us to live. Family members have an important role in deciding an individual’s success or failure in life since they provide a support system and source of encouragement.

It does not matter what kind of family one belongs to. It is all equal as long as there are caring and acceptance. You may be from a joint family, same-sex partner family, nuclear family, it is all the same. The relationships we have with our members make our family strong. We all have unique relations with each family member. In addition to other things, a family is the strongest unit in one’s life.

Things That Strengthens The Family

A family is made strong through a number of factors. The most important one is of course love. You instantly think of unconditional love when you think of family. It is the first source of love you receive in your life It teaches you the meaning of love which you carry on forever in your heart.

Secondly, we see that loyalty strengthens a family. When you have a family, you are devoted to them. You stick by them through the hard times and celebrate in their happy times. A family always supports and backs each other. They stand up for each other in front of a third party trying to harm them proving their loyalty.

Most importantly, the things one learns from their family brings them closer. For instance, we learn how to deal with the world through our family first. They are our first school and this teaching strengthens the bond. It gives us reason to stand by each other as we share the same values.

No matter what the situation arises, your family will never leave you alone. They will always stand alongside you to overcome the hardships in life. If anyone is dealing with any kind of trouble, even a small talk about it to the family will make ones’ mind lighter and will give them a sense of hope, an inner sense of strength to fight those problems.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Importance of Family

One cannot emphasize enough on the importance of family. They play a great role in our lives and make us better human beings. The one lucky enough to have a family often do not realize the value of a family.

However, those who do not have families know their worth. A family is our source of strength. It teaches us what relationships mean. They help us create meaningful relationships in the outside world. The love we inherit from our families, we pass on to our independent relationships.

Moreover, families teach us better communication . When we spend time with our families and love each other and communicate openly, we create a better future for ourselves. When we stay connected with our families, we learn to connect better with the world.

Similarly, families teach us patience. It gets tough sometimes to be patient with our family members. Yet we remain so out of love and respect. Thus, it teaches us patience to deal better with the world. Families boost our confidence and make us feel loved. They are the pillars of our strength who never fall instead keep us strong so we become better people.

We learn the values of love, respect, faith, hope, caring, cultures, ethics, traditions, and everything else that concerns us through our families. Being raised in a loving household provides a solid foundation for anyone.

People develop a value system inside their family structure in addition to life lessons. They learn what their family considers to be proper and wrong, as well as what the community considers to be significant.

Families are the epicentres of tradition. Many families keep on traditions by sharing stories from the past over the years. This allows you to reconnect with family relatives who are no longer alive. A child raised in this type of household feels as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves. They’ll be proud to be a part of a community that has had ups and downs. Communities thrive when families are strong. This, in turn, contributes to a robust society.

Q.1 What strengthens a family?

A.1 A family’s strength is made up of many factors. It is made of love that teaches us to love others unconditionally. Loyalty strengthens a family which makes the members be loyal to other people as well. Most importantly, acceptance and understanding strengthen a family.

Q.2 Why is family important?

A.2 Families are very important components of society and people’s lives. They teach us a lot about life and relationships. They love us and treat us valuably. They boost our self-confidence and make us feel valued. In addition, they teach us patience to deal with others in a graceful and accepting manner.

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What Is The Importance Of Family In Modern Society?

With advancements in technology, changing cultural norms, new priorities, and advanced forms of communication fueled by the internet, you may wonder how family holds up in modern society. The concept of family is likely to continue to be essential for people from all walks of life, despite changing beliefs and customs. Research often demonstrates the importance of family for numerous areas of well-being . No matter how much life changes and the concept of family evolves, it may continue to benefit human health and wellness by offering a sense of belonging and support. If you’re experiencing family-related challenges, it can be helpful to speak to an objective person, such as a licensed therapist, for insight and guidance.

Its definition may evolve, but family may remain essential

The traditional definition of a "nuclear family" typically entailed one man and one woman who were married and had biological children. However, today’s families can be more inclusive and may look different than family stereotypes. Additionally, research usually labels many different types of families.

Benefits of a healthy family

As modern life can add pressure and stress, a healthy family dynamic can have multiple benefits, regardless of whether it's a biological family, adoptive family, or chosen family.

Helps you meet your basic needs

Many years ago, Abraham Maslow created the Hierarchy of Needs . At the bottom of this hierarchy are usually basic needs, including water, food, rest, and health. A family may provide these necessities, which can serve as building blocks for other needs.

Research also suggests that social connection can be considered a need, as it usually improves physical and mental health. Family may offer social connection in abundance.

Allows you to belong to something

A sense of belonging can come from the family, group, or community we belong to, and it can contribute to our emotional well-being by allowing us to feel connected socially.

Offers a built-in support system

Research shows that the support system families provide can have a profound impact throughout different stages of life. Difficult times are often inevitable, but a family may provide a sense of stability and connection that can make it easier to get through them.

Contributes to health

Children might experience a healthy lifestyle when they live in a healthy family. They may eat healthy meals, enjoy time outdoors, and get prompt medical attention when needed.

Health benefits can exist for parents in families, too. Research has shown that people with children in their families tend to live longer , even after the children have grown up and moved away.

Provides support when someone is ill

Facing medical problems alone can be challenging. A family may help alleviate this difficulty by offering support and assistance as you heal.

Offers community benefits

A strong family structure may reduce the likelihood of delinquency and crime. This can mean that the family unit may substantially impact an individual and their community.

Educates children

One way many parents contribute to society is by educating their children. Parents and caregivers often begin teaching children at a very young age. They may help them learn to walk and teach them new words as they develop their vocabulary and language skills. They also may teach them manners and take advantage of learning opportunities in everyday life.

Many parents also encourage scholarship opportunities, ethical behavior, and social skills that can benefit children throughout adolescence and into adulthood.

All families may struggle sometimes

Even though families can have benefits, they may face challenges at times. When it comes to overcoming the difficulties of family life, you might find support in your friends. You can also seek the help of a professional with training and experience in family dynamics.

Seeking help

Talking to a therapist may help you explore your feelings about family and learn to express those feelings openly. You may also learn to understand the family influences that shaped your personality.

