nuclear family

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A nuclear family is a family group consisting of only a father and mother and their children, who share living quarters. This can be contrasted with an extended family. Nuclear families can be of any size, as long as there are only children and two parents. Nuclear families meet their individual members’ basic needs because available resources are divided among only a few individuals or the family would be known as an extended family.

In China, the most populous nation in the world, the nuclear family has become the most common family arrangement.^[1] In the more urban parts of India, the second most populous nation, the number of nuclear families is overtaking other forms of family arrangements, although unpopular among Hindu orthodoxy who advocate a form of extended family structure called the joint family.^[2] In the United States, the third most populous nation, 70% of children live in traditional two-parent families.^[3].

History

Historical records indicate that it was not until the 17th and 18th centuries that the nuclear family became prevalent in Western Europe. With the emergence of Proto-industrialisation and early capitalism, the nuclear family became a financially viable social unit.^[4]

After the Second World War the United States experienced a renewed interest in 'the home' and building family units. The family unit became a symbol of security and a return to traditional gender roles. Distinct from the wartime period in which women held jobs conventional for men, the postwar era encouraged the notion that men should be the primary wage earners and women should spend their time cultivating the home and exerting their energy towards raising children.^[5]

At least one study suggests that the nuclear family is natural to Homo sapiens. A 2005 archeological dig in Elau, Germany (analyzed by professor Wolfgang Haak of Adelaide University) revealed genetic evidence suggesting that the 13 individuals found in a grave were closely related. Said Haak, "By establishing the genetic links between the two adults and two children buried together in one grave, we have established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context in Central Europe."^[6] However, even here the evidence suggests that the nuclear family was embedded with an extended family. The remains of three children (probably siblings based on DNA evidence) were found buried with a woman who was not their mother but may have been an "aunt or a step-mother."^[7]

Usage of the term

An American family composed of the mother, father, and children circa 1955

Merriam-Webster dates the term back to 1947, whilst the Oxford English Dictionary has a reference to the term from 1924, thus it is relatively new, although nuclear family structures themselves date back thousands of years.^[8][9] The term "nuclear" is used in its general meaning referring to a central entity or "nucleus" around which others collect.

In its most common usage, the term "nuclear family" refers to a household consisting of a father, a mother and their children all in one household dwelling (siblings).^[10] George Murdock also describes the term in this way:

The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults.

Some also use the term to describe single-parent households and families in which the parents are a cohabiting, unmarried couple.

Extended family compared to nuclear family

An extended family group is immediate family members living together with extra-nuclear family members such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews.

Changes to family formation

The popularity of the nuclear family in the West, as opposed to extended family living together, came about in the early 20th century, prompted in part by business practices of Henry Ford, such as the "8 hour day, $5 week", and later the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This enabled more and more families to be economically independent, and thus to own their own home.

Family arrangements in the US have become more diverse with no particular households arrangement being prevalent enough to be identified as the average; however, 70% of children in the US live in traditional two-parent families.^[11]

Current information from United States Census Bureau shows that 70% of children in the US live in traditional two-parent families, with 60% living with their biological parents, and that "the figures suggest that the tumultuous shifts in family structure since the late 1960s have leveled off since 1990.".^[12]

If considered separate from couples without children, single parent families, or unmarried couples with children, in the United States traditional nuclear families appear to constitute a minority of households with rising prevalence of other family arrangements.

Family arrangements such as blended families, binuclear families (separated spouses marrying new spouses with children), and single-parent families are typically referred to as postmodern families.

Today nuclear families with the original biological parents constitute roughly 24.1% of households, compared to 40.3% in 1970.^[11] Roughly 75% (or percent) of all children in the United States will spend at least some time in a single-parent household.^{[citation needed]}

According to some sociologists, "[The nuclear family] no longer seems adequate to cover the wide diversity of household arrangements we see today." (Edwards 1991; Stacey 1996). A new term has been introduced, postmodern family, which is meant to describe the great variablity in family forms, including single-parent families and child-free couples."^[11]

See also

• Complex family
• Extended family
• Human bonding
• Intentional community
• Kibbutzim and families
• Sociology of the family
• Structural functionalism

References

External links

• The Family from the Hewett School Sociology Department
• The Nuclear Family from Buzzle.com