Family and household
A household is one person or a group living at the same address and sharing living space (for example students sharing a flat). A family is a group linked by kinship: blood, marriage, civil partnership or adoption. Most families live as a household, but not every household is a family.
Four functions of families
- Reproduction: having children so society continues.
- Socialisation: teaching children language, values and rules (primary socialisation).
- Economic: sharing income, food, housing; once also working together on farms or in workshops.
- Emotional support: love, care and a safe place to relax.
Family forms
- Nuclear: two parents and their children.
- Extended: three or more generations, or uncles, aunts and cousins, living together or close by (often called a joint family in South Asia).
- Lone-parent: one parent and children, after divorce, death, separation or by choice.
- Reconstituted (blended / step-family): partners where at least one has children from an earlier relationship.
- Same-sex families: two parents of the same sex, recognised in law in some countries.
- Beanpole: many generations alive but few children in each (tall and thin), as people live longer and have fewer children.
Which form is common depends on the economy, religion, law and culture. Industrial work and moving to cities often favoured smaller nuclear families, though extended families stay strong in many places.
Roles and relationships inside families
Conjugal roles are the jobs partners do at home.
- Segregated roles: clear split. Typically the man earns money and the woman does housework and childcare. Free time is spent apart.
- Joint roles: tasks, decisions and free time are shared.
Roles became more joint because more women work for pay, laws give equal rights, and ideas about men as carers changed. But studies keep finding a dual burden: many women do paid work and still most of the housework and emotional work.
Changing relationships
Families have become more child-centred: fewer children, more time and money spent on each, and children have more say. Grandparents often help with childcare. Young adults stay at home longer because of study and housing costs. Modernisation (industry, cities, education, women's rights) changes family life in every country, but at different speeds.
Critical views and divorce
Different views
- Functionalist: the family is a building block that keeps society stable.
- Marxist: the family serves capitalism: it passes on wealth to the rich and raises the next workers cheaply; it also makes people buy more.
- Feminist: the family can be patriarchal (male-dominated); women carry unpaid work and may face domestic violence.
- The dark side: abuse, neglect and conflict can happen inside families; the family can be isolated and too intense.
Divorce
In many countries divorce rose sharply after about 1950, then levelled off. Reasons:
- Law: divorce became cheaper and easier (no need to prove fault).
- Women's independence: paid work means women can leave unhappy marriages.
- Less stigma and secularisation: religion and shame have less hold.
- Higher expectations: people expect love and equality, not just security.
Effects: more lone-parent and reconstituted families, and more serial monogamy (several partners over a lifetime).
Key formulas and definitions
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Worked examples
1. Three university students share a flat. Are they a family, a household or both?
A household only. They share a home but are not linked by blood, marriage or adoption.
2. Riya lives with her mother, her mother's new husband and his son. Which family form is this?
A reconstituted (step- or blended) family, because one partner has a child from an earlier relationship.
3. Give two reasons why conjugal roles have become more joint.
1. More women work for pay, so tasks at home must be shared. 2. Changing ideas and laws on equality mean men are expected to cook and care for children too.
Common mistakes
- Using "family" and "household" as the same thing. A household is about the home; a family is about kinship.
- Thinking the nuclear family is the only "normal" form. Many forms exist and all are studied.
- Saying roles are now fully equal. Joint roles have grown, but women often still do more (the dual burden).
- Giving only one cause for rising divorce. Exams expect several: law, independence, stigma, expectations.