1. What Constitutes A Nuclear Family?

Improved Essays
1. What constitutes a family?

What constitutes a family or creates a family is when two people are married or related to one another and live in the same household together. According to Reiss and Lee (1988) a family has been defined as a small, usually kinship-structured group, whose key function is nurturant socialization (kotch, 2013, p. 35). What I believe constitutes a family is people who live with one another and take care of one another, whether they are related to each other or not.

2. What is a nuclear family?

The typical form of the American household is the nuclear family. Where there is a mother a father and their children. Before WWII the nuclear family believed family roles where mothers should stay home to take of the home and children, and the men were the providers meaning they would go to work to bring home the bread and butter (Kotch, 2013, p. 36). My family is much like a nuclear family, my father goes to work while my mother is a stay at home mom who cooks and cleans and makes sure that her children are well taken care of while we are still living at home.
…show more content…
Describe family trends in the historical text.

Families usually worked together on the farm to serve their economic purpose. Adult children usually lived close to their parents to where the created a multigenerational kinship community. Mothers stayed home, and fathers would go to work. Urbanization changed the way families functioned and it affected the family units. With a rapidly changing society with new roles and trends has brought changes to family structure and family life (Kotch, 2013, p. 36).

4. What factors have caused the traditional family composition to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    First, economic instability changes American family structure. According to Barbara Kingsolver in the essay “Stone Soup,” the multigenerational families accelerated during the recession and the end of World War II (143). She points out several significant incidents that happened in 1950s, such as the returning soldiers who served in the Second World War, the booming economy, the emergence of nuclear families, and the suburban families. Therefore, the economic upturn and downturn trigger to the transformation from the extended families to the traditional families. Kingsolver says, “In the last three decades, that amorphous, adaptable structure we call ‘family’ has been reshaped once more by economic tides” (143).…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The 1950's nuclear family was once ideal. How individuals view marriage has changed since then. There are more single parent homes, which could be due to more women being educated and less dependent on males. More individuals cohabit as opposed to being married like those in the 1950s. This is due to the stigma of sex outside of marriage being reduced.…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As a child, I was taught that we take history classes so that we don't repeat it. In Skolnick's article, she covers revolutions of the 60s and 70s. She starts off by talking about a big scandal of the 1960s it involves that "limiting" a women's rights. Back then the government tried to put a limit on a woman's rights, in today's society the government still tries to limit them. For instance, the recent rape case with the Stanford student, he got to go free while the girl has to live with his heinous actions.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The term ‘family’ has been one that is constantly changing with the times and the seasons of society. Many tend to fantasize about the “ideal” nuclear family in the 1950’s: a father who went to work in an office in a suit and tie, a mother who cleaned the house in heels and cooked every meal, two and a half children that were well behaved, and a house with a white picket fence. However, this image is not a true depiction of the 1950’s. Rather than seeing the restraints and precautions had on the family, individuals are swayed by this myth of a “problem free” decade. The rise of individualism, shift in gender roles and changes in the social environment has made the myth of perfection established in the 1950’s ever more impossible to attain today.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A family is defined as a small, usually kinship-ship structure group who's key functions is nurturant socialization. This was typically a nuclear household, which consist of a husband-father, wife-mother, and offspring. During world war one the tradition of families would be for the husband to provide and work for the families needs. Also the wife would stay home and prepare meals and take care of the children. These are the main ideals that constituted a family.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The definition of a family had different interpretations depending on the time frame. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the meaning of family consisted of a “larger kinship group from which they derived their claims to privilege and property” (Coontz, 36). Interesting enough, European writers in the seventeenth century described man’s family as his offspring only with his wife playing a separate role. In the 1820’s, the rise of the market economy contributed to the division of work and home. As a consequence, this created complications with the previous family structural system as families could no longer rely on the food that they grew.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Abstract The American family as an institution has been changing dramatically over the past two hundred years. This paper will be highlighting three major topics that have impacted the change in American families. The first topic being discussed is the ideal family model and how it is different from the new emerging paradigm of family. The ideal family model will be broken down into two main themes one is ideal family values from the bible and its influence on the Victorian era and the families of 1950’s America.…

    • 3042 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Family Definition Essay

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    In this day and age people feel that this definition should be broadened to include what establishes a family. In our reading assignment the current definition of families is a follows: families as relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group. (Kendall 434) This is a more appropriate definition in my opinion because families are much different in this day and age. Gay and lesbian families are more widely accepted and in some cases allowed to adopt, or they bear their own children.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the U.S., the biggest changes in the family are in its structure and changing priorities. In the past century, and particularly in recent decades, the definition of the family has widened to be inclusive of a spectrum of family structures, not just nuclear or traditional families. Less people are getting married and the divorce rate has increased, as have single parent homes and cohabitation, while birth rates have decreased. Ideas about gender roles in families have also been challenged with the women’s rights movement and the legalization of same sex marriage. There has also been an increase in interracial and interreligious marriages.…

    • 2359 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although , In the United States 66% of children under 17 today live with married parents. Theoretical view on family are family could be different to everyone, family isn’t the same for each individual. The social construct of family is destined to change. Families faces challenging problems…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Analysis Of The Fosters

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analytical Review of The Fosters The definition of family is constantly changing. There are many different types of families. People can observe different portrayal of what is family through many different outlets such as watching TV shows like The Fosters.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    When thinking of the “typical” American family or the “Nuclear Family”, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Most of the time it is one mother, one father, and both parent two children around the same age. The “Nuclear Family” is exactly that. It is a family that consists of only one mother, one father and children. Nonetheless, in the twenty first century there is no longer the presence of the nuclear family.…

    • 1903 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Family, a familiar term that can be defined in various ways. Some may define family as a group of people who are related to each other by blood, others as people who care one another. The traditional definition of family is a intimate group of two or more people who live together in a committed relationship, care for one another and any children, and share activities and close ties. I would define a family as a group of two or more people who share an emotional bond with one another, by blood or not. I will discuss my family of origin and my fictive kin.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Family it the very first relationship that we have with other people. People who consider each other to be family love each other and take care of each other. Some children are raised by their grandparents. Several people consider their friends…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Ideal Family Analysis

    • 1289 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A concept that revolves more around who an individual sees as their family, not who they 're biologically related to. This wasn 't always the case though, in the 1950 's the word family was a very exact thing, a list of requirements that had to be met in order to be classified a family. It is referred to as the the nuclear family: a father, mother, and children. That was all, simple and to the point. Today, the word family is a variety of things.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays