Family Life Today
CHAPTER 10: FAMILIES
Objectives
 Analyze the trends contributing to the changing
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family.
Compare functions of the family in various cultures.
Explain the relationship between family roles &
responsibilities.
List characteristics of a strong family.
Describe 6 common family structures.
Describe the 6 stages of the family cycle.
What is a family?
 Family can be defined in many ways!
 According to the US Census Bureau the term family
means a group of two or more persons, related by
blood, marriage, or adoption, who reside together in
a household.
 Families are as varied as people themselves.
The Changing Family
 Activities and functions of families of
the past are quite different than
today.
 In early history, the family hunted
and gathered in order to survive.
Family members filled roles that
provided survival. They lived in
family groups.
 As agriculture evolved, families were
able to set up permanent homes, and
become independent as a family.
The Changing Family
 The industrial revolution brought new pressures on
society and the family.
 The father was typically the main provider and the
mother was the full-time homemaker.
 People no longer worked solely for the survival of
their own family.
 The technological age continues to affect families
today.
How Families Adapt to Change
 To be effective, families must be
resilient.
 Families must be prepared to cope with
the effects of a technological society.
 Although technology makes life easier,
it presents a challenge to families at
home and at work.
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At work-must keep up the technological
advances.
At home-important family functions displaced
Family Functions in Various Cultures
 Families take many forms, but the functions they
perform are the same from culture to culture.
 Families Provide:
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Economic support
Education (religion)
Love & Affection
Nurturance
Children (procreation
Protection
Recreation
Provide Physical Needs
 To the best of their abilities, families provide
the necessities of life such as food, clothing,
shelter, furnishings, and health care.
Education
 From the moment of birth,
children are taught the ways of
their culture by their families.
 Families teach children how to
speak a language, how to take
care of themselves, and how to
get along with others.
 Families also convey their
beliefs about religion to their
children.
Provide Love & Affection
 An important family function is to provide an
emotional “safe haven” for family members. They
know their needs for love, affection, and acceptance
will be met.
Nurturance
 The family provides the
environment for nurturing the
social skills of children, which
allows them to function in the
world.
 Families teach, mostly by example,
the difference between acceptable
and unacceptable behavior. As a
result their children can take their
places as productive members of
society.
Procreation
 Through procreation
(reproduction), couples
bring the members of the
next generation into the
world.
 Although a male-female
bond forms the foundation
for parenting the family life
across cultures, marriage
forms may differ widely.
Protection
 Adult family members are responsible for
the care of all family members.
 Responsible parents provide protection from
harm, encourage good health and safety
habits, form wholesome friendships, and
avoid situations in which they are likely to
become victims of crime.
Recreation
 Sports, games, and other
recreational pursuits
provide family members
with relaxation and
physical exercise.
 These activities provide
children with
opportunities to learn
communication skills and
good sportsmanship.
Roles & Responsibilities of Family Members
 Members of families have certain roles.
 There are given and chosen roles.
 A given role is a role acquired when a
person is born into a family (son, daughter,
brother, sister)
 A chosen role is a role a person voluntarily
assumes (husband, wife, father, mother)
Roles & Responsibilities of Family Members
 Roles are defined by responsibilities.
 How well people fulfill these responsibilities
determines how well they perform their roles.
 Your role expectations for your future family are
influenced by the roles played in your family today.
 It is important to understand people’s role
expectations, especially when entering into
marriage.
Functional & Dysfunctional Families
 Functional Family – Family
system in which all family
members fulfill their roles
and responsibilities.
 Dysfunctional Family –
Family system in which one
or more family members do
not fulfill their
responsibilities, throwing the
system out of balance.
Characteristics of Strong Families
 Respect for individual uniqueness
 Trust
 Sense of play and humor
 Shared responsibility
 Ability to recognize right and wrong
 The belief in upholding family traditions
 The belief in the importance of healthy interaction
among members
 Shared belief in the importance of a religious or
philosophical foundation
Family Structures
 As society changes, new family structures
emerge.