Benefits of online therapy

Online therapy can be an easy and convenient way to receive insight and guidance from a licensed therapist. It can be helpful to vent to an objective person during therapy sessions, and you can attend these sessions from any location with an internet connection. With an online therapy platform, you can even seek out a therapist who specializes in helping their clients navigate family-related concerns.

Effectiveness of online therapy

Although more research may be needed regarding the efficacy of individual online therapy for addressing family-related challenges, a growing body of evidence generally supports the idea that online therapy can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy.

What is the importance of family in our life?

Family can often serve as a cornerstone of our emotional support system, playing a role in each individual's emotional health. This foundational element often sets the stage for future relationships and helps build self-esteem.

What is the importance of family to a person?

Family can provide unconditional love and emotional support, which are key factors in building an individual's self-esteem. These early relationships set the groundwork for personal relationships and adult life.

What are 10 important aspects of family in your life?

Emotional support: Family offers a safety net for emotional well-being.
Unconditional love: The love from family is often lifelong and uncompromising.
Moral and ethical guidance: Family serves as our first role model, teaching us social skills and crucial role values.
Financial support: Financial stability often starts with family support.
Educational support: Family’s involvement can positively impact academic performance.
Healthy families: A supportive family environment can contribute to healthy relationships.
Family traditions and history: Knowing your family history adds a sense of belonging.
Role models: Family provides the first role models in a child’s life.
Open communication: Communication within the family contributes to emotional health and strong personal relationships.
Sense of belonging: Family gatherings, such as family meals, add to the sense of community.

Why are family relationships among the most important we will ever have?

Family relationships can lay the foundation for how we manage future relationships. The skills learned in the family context are applied to personal relationships in adult life, playing an important role in our overall emotional well-being.

What is the most important value in your relationship as a family?

Important values, like unconditional love and open communication, can form the bedrock on which the emotional health of each individual in the family is built. These values often lead to a unified family, increasing senses of security, stability and support.

What is important in life, family or love?

Family often provides the first experience of unconditional love, and this foundational emotional support sets the tone for what we seek in other personal relationships throughout adult life.

Is having a family the most important thing?

Having a family often offers emotional support and unconditional love, serving as an individual’s foundational support system and playing a crucial role in emotional health. However, many aspects of life are important, and family is not necessarily more important than other relationships in your life.

Why is family more important than happiness?

Family often serves as a significant source of happiness, fulfilling our needs for emotional support and unconditional love.

What is the importance of family unity?

Family unity offers a conducive environment for emotional health and well-being. This unity is often fostered through open communication during family meals, contributing to each individual's ability to maintain relationships.

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What is family definition essay samples.

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The given prompt: Beyond blood relations, how has the concept of family evolved in contemporary culture?

In traditional terms, a family often conjured images of a group connected by the intricate web of blood relations: parents, siblings, and extended kin. However, as the hands of time have ticked forward, the idea of family has undergone a significant evolution, particularly in contemporary culture.

In today’s world, the essence of family is not restricted solely to genetic ties. Instead, it blossoms in the spaces of shared experiences, mutual care, love, and most importantly, genuine connection. The idea that “blood is thicker than water” has been both challenged and redefined as people create familial bonds with those they aren’t biologically related to.

With the rise in diverse living situations, it’s common to find families where members aren’t linked by DNA. Adoptive families are a testament to the idea that the foundations of family go beyond genes. Here, connections are forged with love, understanding, and a mutual commitment to each other’s well-being. Similarly, stepfamilies and blended families break the mold of the traditional family unit, proving that genuine relationships can flourish in spaces beyond blood ties.

Moreover, the concept of “chosen families” has gained prominence, especially within communities that value deep-rooted friendships and bonds. In many instances, individuals, due to various reasons, may become estranged from their biological families. In the void that this creates, they often find solace, support, and a sense of belonging with friends or mentors, essentially building a family by choice, not by birth.

Another dimension of the evolving family concept is the recognition and acceptance of families with same-sex parents. As societies grow more inclusive, the narrative around family has expanded to honor and celebrate diverse family structures. In these families, just as in any other, love, care, and shared responsibilities define the bond.

Cultural exchanges, travel, and global communication have also played a role in reshaping the family’s notion. In an interconnected world, individuals from different corners of the globe meet, bond, and form families, blending cultures, traditions, and values. These intercultural families are beautiful tapestries of shared stories and united dreams.

However, with this expanded understanding of family, contemporary culture also brings challenges. The acceptance of diverse family structures isn’t universal, and many face societal judgment. It underscores the importance of broadening perspectives and understanding that at the core of every family, irrespective of its structure, lie the universal values of love, support, and commitment.

In essence, the definition of family in today’s world is fluid, reflecting the cultural, societal, and individual shifts of our times. While blood relations will always hold significance, the boundaries of family have extended, warmly embracing all forms of genuine connection and mutual care.

As we navigate the complexities of modern life, these evolved family structures offer comfort, reminding us that family is less about who we share our genes with and more about who we share our lives with. In the heartbeats of these diverse families, we find the timeless rhythms of love, care, and belonging.

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What are the functions of the family today?

How have the functions of the family changed? Are the functions of the family in decline?

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Functionalist sociologist Talcott Parsons developed the ‘Functional Fit Theory of the family, in which he argued that the extended family used to perform several functions in pre-industrial society, but as society industrialized and the smaller, nuclear family became the norm, the number of functions performed by the family declined.

This post examines the extent to which the functions of the family have changed and asks whether family functions have declined over the last 200 years. It can be used to evaluate the Functionalist perspective on the family .

This post has been written primarily for students studying the families and households topic for A-level sociology.

The functions of the family in pre-industrial society

Unit of production

Caring for the young, old sick and poor

Primary socialisation and control of children, education of children.

The stabilisation of adult personalities (I assume Parsons thought this was just as essential pre-industrialisation!)

The Functions of the family in industrial society

According to Parsons there are now just two ‘irreducible functions’ performed by the nuclear family :

primary socialisation – teaching children basic norms and values
the ‘stabilisation of adult personalities’ – providing psychological security for men and women in a stable relationship.

The changing functions of the family

Talcott Parsons was writing in 1950s, so it’s quite possible that even the two functions he identified are no longer performed by the family today (of course some people argue that the family didn’t even perform the functions he claimed they did back in the 1950s!)

