Family, Nuclear
Family, Nuclear
When people speak of “family,” they usually assume that what they mean is clear, yet the composition and structure of families around the world differ tremendously. Some equate family with a household, but this term is also ambiguous because it has been used to variously include all permanent members such as servants or to exclude unrelated relatives. Historically and cross-culturally, families are culturally determined interpretations of genetically and sexually grounded relationships. Further confusion, however, results for individuals involved in stable intimate relationships who consider themselves “family” but are either not willing (e.g., long term cohabiters), or unable (e.g., gay/lesbian relationships) to secure formal social recognition. Despite the complexities and challenges, however, two essential family structures have been posited; namely, nuclear family and extended family.
The basic family from which more complex forms arise is a nuclear family. At first glance, the definition of nuclear family appears to be straightforward. It is composed of parents and their children. A common, more nuanced definition specifies a nuclear family as two or more individuals affiliated by blood, marriage, or adoption. Regardless, a nuclear family is based on either consanguineous or blood relations, affinal relations (those related by marriage), or some combination thereof.
Genetic connections define consanguineous bonds (e.g., parent and child, or brother and sister), while relationships formed as a result of social convention (e.g., husband and wife, or in-laws) are affinally bonded. Affines also include all of a spouse’s own genetic relations. Thus, a woman’s brother is an affinal relation of her husband. Finally, the spouses of a person’s own consanguinal relatives are his or her affines.
A nuclear family is usually, but not necessarily, coresidential. The affinal tie between husband and wife forms the core of a nuclear family. Although spouses may enjoy relative autonomy and mobility in a nuclear structure, the dynamism intrinsic to such an arrangement can threaten conjugal bonds. Yet Martine Segalen (1986) and Azubike Uzoka (1979) illustrate in their works that the notion of an isolated nuclear family fragmented from other kin is a myth. The myth is embedded within and receives recognition from kin or the social group, as Marvin Sussman notes in his 1959 article “The Isolated Nuclear Family: Fact or Fiction.”
As comprehensive as definitions of family try to be, most focus on structural rather than functional aspects of the nuclear family. Whether a nuclear family is universal and necessary is debatable, as Arlene Skolnick (2003) and R. Smith (1968) have examined. Luis Lenero-Otero noted in his 1977 work Beyond the Nuclear Family Model that cross-cultural comparisons illuminate the ethnocentric problem of using structure as a basis for defining family. Thus, caution must be exercised in looking only at family structure—that is, the number of its members and their roles.
Families are ubiquitous in global society despite remarkable variability in form. The recognition of family heterogeneity is critical to understanding family from an international perspective. When a family includes other relatives beyond the nuclear core—consanguineous (e.g. grandparents) or affinal (e.g., aunts or uncles)—then an extended family exists.
SEE ALSO Family; Family, Extended; Family Functioning; Family Structure; Kinship; Marriage
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lenero-Otero, Luis, ed. 1977. Beyond the Nuclear Family Model: Cross-cultural Perspectives. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Segalen, Martine. 1986. Historical Anthropology of the Family. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Skolnick, Arlene. 2003. Nuclear Families. In International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2nd ed., ed. James J. Ponzetti, 1181–1183. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
Smith, R. 1968. Family: Comparative Structure. In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. David L. Sills, 301–313. New York: Macmillan.
Sussman, Marvin B. 1959. The Isolated Nuclear Family: Fact or Fiction. Social Problems 6 (4): 333–340.
Uzoka, Azubike Felix. 1979. The Myth of the Nuclear Family: Historical Background and Clinical Implications. American Psychologist 34 (11): 1095–1106.
James J. Ponzetti Jr.