 Today there are many different family
structures.
 There is no one best structure as long as the
family is performing its functions and
members are fulfilling its roles.
 There are six common structures.
Two-Parent Family
 Married couple and their
biological children
 Social activities often
center around the family.
 Also referred to as nuclear
family.
 Less than ¼ of American
families consist of married
couples with children.
The Single Parent Family
 Occurs as a result of divorce, separation,
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death, or having children outside of
marriage.
Growing faster than any other family
form.
About 1/8 of all families are singleparent.
Most single parents do not plan to be
single parents.
A sing parent faces the strain of being
the sole head of the household (time,
energy, money, etc.)
Parents Who are Single as a Result of Desertion,
Divorce, or Death
 Challenge of reshaping their own lives and the lives
of their children under difficult circumstances.
 Time, effort, & cooperation, of all family members to
reestablish secure family unit.
Unwed Parents
 Many unwed mothers are
choosing to keep their babies
rather than arranging for
adoption.
 A woman who keeps her baby
should recognize her true reasons
for doing so.
 Her reasons affect the way she
behaves as a mother.
 Unwed fathers can choose to raise
the child also.
Single Parents by Adoption
 A person’s background will be investigated
 The reasons for wanting to adopt will be questioned
 The person must be able to provide the child with
adult contacts of the opposite sex
The Stepfamily
 Major structure in our
society.
 Stepfamily – Family
structure in which either or
both spouses have been
married before and may
have one or more children
from the previous marriage.
 Relationships in stepfamilies
may be complicated.
The Extended Kinship Family
 Extended kinship family –
Family structure in which
several generations of a family
live together.
 More common in foreign
countries.
 Advantages
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Interaction between family members
of all age groups
Aging members have an honored
position
The Foster Family
 Foster Parenting – System that provides children
with substitute families while their parents are
unable to care for them.
 Parents may not get along, parents may be unable to
provide adequate care, children may have been
abandoned.
 Families are must be licensed and are reimbursed for
children’s expenses.
 Children come from all different backgrounds.
The Adoptive Family
 Parents become legal
parents of a child they
bring into their home.
 May have been unable to
have children on their
own.
 Most couples prefer to
adopt newborns.
 Adopting older children
may be challenging.
The Family Life Cycle
 Stages of change through which
families pass as they expand and
contract in size.
 Beginning, Childbearing, Parenting,
Launching, Middle-Years, and Aging
Stages
Beginning Stage
 Begins with the
establishment of the family
unit when the couple
marries
 Adjust to married life and
separation from parents
 Establish feeling of
interdependence
Childbearing Stage
 Birth of children and
focus turns to needs of
the children
 New responsibilities
 Interpersonal
relationships expand in
family
 Role conflicts may occur
Parenting Stage
 Reorganization of the family around school-
age children
 Parents recognize individual needs of each
child while sharing family goals
 Parent’s involved in children’s activities
 Teens seek more independence
Launching Stage
 Children leave home
(leave for college,
careers, and marriage)
 Parents refocus on
their relationship
 Parents relate to sons
and daughters as
adults
Middle-Years Stage
 Prepare for retirement
 “Empty-nest” stage
 Parents provide emotional
support as adult children
establish their own families
and careers
 Parent often become
grandparents
 Prepare for retirement
Aging Stage
 Retirement
 Focus on friendships, hobbies, interest, and
travel
 Grand-parenting continues
The End
Assignment
 Using the provided crayons and paper:
 Create a Family Collage of your immediate family
Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Grandma, Grandpa, Etc.
 You may also include others who live in your house that you are
related to.
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You will color your family based upon the following:
Blue – Blood Relative, that lives in your house
 Purple – Step Relative (step mom, dad, brother, sister, etc)
 Yellow – ½ Brother or Sister (share 1 parent)
 Green – Not Related
 Black – Blood related, but does not live in your house.
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