To what extent have the functions of the family changed over time, and to what extent have they declined?

The family as a unit of production

Before industrialization and the growth of factory based consumption the family was also a unit of production – the family produced most of the goods it consumed itself, mainly food and clothes.

Today, the family household no longer produces its own goods for consumption. Instead, adults go out to work, earn wages and use those wages to buy food and clothes from the market.

More-over, the increase in technologically advanced products means it would be impossible today for the family-unit to produce itself many of the goods it requires to survive in modern society – so many goods require a complex division of labour with many different specialist job roles.

The family used to be the only institution which could care for dependents, however today we have a range of different services which have taken over these functions, most obviously the NHS.

Social welfare services can also intervene and remove children from parents if they believe abuse has been taking place.

Before the Education Act of 1870 children were not required to go to school, so what education many of them received had to take place within the family.

There were exceptions to this, as those from wealthier families could send their children to school.

Occupational roles also tended to be ascribed – children learned their trades from their parents, with the skills for particular trades typically being passed down from father to son.

Today, the vast majority of children go to school from the age of 4-18, with the parents taking on a secondary role in their education.

Occupations are no longer passed down from parent to child either – most children rely on the education system to give them the specific vocational skills they will need for specific jobs – occupational status today is achieved, rather than ascribed.

This was the first of Parsons’ ‘irreducible functions of the family’ – that children learn the basic norms and values of society. However, today the state can play more of a role in this where certain parents are concerned.

Sure Start is a good example of the government getting more involved in parenting and Police and social services will intervene to attempt to regulate the behaviour of young offenders.

It’s also likely that parents have less control over children today, compared to the 1950s, because of the impact of the media. It is simply harder for parents to monitor and regulate hyperreality!

The stabilisation of adult personalities

Parsons argued that nuclear families provided stability and pyscholgical security for men and women.

It is difficult to argue this today, given the low rate of marriage and high rates of relationship breakdowns and divorce.

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Four Basic Function of Family

Providing a sense of intimacy and creating strong family ties is essential in taking care of marriage and in taking care of children. Having a consistent source of intimacy and feeling as though you have a family to rely on has been shown to increase many aspects of human health. In numerous cases,“studies consistently show married couples and adults living with others to be generally healthier and have lower mortality rates than divorced, separated,and never-married individuals,”(Cohen& Strong, 2017, p.

12). To fulfill this function, it is usually as simple as being in a healthy marriage, although children are not always needed in this function they too would provide a sense of connection for each spouse in the marriage. If this function is not met, it could send a person into a very lonely and isolated state. A simple example of a family that fulfills this function could be a married couple with children who can disclose all kinds of information to each other and have a connection with each individual.

Being in a happy marriage provides more than just financial stability, it provides a sense of secureness that cannot be found in other people. The second function of a family is economic cooperation. In this function families divide roles between spouses and their children. For example, in a traditional heterosexual family, the father will most likely attend a day job while the mother and children stay home and tend to the household chores. Each individual in the household contributes to the household economy, they may do important tasks such as cleaning, cooking or fixing things around the house.

Proficient in: Family

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The way the family contributes to their household is a big factor that determines whether or not the household economy is working properly. In cases where families are not fulfilling this function, it could mean that one or both spouses are unemployed and have no financial stability which could lead to not being able to clean or cook for themselves or their children, or it could mean the individuals in the family are not contributing to their household economy and it forces others to depend only on themselves to provide. To properly fulfill this function, families need to be thinking of how they should spend their time, whether it be at a job or at home cleaning, and how to assign each role to the individuals in their family.

In a family, reproduction and socialization play a very important role in how their family will develop. Reproduction has changed drastically as technology has advanced and it allows single parents, homosexual couples and other individuals to have children instead of just heterosexual couples. When these families have children, regardless of who the parents are and how they became parents, their children will depend on them for a very long time to essentially learn how to be a person. They are born with absolutely no knowledge of the world they came into and will need to be taught how to do everything that they will need to know to grow up and be in the real world. For example parents will teach their children how to walk, speak, eat on their own and potty train them, and even after they have taught them the necessities, they are still being socialized when they go off to school or daycare.

If a family were to not fulfill this function, it could cause long-lasting damage to their children. A child who was unable to properly use the restroom or maybe had not been taught how to correctly speak, will have several setbacks when they’re placed in a school or a daycare and will need extra help. Although it may not be solely the family’s responsibility to socialize their children, they do play a large role in how their children will grow up.

The final function of the family is the assignment of social statuses and roles. From the day you were born you were a son or a daughter to your parents, if you had brothers or sisters you became a sibling. Your role in your family is not a choice, but in your younger years it is a part of your identity, and as you grow into adulthood you take on new roles such as becoming a spouse or a parent.

For example, you may grow up having to help your little brother with his homework and do the dishes every night, but as you enter adulthood you may get married and take on the role of a parent, although you are still your little brother’s sibling you don’t play the same role as you once had. If this function is not fulfilled it could lead to complicated family life. If you grew up not willing to listen to your parents or help siblings with tasks, it would cause many conflicts and affect the way your family would function daily. Although these roles may not be a choice, it is still the role you were given.

In conclusion, the family has four basic functions, to provide intimate relationships and family ties, economic cooperation, reproduction and socialization, and assignment of social statuses and roles. These functions are what allow families to thrive and properly run. If the functions are not met, or cannot be met, a family may struggle to survive. The purpose of these functions is to help maintain the well-being of the family as a whole, and as individuals.

Works Cited

Strong, Bryan, and Theodore F.. Cohen. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society. Cengage Learning, 2017.

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The Importance of Family Traditions: Connecting with our Loved Ones

This essay about family traditions examines the rituals and practices that define and strengthen family bonds across generations. It highlights how traditions vary widely but often include the celebration of holidays, shared meals, milestones, and the passing down of stories and family history. Examples like Christmas celebrations, Sunday brunches, birthday rituals, and storytelling sessions illustrate how these traditions foster a sense of identity, continuity, and belonging. The essay also discusses how family traditions adapt over time to remain relevant and meaningful, such as incorporating technology to connect with distant relatives during family gatherings. Overall, the essay underscores the importance of these traditions in maintaining family cohesion, providing stability, and reinforcing family values and culture.

How it works

Family traditions are rites or observances transmitted from one generation to the next, imparting a sense of identity, continuity, and affiliation. They wield substantial influence in shaping familial ethos and can exhibit wide variation contingent upon cultural, regional, and familial milieus. In this discourse, we shall delve into several instances of familial customs, their perpetuation, and their repercussions on familial solidarity and personal identity.

Among the most ubiquitous manifestations of familial customs is the commemoration of festivities. These span from prominent global festivities like Yuletide and the commencement of a new year to more culturally or religiously specific observances such as Deepavali or Pesach.

During Yuletide, for instance, numerous families adorn a coniferous tree, exchange tokens of esteem, and partake in a ceremonial repast. These observances not only nurture a sense of communal unity but also reinforce virtues such as magnanimity and appreciation. Festive customs wield significant potency as they demarcate a consistent temporal juncture each year for families to momentarily disengage from quotidian routines, ruminate upon their principles, and commune together.

Another prevalent familial tradition is the custom of communal repasts, transcending the mere provision of sustenance. Routine suppers or weekly midmorning repasts on Sundays function as a linchpin for familial discourse, affording a regular opportunity for kin to engage, deliberate upon their affairs, and address any exigencies. This tradition fosters communication amidst family members and establishes a regimen that can furnish stability and solace.

Beyond diurnal or seasonal rites, many families also harbor customs intertwined with milestones such as natal anniversaries, matrimonial unions, or academic accolades. These frequently entail particular rites of passage that extol an individual’s transition from one phase of life to another. For instance, a family might uphold the tradition of sowing a sapling on each progeny’s inaugural natal anniversary as an emblem of expansion and vitality. Such customs not only eulogize individual triumphs but also reinforce the collective succor of the familial collective, reminding each constituent that they partake in an uninterrupted continuum.

In addition to festivities, numerous families perpetuate traditions of narrativizing or the bequeathal of consequential familial history and sagas. Whether through oral chronicles exchanged beside a hearth, visual retrospections perused during reunions, or culinary formulas imparted from progenitor to progeny, these customs sustain the familial legacy. They instill a sense of dignity and identification, connecting contemporary generations to their antecedents and furnishing them with a profound comprehension of their lineage.

Family traditions, however, are not immutable. They transmute as families burgeon and evolve, and as societal conventions shift. This adaptability is imperative for customs to persist pertinent and captivating for burgeoning generations. For instance, as technology ingrains itself further into quotidian existence, many families incorporate video conferences into conventional festive gatherings to encompass remote kin, modifying antiquated observances to contemporary existence.

In summation, family traditions are an indispensable constituent of the tapestry that constitutes familial existence. They furnish a framework for how familial constituents engage with one another, celebrate collectively, and impart values from one generation to the next. Whether it entails assembling for a repast, bedecking a festive arboreal fixture, or transmitting narratives, these customs enrich familial affiliations and individual identities. They furnish continuity in a realm of flux, mooring individuals to a collective past while shepherding them into the morrow. Ergo, perpetuating familial customs is not solely about conserving history; it’s about nurturing the ties that bind families together.

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The Form and Function of the American Family

Scott yenor, summer 2018.

All political communities depend on people marrying and raising children for their perpetuation. The most obvious end of marriage is procreation, but in a free, democratic society like ours, children must also be taught within families to take on the responsibilities of freedom and citizenship if the country is to survive and thrive. Indeed, until just a generation ago, it was uncontroversial to say that the family was the cornerstone of a well-ordered political community. The general form that families should take likewise went unquestioned.

For the last half-century, America has been running a series of social experiments on the importance of the marital form. The sexual revolution and American society's new focus on individual satisfaction and self-fulfillment have resulted in a new set of political priorities. The structures of the traditional family were found to be too constricting at best, and discriminatory at worst. As a result, the government has turned away from its traditional view of the form a marriage should take — a man and a woman, bound in an enduring union, ideally raising children together. Instead, it has adopted policies that affirm and often financially support alternative forms of family life. While the importance of the family's function is too obvious to deny, the traditional marital form has been demoted to one of several options.

This change has flowed from the progressive and libertarian emphasis on individual rights, which ignores the attendant duties that allow a free society to function. This way of thinking takes much about human behavior for granted. The devaluation, or the elimination, of the marital form makes sense only if one takes the view that society can assume the continuation of responsible human action absent the structures that have historically shaped those actions. In other words, proponents of this view assume that the state's interest in the "function" of encouraging people to have children and raise them responsibly will be met in the absence of the "form" — even as they cease to prioritize the only institution recognized by the state for the purpose of having and raising children.

The results have not been positive. Analysts now worry about the problem of two Americas, divided by marriage. Children from married, intact families tend to get more education and earn higher wages than children from broken families. The problem compounds as children from successful families tend to marry those from similarly successful families and perpetuate their success, while children from broken families tend to replicate their own parents' choices. For the first time in our history, we seem to have established distinct (though still permeable) social and economic classes, and the dividing line is the marital form. Where the traditional marital form remains strong, men remain relatively more engaged, women relatively more interested in having children, and parents comparatively more responsible in the raising of children. Where the marital form has dissolved, there are fewer children, fewer lasting relationships, less responsible parenting, less industriousness, fewer people making choices for the long term, and more violence.

Civil governments have an interest in promoting marriage, procreation, and responsible parenthood, but they are limited in how they can achieve these interests. The state cannot and should not require people to marry, have children, or stop having children. In general, it cannot tell parents how to raise their children. The incongruity between government's great interests in marriage and family and its inability to promote them has consigned the subjects of marriage and family life to the shadows of today's political theory. Political communities must rediscover the importance of families and protect a form of marriage and family life that can accomplish the indispensable goals of having children and raising them to be good citizens.

STATE INTEREST

The American founders recognized the central role that families would play in facilitating democracy. Beyond procreation, the morality and responsibility required of citizens in this new democracy had to be instilled in the home, particularly through the example of parental behavior. John Adams was unequivocal, writing in 1778 that the "foundation of national morality must be laid in private families." Parents shape the affections and beliefs of their children, with profound implications for their life courses and for the character of the political community. The state thus has a clear interest in the establishment and support of families, specifically in protecting children and maintaining enduring bonds between men and women. The accomplishment of those interests depends on a distinct protection for marital and parental rights, and the maintenance of marital forms conducive to the exercise of marital and parental duties.

American law through the 1960s promoted the state's interests in supporting families through the protection of marital and parental rights and through the protection of a monogamous, enduring, exclusive marital form between a man and a woman. While this protection was vital for maintaining the family form, marriage law did not always respect modern notions of equal citizenship for women. For example, from the American founding until the early-20th century, parental rights were attached to marital rights in the now-discredited legal regime of marital coverture, wherein women lost their legal identity in marriage. Under marital coverture, husbands covered — had authority over and responsibility for — wives and parents covered children for the purposes of state recognition. As a practical matter, this meant the state recognized family property in a man's name, restricted women's voting, and assumed that husbands were responsible for family debts, among other things.

This double-layered coverture — parents covering children and husbands covering wives — attempted to meet the challenge of legally recognizing the family as a single unit. It recognized families through recognizing particular persons — husbands and fathers — as heads of households, with the assumption that beneath male headship existed a community of sorts. Changes in law and opinion led to wifely coverture being legislated away piece by piece from 1850 to 1920, ending with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Women could own property apart from their husbands and thereby gained independence from their roles as wives and mothers.

From the state's perspective, the elimination of marital coverture resulted in a new need to recognize couples exercising joint responsibility for children and other common concerns. Birth parents still assume legal guardianship and fiduciary power over their children. They must feed, clothe, and house children; failure to do so constitutes neglect. Parents control the property, gifts, and labor of children, and take joint responsibility when children cause damage. Today, the state limits the powers of parental coverage when it insists that parents immunize their children, for instance, or requires that children be educated.

At the family level, the joint approach rearranged expectations in marriage. The move from coverture to what I call "jointness" seems to be a move from "obedience to intimacy," as historian Stephanie Coontz suggests. Couples settle disagreements not by paternal authority but through common consent without state involvement. Spousal harmony, it is hoped, increases with the promotion of spousal equality — which increases the need for harmony — leading to friendlier, more loving, and more sympathetic marriages known as "companionate" marriages. As the law recognizes husbands and wives independently of marriage, spouses have more freedom and independence from one another. This more egalitarian joint form can still be monogamous, exclusive, enduring, and centered on raising children, but the joint approach seems to be more elastic regarding how husbands and wives share duties within marriage.

Joint marriages, because they are more flexible, are also less stable and more complex. Since personal feelings came in large part to determine the success of a marriage, divorce has become far more common. Divorce, in turn, complicates the parental coverage of children. Custody after divorce may be "joint," but it is often not fully shared. Children of divorce must adjust to two different ways of parenting, two different households with different value systems, and, sometimes, hostility between custodians. Under such circumstances, the state will at times step in to resolve an issue, for instance, when parents disagree about how to educate their children or how to define support.

The more complicated marital structures or living arrangements are, the more difficulty civil government has in deciding who has parental rights and in enforcing parental cover, support, and obligation. New efforts to separate marriage, procreation, and parenthood have led to a thicket of problems, as the state attempts to define marriage and parenthood according to contemporary social demands. Left by the wayside are the state's old priorities of providing space and protection for families to raise good citizens, thereby perpetuating republican self-government.

The new priorities of recent decades, in line with an aggressive liberalism and libertarianism, are blind or hostile toward any serious reflection on the role of the family in ensuring the survival of our democracy. Of the utmost importance for these versions of liberalism is the recognition of people as autonomous beings who must be able to choose their lifestyles and identities without interference from anything outside their wills, including the government or public opinion. "Marital freedom" is the core of the left's contemporary marriage agenda; implicit in that agenda is the assumption that securing choice and options for the adults involved is the ultimate end of marital policy. It follows, then, that "taking rights seriously," as Ronald Dworkin writes, demands that government maximize individual freedom through recognizing all lifestyle choices equally and providing them with equal and tangible public support. Such support consists in channeling benefits through marriage, which is now defined far more loosely than ever before, including marriage between individuals of the same sex.

Contemporary liberals also see the need to re-engineer marriage and family life, since marital relationships can produce inequalities and habits that limit the choices of the individuals in those relationships, especially women. That re-engineering entails minimizing the effects of gender on the experience of marriage and family life, and cultivating a spirit of economic and emotional independence for those involved in a marriage. The logical end to these arguments, as political scientist Tamara Metz and legal scholar Martha Fineman have suggested, may ultimately be the end of legal recognition for marriage altogether.

The libertarian iteration of this view similarly would have government remove obstacles and maximize all individuals' freedom to choose. In an imagined republic of choice, individuals may, if they choose, marry and form families. The libertarian state, however, would not bestow any special privileges upon married couples. It would simply enforce marriage contracts as spouses define them the same way it enforces other contracts. Individuals would be free to form whatever marriages they want, regardless of the sex, number, or purpose of the union, and to take on the duties of parenthood, or not, as they choose.

Both species of thought hold that any number of forms can be consistent with care for children or satisfaction for adults, so each counsels a full-fledged state retreat from support for a particular, favored marital form. The libertarian Steve Horwitz, for instance, criticizes traditionalists for failing to "distinguish between the form families take and their ability to function ." Similarly, Metz and other contemporary liberals embrace the idea of "disestablishing" marriage, because, through the establishment of a particular form, the state is involved in "defining, inculcating, and supporting...institutional arrangements" that promote and rely on certain beliefs about the public goals of marriage and the responsibilities of those within families. For liberals, this is an illegitimate use of state power.

Libertarians and contemporary liberals would limit the state's recognition of marriage, for now, to support for "close, personal relationships" (though it is unclear what interest the state has in promoting intimate relationships, close or otherwise). Contemporary liberals and libertarians either believe that form is unrelated to function, or that the functions of marriage are so nebulous and various, being defined by each individual, that almost any way of organizing one's life with another can accomplish them. Either way, government must ignore the question of form.

