Family issues – Study material

Family issues – Study material

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children.

As a unit of socialisation and a basic institution key to the structure of society, the family is the object of analysis for sociologists of the family. In science, the term "family" has come to be used as a means to classify groups of objects as being closely and exclusively related. In the study of animals it has been found that many species form groups that have similarities to human "family" – often called "packs".

From the perspective of children, the family is a family of orientation: the family serves to locate children socially and plays a major role in their enculturation and socialization. From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a family of procreation, the goal of which is to produce and enculturate and socialize children.

Family types:

• A conjugal family includes only the husband, the wife, and unmarried children who are not of age. The most common form of this family is regularly referred to in sociology as a nuclear family.
• A consanguineal family consists of a parent and his or her children, and other people. The synonym is "extended family".
• A matrilocal family consists of a mother and her children. Generally, these children are her biological offspring, although adoption of children is a practice in nearly every society. This kind of family is common where women have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men are more mobile than women.

Family members:

• Mother: a female parent
• Father: a male parent
• Son: a male child of the parent(s)
• Daughter: a female child of the parent(s)
• Brother: a male child of the same parent(s)
• Sister: a female child of the same parent(s)
• Grandfather: father of a father or mother
• Grandmother: mother of a mother or father
• Cousins: two people that share the same Grandparent(s)

Such systems generally assume that the mother's husband has also served as the biological father. In some families, a woman may have children with more than one man or a man may have children with more than one woman. The system refers to a child who shares only one parent with another child as a "half-brother" or "half-sister." For children who do not share biological or adoptive parents in common, English-speakers use the term "stepbrother" or "stepsister" to refer to their new relationship with each other when one of their biological parents marries one of the other child's biological parents. Any person (other than the biological parent of a child) who marries the parent of that child becomes the "stepparent" of the child, either the "stepmother" or "stepfather." The same terms generally apply to children adopted into a family as to children born into the family.

In the western society the single parent family has been growing more accepted and has begun to truly make an impact on culture. The majority of single parent families are more commonly single mother families than single father. These families face many difficult issues besides the fact that they have to rear their children on their own, but also have to deal with issues related to low income. Many single parents struggle with low incomes and must cope with other issues, including rent, child care, and other necessities required in maintaining a healthy and safe home.

Members of extended family:

• An infant, his mother, his maternal grandmother, and his great-grandmother.
• Grandparent
• Grandfather: a parent's father
• Grandmother: a parent's mother
• Grandson: a child's son
• Granddaughter: a child's daughter
• For collateral relatives, more classificatory terms come into play, terms that do not build on the terms used within the nuclear family:
• Uncle: father's brother, mother's brother, father's/mother's sister's husband
• Aunt: father's sister, mother's sister, father's/mother's brother's wife
• Nephew: sister's son, brother's son, wife's brother's son, wife's sister's son, husband's brother's son, husband's sister's son
• Niece: sister's daughter, brother's daughter, wife's brother's daughter, wife's sister's daughter, husband's brother's daughter, husband's sister's daughter
• Great grandparents
• Cousin: the most classificatory term; the children of aunts or uncles.
• Grandchild
• Great-grandchild
• Great-great-grandparent
• English-speakers mark relationships by marriage (except for wife/husband) with the tag "-in-law". The mother and father of one's spouse become one's mother-in-law and father-in-law.
• The female spouse of one's child becomes one's daughter-in-law and the male spouse of one's child becomes one's son-in-law. The term "sister-in-law" refers to three essentially different relationships, either the wife of one's sibling, or the sister of one's spouse, or, in some uses, the wife of one's spouse's sibling. "Brother-in-law" expresses a similar ambiguity. No special terms exist for the rest of one's spouse's family.
• The terms "half-brother" and "half-sister" indicate siblings who share only one biological or adoptive parent.

Examples of specific issues looked at include:

• Changing roles of family members. Each member is restricted by the sex roles of the traditional family, these roles such as the father as the worker and the mother as the homemaker are declining, the mother is becoming the supplementary provider and she retains the responsibilities of child rearing. The gender roles are increasingly interwoven.
• Increase in sole occupancy dwellings and smaller family sizes.
• Average age of marriage being older.
• Average number of children decreasing and first birth at later age.
• The historical pattern of fertility. From baby boom to baby bust (instability)
• The ageing population. The trend towards greater life expectancy.
• Rising divorce rates and people who will never marry.
• How the choices of the parents affect their children.
• Same Sex Couples and Marriages.
• Children of same sex couples.

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony.

People marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious. These might include arranged marriages, family obligations, the legal establishment of a nuclear family unit, the legal protection of children and public declaration of commitment.

Marriage practices are very diverse across cultures, yet almost every known society has had some form of marriage between a man and a woman. In some societies an individual is limited to being in one such couple at a time (monogamy), while other cultures allow a male to have more than one wife (polygyny) or, less commonly, a female to have more than one husband (polyandry). Some societies also allow marriage between two males or two females. Societies frequently have other restrictions on marriage based on the ages of the participants, pre-existing kinship, and membership in religious or other social groups.

The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved. In some societies these obligations also extend to certain family members of the married persons. Almost all cultures that recognize marriage also recognize adultery as a violation of the terms of marriage, and forbid incestuous marriages. In cultures that allow the dissolution of a marriage this is known as divorce.

Marriage is usually recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both. It is often viewed as a contract. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution irrespective of religious affiliation, in accordance with marriage laws of the jurisdiction. If recognized by the state, by the religion(s) to which the parties belong or by society in general, the act of marriage changes the personal and social status of the individuals who enter into it.

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.

While many parents cooperate when it comes to sharing their children and resort to mediation to settle a dispute, not all do. Court filings quickly fill with mutual accusations by one parent against the other, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, brain-washing, parental alienation syndrome, sabotage, and manipulation.

Physical custody involves the day-to-day care of a child and establishes where a child will live. A parent with physical custody has the right to have his/her child live with him/her.

• If a child lives with both parents, each parent shares “joint physical custody” and each parent is said to be a “custodial parent”. In joint physical custody, actual lodging and care of the child is shared.
• If a child lives with one parent, that parent has “sole physical custody” and is said to be the “custodial parent” whereas the other parent is said to be the “non-custodial parent”, but may have visitation rights or “visitation” with his/her child.

Adjusted to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_custody

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage