According to the Functionalist Theory of family, one of the major function of family is to act as a primary agent of socialization, and a key site of physical protection and emotional support for its members. A traditional nuclear family is a family unit consisting of two legally married parents of opposite gender and their one or more biological or adopted children living together. In general, a traditional nuclear family paints a picture of the ideal family in the United States. This picture of the family, while is conventional in the past, is not widely supported by the actual proportion of a sizeable number of American families today. Family stability has been defined in many ways. Traditionally, many researchers defined family stability
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According to the Annual Review of Sociology, 40% of couples break up within five years of cohabitation. About 10% remain in an unmarried relationship for five years or more. If a child is born out of this cohabitation, the child is born outside of marriage– in other words, the child is illegitimate. According Charles Murray, author of The Emerging British Underclass, illegitimacy “is the best predictor of an underclass in the making” . Murray believes that illegitimate children are more likely to grow up in undesirable environment such that they become part of an underclass- delinquency, crime, school dropout, unemployed and so forth. According to Murray, a child that lack a father presence (most illegitimate children are brought up by their mothers only) is associated with physical unruliness. They are rude, inconsiderate and were not raised properly . This could be due to a decrease in parental supervision, care and discipline. Even if the cohabitation couple do not break up and the child is brought up in the family where both biological parents are present but unmarried, it may not be the same environment as a child brought up in a family where the parents are married. The lack of marriage may suggest the unwillingness to commit to the relationship and to the child’s upbringing. This supports the view that deviation away from a traditional nuclear family leads to instability of the family which is undesirable for proper upbringing of a
According to the Annual Review of Sociology, 40% of couples break up within five years of cohabitation. About 10% remain in an unmarried relationship for five years or more. If a child is born out of this cohabitation, the child is born outside of marriage– in other words, the child is illegitimate. According Charles Murray, author of The Emerging British Underclass, illegitimacy “is the best predictor of an underclass in the making” . Murray believes that illegitimate children are more likely to grow up in undesirable environment such that they become part of an underclass- delinquency, crime, school dropout, unemployed and so forth. According to Murray, a child that lack a father presence (most illegitimate children are brought up by their mothers only) is associated with physical unruliness. They are rude, inconsiderate and were not raised properly . This could be due to a decrease in parental supervision, care and discipline. Even if the cohabitation couple do not break up and the child is brought up in the family where both biological parents are present but unmarried, it may not be the same environment as a child brought up in a family where the parents are married. The lack of marriage may suggest the unwillingness to commit to the relationship and to the child’s upbringing. This supports the view that deviation away from a traditional nuclear family leads to instability of the family which is undesirable for proper upbringing of a