These thinkers ignore the way of the world: Form follows function and function follows form, and the function of having and raising children is best accomplished through the active engagement of married, biological parents. Marital and familial forms structure marital expectations, parental rights, and a conception of marital and parental duties. Focusing on matters of function and ignoring questions of form allows liberal and libertarian theorists to ignore institutions that mediate between individuals and the state. Such neglect reflects a principled unwillingness to consider what might be necessary, in the long term, to maintain our political institutions and to prepare individuals for citizenship.

THE MARITAL FORM

Despite the many varieties of oppression that contemporary liberals and libertarians have identified in the government's historical recognition of certain forms of marriage, the state has in fact pursued its interest in a well-raised future citizenry indirectly . Indirect government action is often misunderstood: In this case, it refers to the creation of a protected space in which citizens can pursue a common life in a private family. The state provides a legal framework that protects rights so that important duties can be better executed, and it protects the time-tested, joint marital form that connects rights to related duties. By providing this protection, the state accomplishes its valid interest in self-perpetuation through new generations of good citizens.

Indirection has been used by governments throughout modern history. States protect or shield many of the great institutions of civil society — private property, educational corporations, economic enterprises, and religious organizations, for example — in the hope that they will produce indispensable public goods, such as prosperity, civic knowledge, and self-governing citizens.

James Madison's discussion of property in Federalist No. 10 is illustrative. Instead of directly shaping people's faculties and talents, Madison counsels protecting the products of their faculties and talents. "[T]he first object of government," Madison writes, is the protection of the diverse and unequal "faculties" of citizens. Faculties come from a person's innate abilities, acquired talents, background, and education. According to Madison, the "different degrees and kinds of property" immediately result from "the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property."

Government can ably delineate and police the boundaries of property and thereby provide a framework of stability and protection within which people can cultivate their faculties. By protecting private property, governments create a legal environment within which people can pursue natural inclinations, and thereby create useful inventions and economic prosperity. (This indirect protection of property — instead of directing the faculties and talents of citizens toward specific aims — also avoids a host of problems related to government competence and legitimacy.) Much the same logic applies to the founders' protection of the rights of conscience, which provides space for vibrant religious life and practice; that religious life in turn helps to provide the moral foundations for the republic.

The policy of indirection that protects marital rights promotes the formation of marriage and secures its integrity, so the individuals in a marriage can pursue a common life with some confidence. For mothers and fathers, the protection of parental rights provides space for having and educating children, enabling parents to fulfill their duties. The protection of such rights has required different actions by legislatures and courts at different times and in different situations. For example, it can mean shielding parents from laws intruding into the proper sphere of parental independence, like laws that all but prohibit home-schooling, the mandatory-sterilization laws from the Progressive Era, or recent laws that limit legitimate parental discretion in matters of gender identity.

Indirection is effective when citizens have a sense of duty leading to responsible action to fill the space that civil government protects. Duties attach to, and derive from, institutions such as marriage, which themselves are not solely products of human choice. Duty is an obligation that at times constrains passion or can demand the performance of a task even when that performance goes against one's immediate desire or interest. Duties are essential to marriage and the family, and involve getting married and staying married, having children and raising them.

Some duties can be enforced through laws (e.g., a duty to pay a tax). Duties surrounding marriage and family life — especially duties related to raising children — would be executed poorly if the country depended primarily on legal incentives to get parents to take care of their children (though parental neglect is indeed against the law in every state in the union) or required spouses to cherish one another. Laws are indirectly relevant to marital and parental duties. Duties associated with marriage and family life more often arise from conscience and religious obligation, like the duty of marital fidelity or to be "fruitful and multiply." Duties may also arise from nature, from predominant habits, mores, and opinions, or from a worry about shaming oneself or one's family. In any event, duties arise from a form of marriage that channels nature, shapes habits, molds opinions, and grounds obligations.

The predominant understanding of marriage in any society supplies a notion of duty that tutors interests and passions. The marital form shapes and guides our understanding of which passions should be followed and what is in our interests, of what is right and what is wrong. Because of the institutional form, duties thus appear to be, and indeed often are, in one's interest and consistent with one's desires.

The forms that marriage and family life take are important because human passions and interests can point in any number of directions. So when discussing the family as an institution, it is vital to account for the complexity of passions and interests involved in having children, raising children, and attaching adults (especially men) to family life. Too many policymakers, especially those of a progressive or libertarian bent, take for granted that people will continue to act responsibly in the absence of the structures that define the duties that attach to all their rights. However, divorced from traditional forms that give meaning to family life and its attendant responsibilities, marriage and family become options that are easily forgone for other lifestyles. Women become mother material, men become father material, and both become marriage material when they understand their desires and interests in light of a more traditional marital form.

It need not be like this. For example, there is no natural duty for women to reproduce, though many women have a natural inclination to have children, and many religious traditions encourage it. Having a child requires great personal sacrifices during a time in life when young women have great individual vibrancy and many appealing lifestyle options. Likewise, raising a child requires tremendous investments of time and treasure. Many parents bear these costs gladly, but no society can rely exclusively on parental feeling to accomplish such goals; duty and passion do not perfectly align, and creatures with limited time on earth must give priority to some natural passions over others.

These passions often present more of a challenge when it comes to men. Because mothers can know their children biologically and nurture them physically, motherhood has a more obvious natural basis than fatherhood; this physical connection provides a sturdier foundation for the exercise of duties. Men often seem more interested in sexual satisfaction, personal ambition, and vainglorious violence than in nurturing children. Fatherhood appears, as James Q. Wilson notes, to be more influenced by culture and opinions about what is honorable and noble. A political community has to find a way to get enough adults to prioritize parenthood so that enough children are reared to responsible adulthood to secure the perpetuation and health of the regime.

For modern governments, the solution to the challenges of having children, prioritizing parenthood, and cultivating male responsibility involves attaching husbands to wives and children through the promotion of an enduring, exclusive, monogamous, joint marital form. "Jointness" marriages are, even with the ongoing decomposition of the marital form, still the most likely to produce children. Marriage provides a stable union within which women are most likely to feel secure and supported so that they can depend on the provision and assistance of a husband; this fosters both procreation and an investment in a child's education. A monogamous marriage between a man and woman is the form of marriage most likely to coincide with a trusting equality resembling friendship that allows two people to live a common life.

