Family Concepts Flashcards
Family
A definitionally challenged concept. A number of definitions of family exist. Common characteristics include blood relations, descendants of an ancestor, parents and children etc. Usually definitions of the family are centred around the traditional nuclear family. Increasingly, this view of family is changing to take account of the diverse arrangements in society today.
Household
Refers to people who share a house and its facilities, who may or may not be related. E.g. university students who live together. Also includes single people living alone; single person households.
Kinship network
People related to each other by blood, marriage, cohabitation and adoption, who may be in frequent or infrequent contact with each other and who may feel a sense of obligation to each other, expressed in various forms of emotional, economic and social support.
Nuclear family
A family consisting of 2 generations (i.e. parents and children) living in the same household.
Cereal packet image
Coined by Edmund Leach – an idealised view of the n.f. which is held as the most desirable form in our society, often appearing in advertisements. (2 parents, son and daughter image) Based on the traditional family ideology.
Extended family
A family that contains relatives beyond the core of the nuclear family unit living in the same house, street or area.
Vertically extended family
A family which contains at least 3 generations (e.g. grandparents, parents and children) under the same roof or in the immediate neighbourhood.
Horizontally extended family
A family which contains aunts, uncles and cousins living under the same roof or in the immediate neighbourhood.
Modified extended family
A term coined by Litwark, who argues that despite geographical distance and social mobility, nuclear families still retain strong affective relationships (i.e. relationships that are primarily defined by emotion) with extended kinship networks, especially grandparents, via telephone, e-mail, letters and visits.
Local extended family
Kin who live separately from each other but choose to be in regular physical contact with each other.
Dispersed extended family
A network of nuclear families who are geographically distant from each other but retain frequent contact through the use of the telephone, e-mail, letters and visits.
Attenuated extended family
A network of nuclear families who tend to be geographically dispersed but who feel attached by a sense of obligation to each other. Physical contact is probably infrequent because of distance, but they have symbolic contact on birthdays, at Christmas etc. and come together in times of family crisis such as funerals or family celebrations such as weddings.
Beanpole family
Families that are very small, perhaps consisting of one or two adults and a single child, with the pattern repeated through the generations.
Marriage
A legally ratified union between a man and a woman, although in some countries, e.g. the Netherlands, it is now legally possible for people of the same sex to be married. Known as a civil partnership in the UK.
Remarriage
The act of entering another legally ratified union (marriage) after divorce.
Marital breakdown
An umbrella term that encompasses divorce, separation and empty-shell marriages.
Empty shell marriage
A form of marital breakdown in which the couple retain the legal ties but lack the characteristics such as love and intimacy that are normally associated with a happy marriage. The couple may be staying together for the sake of the children or because their religion forbids or disapproves of divorce.
Reconstituted family
A family that comprises divorced or widowed parents who have remarried and children from the previous marriage or cohabitation.
One parent family
A single- or lone-parent family as a result of the parents’ divorce or separation, the death of one parent, or because there has only ever been one parent.
Co habitation
The arrangement in which couples, who are not legally married, live together as husband and wife, often with their natural children. Cohabitation is most common among widowed, divorced or separated couples, although it is popular too amongst young couples and single-sex couples.
Empty nest family
A family in which the children have grown up and left home.
Monogamy
Traditionally and legally, the practice of marriage between a woman and a man at any one time.
Polygamy
A type of marriage system in which a person can have more than one spouse at any one time. The most common type is polygyny; polyandry is very rare.
Polygyny
A type of marriage system in which a man can have more than one wife at any one time.
Polyandry
A type of marriage system in which a woman can have more than one husband at any one time.
Serial monogamy
A growing trend in modern Britain because of divorce and remarriage, whereby people can expect to have two/three long-term monogamous relationships resulting in cohabitation/marriage during their lifetime. The process of marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce.
Endogamy
A form of social control that ensures the practice of marriage within the social group to which people belong. It is normally associated with societies in which social groups (e.g. tribes, ethnic groups) compete against each other for scarce resources.
Exogamy
A system of marriage in which people can only marry people from outside their social or kinship group.
Patriarchy
Broadly defined as male dominance over women and children.
Matriarchy
A society or social group in which power is in the hands of females. Such societies and groups are rare, e.g. African-Caribbean families. AKA matrifocal
Patrilineal
Descent or inheritance of titles, property and surname through the male line.
Matrilineal
Descent or inheritance of titles and property through the female line.
Natural population change
The number of births minus the number of deaths.
Birth rate
The number of live births per 1000 of the population per year.
Fertility rate
The average number of children a woman will have during her fertile years (15-44).
Baby boom
A temporary marked increase in the birth rate, e.g. after WWII.
Infant mortality rate
The number of babies who die before their first birthday, per 1000 of the population per year.
Death rate
The number of deaths per 1000 of the population per year.
Life expectancy
The average age that a person may expect to live.
Ageing population
An ageing population refers to a phenomenon in which the median age of the population in a region or country rises significantly when compared to the total population. This is caused by a declining birth rate or rising life expectancy.
Economic liability
Children are no longer economic assets to families as before the 19th century and so are costly. Many parents may be unable to afford to have a large family.
Child centeredness
Childhood is seen as a uniquely important period and parents have fewer children, lavishing more attention and resources on the few.
Dependency ratio
The relationship between the size of the working population and the size of the non-working (dependent) population.
Public health measures & environmental improvements
Better housing, purer drinking water and cleaner air, among other measures have helped to raise life expectancy and lower the death rate.
Public health measures & environmental improvements
Better housing, purer drinking water and cleaner air, among other measures have helped to raise life expectancy and lower the death rate.
Migration
Movement of people to a new area or country.
Net migration
The difference between immigration and emigration; the number immigrating into a country minus the number emigrating from it.
Immigration
Movement of people into a country. (I for in)
Emigration
Movement of people out of a country. (E for exit)
Internal migration
Refers to people within a country moving to another location within its borders.
Push and pull factors
Reasons to emigrate or immigrate, including economic recession, unemployment at home, higher wages, better opportunities.