Consensual, monogamous marriage attaches the wandering male to a wife and family. Jointness marriage tends to tame domineering tendencies, predominantly among men, since husband and wife must form and maintain a partnership. Men, uninvolved in the actual birthing of children, often find their importance in providing support to their families. A man's identity comes to be melded with responsibility, and his ambition becomes more likely to be directed toward the good of his family; this responsible support can, when the jointness form is honored or practiced, win him public approval. Within the context of marriage, a man is more likely to take responsibility for his children as a means of keeping and deepening marital harmony and out of genuine concern for the future of each child and for the happiness of his wife. Thus, a man's duty comes to match his understanding of his interest and passions. This transforms men's sexual desires into a desire to care for a particular child and mother.

Since marital forms shape how people understand their interests and prioritize their passions, the state has an interest in promoting some forms at the expense of others. Alternative marital forms — such as polygamy or severe patriarchy — tend to undermine the affection, consent, marital friendship, and trust central to a well-functioning marriage. The society's interests in procreation, education, and tutoring male sexual ambition are not promoted as well under these forms. Men and women are both prone to adultery and discontent under polygamous arrangements, and children are less well prepared for self-government.

Likewise, today's dissolved marital form, in which relationships do not need to endure and do not call forth as many demands from parents, fails to provide adequate provision for lasting relationships, tends to produce fewer children with less capacity for self-government. The dissolved marital form also guides parents toward personal independence rather than toward allowing their own interests to become those of their family.

Despite the unsettling changes in marriage and family life, many people still marry, have children, and raise them to be responsible citizens. Nature can point to marriage. Many, perhaps most, human beings desire sex with members of the opposite sex and want intimate, enduring relationships, so traditional marriage has a natural basis. Human beings desire to live beyond themselves and to express their love for another concretely, so procreation has a natural basis. Human beings want to care for children and to take on responsibilities, so parental education of children has a natural basis. (Of course, the line from some of these natural desires to duty is more direct in some instances than in others.)

The state's policy of indirection depends on the attractiveness of translating these experiences toward marriage. Some people find fulfillment in being married, having children, and raising them no matter what, while for others, marrying, having children, and raising them is never going to be the right choice. Mores and laws can make a difference for those who don't feel very strongly either way. If laws and public opinion are hostile to family life, then we should expect fewer marriages, fewer children, and less parental involvement in the education of children. Alternatively, a favorable environment will encourage more of this behavior.

For example, the presence of strong religious beliefs does much to point natural passions toward the discharge of duties. Evidence today suggests that those who faithfully attend church services are more likely to marry and stay married, have children, and invest significant time and resources in the education of their children. On this score, duty and responsibility seem to come from outside of liberal principles in a manner that reinforces what the state hopes to achieve indirectly. But communities that are friendly to families encourage dutiful family behavior.

In contrast, modern feminism has done much to affect our understanding of duties, in law and through public opinion. Some feminist thinkers and activists would point women toward independence from marriage and family life and away from feelings of maternal duty. While some feminists advocate extreme views about the oppression of motherhood, more diplomatic feminists have succeeded in slowly educating women (and men) away from an appreciation for the joys and duties of family life. This new education involves changing mores and expectations and elevating other human goods such as independence and careers, while dethroning motherhood and family life generally. When the cultural environment tells women to "lean in" to meaningful work and to resist allowing the duties of family life to get in the way of their professional ambitions, fewer women (and men) will be interested in taking advantage of the marital and parental rights afforded them.

Whether this slow re-education constitutes a suppression of nature or an exchange of one culture for another (or both), these new values might win out over the mutual dependence and community of marriage that ground parental duties. If that is the case, parental rights, though legally secure, will likely be exercised less often and perhaps become decreasingly important. Just as property rights and the rights of conscience are most vulnerable when fewer people own property or practice their faith, parental rights will become vulnerable when fewer avail themselves of those rights or are interested in the attendant duties.

STATE ACTION AND THE EXERCISE OF RESPONSIBILITY

The state's policy of indirection depends on the attractiveness of the family experience, as people must choose it for themselves. Defenders of that policy therefore have a responsibility to encourage a public view of family responsibilities as high duties, by ensuring that they are supported and reinforced through interest, conscience, and public morality.

In particular, government respect for familial integrity must involve maintaining a public morality that is, among other things, conducive to marriage and family life. To do this, civil government must respect the tasks and responsibilities that families can effectively discharge, and honor those who live responsibly within marriages and families. Civil society itself should find ways of honoring and supporting marriage and family life through independent initiatives and by shaping a favorable public opinion.

Given our political and cultural environment, restoring the traditional, joint marital form to its former position as the only recognized family form is unlikely, whatever its social benefits. Yet even in our current environment, there are some ways in which government could support marriage and childrearing with policies of indirection, protecting rights and supporting duties for the public goods that family life provides.

To start, we should continue to use the law to sustain public morality. Passions are guided by public morality or mores: the community's general sense of right and wrong, and its opinions about what is honorable, shameful, acceptable, advantageous, and just. Public morality is largely, though not exclusively, shaped by laws. Civil government should therefore enact laws that shape an environment where duties can more easily be recognized and practiced. Laws regulating obscenity, some forms of gambling, public displays of explicit pornography, prostitution, drug use, polygamy, incest, violations of the age of consent, public nudity, or indecency continue to discourage and stigmatize actions that might further disrupt devoted monogamous marriage and corrupt erotic sensibilities. Laws proscribing such actions, particularly at the state and local levels, continue to broadly discourage ways of life inimical to monogamous love and responsible parenthood. These laws protect marriage indirectly by contributing to an environment in which the kinds of love, responsibility, and character central to marital life are more likely to flourish.

In creating family policy directly, lawmakers must always bear in mind the unintended consequences of too much intervention — specifically for policies that change the way parents view their degree of responsibility for their children. There is relatively little that can be done from a policy perspective to increase the birth rate, but the potential for harming the moral framework of the family is significant.

Most policy proposals for promoting marriage and family life today take an economic view. Some imagine that reducing the costs of parenting will encourage more people to assume the duties of parenthood. Policymakers have suggested a number of ways to go about this: reducing the skyrocketing cost of parenting through a variety of adjustments to our tax code; relieving parents of burdens and duties that might free them to afford children or find a better work-life balance; or removing costly duties or functions from the family, such as paying for college.

Reducing the costs of parenthood would support families, of course, but the available evidence suggests such proposals are unlikely to fundamentally shape people's choices about marriage and childbearing. The decision to have children proceeds more from habits of the heart than from the pocketbook. If people value their wealth, careers, or independence more than they want to embrace parenthood and its attendant duties, there will be fewer children and fewer marriages no matter how much the government tries to reduce the financial burdens. Throughout the modern world, countries with historically high standards of living and generous social benefits have declining birth rates.

Policymakers should tread lightly in considering such benefits. As Alexis de Tocqueville warns near the end of Democracy in America , a government must be wary of "abusing its agility and force," either through usurping the rights of people to act together or through assuming duties that otherwise belong to individuals or families. Government today is at least as likely to assume or usurp parental and marital duties as to attack parental and marital rights. Furthermore, much state aid conceives of children as burdens, reinforcing the idea that children are simply burdens.

As our government becomes more and more like the "detailed, regular, far-seeing, and mild" one that Tocqueville foresaw, citizens are tempted to allow the state to deliver the necessities around which a household is organized. At some point, removing duties and responsibilities weakens the family more than it strengthens it. Removing all the burdens of parenthood may, paradoxically, encourage people to invest less in their families. A public that asks parents to provide only psychological and emotional support to their children may thus have greater problems engaging parents. A better conception sees children as responsibilities over which concerned parents must exercise thoughtful discretion regarding significant questions of human destiny. Laudable proposals that mitigate the costs of marriage and family life must respect the idea that marriage and family life necessarily involve bearing burdens and exercising responsibility.

As a matter of policy, this might entail small steps, such as involving parents more in a child's formal education through school-choice programs or alternative schooling. The creation of government-run schooling, begun in the late 1880s nationwide, coincided with the decline of marriage and birth rates. Choice programs presume the capacity and involvement of parents; it is possible they may also encourage such capacity and involvement.

Any effective family policy must also recognize that economic incentives do not explain the gamut of human motivations. Indeed, most people govern themselves largely by implicit reference to public opinions about what is honorable and dishonorable, especially when it comes to family life. Today, public opinion concerns itself far more with protecting and celebrating individual rights than duties and responsibilities. The problem of recognizing duty as a good thing, then, is largely a cultural one, and the responsibility for honoring the dutiful must fall to civil society.

Much of this work must therefore be done through society's intermediate institutions, such as churches, and within families themselves. For instance, 50th wedding anniversaries are happy occasions where family and friends celebrate long-married couples. Perhaps couples should make additional efforts to broadcast the happiness and fulfillment that come from a lifetime of adjustment, caring, and responsibility. Philanthropists spend much time supporting college scholarships and expanding opportunities for youth as a way of promoting laudable activities in self-advancement and higher education. Perhaps similar efforts could be directed to honoring those who have well-established families with many children who themselves have married and had children.

FORM AND FUNCTION

Discussing the American people's characteristic philosophical method, Tocqueville describes how Americans "scorn forms, which they consider as useless and inconvenient veils placed between them and the truth." Scorn and hatred for forms comes from the aspiration for "easy and present enjoyments." Perhaps those who scorn the marital form hope that adults can live together in love without marriage and that children will be cared for regardless of how their parents relate to one another.

Yet forms embody a collective wisdom that channels individual passions toward the healthy exercise of duty. Forms provide beneficial results for most of society, though they may misfire in some cases and may not be necessary in every case. Forms elevate and extend people's interests toward long-term projects and toward thinking about one's long-term happiness and interests, leading to more responsible decision-making. A political community that protects the marital form exhibits a responsible deference to the wisdom of generations past, and a manifest understanding of human weakness. It is difficult for people to understand these benefits through autonomous reason or by consulting present pleasure.

Tocqueville also wrote that forms "serve as a barrier between the strong and the weak." Forms constitute salutary restraints that elevate those most in need of assistance by giving people an image of how life should be led. People who might be taken with irresponsible exercises of passion or who would forgo forging long-lasting relations with their children can be tutored to their long-term interests through marital forms. Overwhelming evidence shows that the weak and vulnerable are especially at risk when marriage declines. Without a publicly approved marital form, fewer women have children, and fewer adults marry. Without the marital form, men who might have been providers return to wandering — unattached, irresponsible, lacking industriousness, and seeking honor in socially destructive ways.

Indirect support for the joint marital form may be offensive to some who value marital freedom above all else. Yet all should remember that indirect support for marital and parental rights is designed to promote indispensable public goods in a non-coercive way. Such indirect support is consistent with our society's dedication to tolerance, and its interest not only in securing the blessings of liberty for our posterity, but also in ensuring that we have a posterity for which to provide.

Scott Yenor is a professor of political science at Boise State University and author of Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought (Baylor, 2011) and David Hume’s Humanity (Palgrave, 2016).

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11.3: Sociological Perspectives on the Family

Learning Objectives

Social Functions of the Family

The Family and Conflict

Families and Social Interaction

For Your Review

Functionalist Perspective on the Family

Key Takeaways

The Functionalist View of Society

Functions of the Family in Pre-Industrial Society

The tasks and the needs that the family structure could fulfill in pre-industrial society included:

Murdock’s Four Functions of the Nuclear Family

2. Reproduction

3. Socialization

4. Economic Needs

Parsons: Functions of the Nuclear Family

1. Primary Socialization

2. The Stabilization of Adult Personalities

Parsons: Functional Fit Theory

Criticisms of the Functionalist Perspective on the Family

The Importance of Family: a Foundation for Life

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Article contents

Introduction

Family: Theoretical Perspectives

Family Communication Patterns Theory

Dyadic Power

The Role of Culture in Parenting Socialization of Values

Intercultural Families: Adding Cultural Differences to Interparental Communication

An Example of Intercultural Parenting: The Thai Family

The Case of Hispanic/Latino Families in the United States

Culture and Family Communication: the “so what?” Question

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