Word meaning about family

When it comes to learning English vocabulary topic, family is probably one of the most popular topics that we need to learn to be able to communicate fluently with other people.

So how many English words about family do you already know? Let’s check out our blog post below to test your family-related vocabulary and learn some more!

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English Vocabulary about Family

1. Theme 1 – Family

	Parent  noun /ˈpɛrənt/ a mother or father Example: Has Joe met your parents yet?
	Offspring noun /‘ɔf,sprɪŋ/ The immediate descendants of a person Example: She was the mother of many offspring.
	Sibling noun /‘sɪblɪŋ/ A person’s brother or sister Example: I have two siblings, one elder brother and one younger sister.
	Folks  noun /foʊks/ Your parents Example: He wrote to his folks every day.
	Husband noun /ˈhʌzbənd/ the man that somebody is married to; a married man Example: That was the day she met her future husband.
	Wife noun /waɪf/   the woman that somebody is married to; a married woman Example: I’ve never met William’s wife.

Let’s watch the video below about The Simpson’s introduction to review the words we’ve just learned!

2. Theme 2 – Relatives

	Grandmother noun /ˈɡrænˌmʌðər/ the mother of a person’s father or mother Example: My grandmother has readied the lunch before I got home.
	Grandson noun /ˈɡrænsʌn/ the son of a person’s son or daughter Example: He is the grandson of the director.
	Relative noun /ˈrɛlət̮ɪv/ a member of your family, especially one who does not live with you, for example, a grandparent or cousin Example: I traveled to Crete with his family to visit his relatives there.
	Uncle noun /ˈʌŋkl/ the brother of your mother or father, or the husband of your aunt Example: I’ve just become an uncle.
	Aunt noun /ænt/ the sister of your mother or father, or the wife of your uncle Example: My aunt is a poor person.
	Cousin noun /ˈkʌzn/ a child of your aunt or uncle, or, more generally, a distant (not close) relation Example: They are my cousin from Vietnam.
	Nephew noun /ˈnɛfju/ a son of your sister or brother, or a son of the sister or brother of your husband or wife Example: My nephew turns 2 today.
	Niece noun /nis/ a daughter of your brother or sister, or a daughter of your husband’s or wife’s brother or sister Example: My niece can draw very well.

Master the words above with this interesting video!

3. Theme 3 – The In-Laws

	Mother-in-law noun /ˈmʌðər ɪnˌlɔ/ the mother of your husband or wife Example: I don’t like my mother-in-law.
	Son-in-law noun /ˈsʌn ɪn lɔ/ the man who is married to your daughter Example: Her son-in-law is a nice guy.
	Daughter-in-law noun ˈdɔt̮ər ɪn lɔ/ the woman who is married to your son Example: She is my daughter-in-law.
	Brother-in-law noun /ˈbrʌðər ɪn lɔ/ The husband of your sister, or the brother of your husband or wife, or the man who is married to the sister of your wife or husband Example: I don’t know my brother-in-law very well.
	Sister-in-law noun /ˈsɪstər ɪnˌlɔ/ the sister of your husband or wife; your brother’s wife; the wife of your husband or wife’s brother Example: My sister-in-law is a friendly person.

NOTE:

• Plural case: two sons-in-law; three daughters-in-law; brothers-in-law; sisters-in-law.
• Possessive case: my father-in-law’s house; my sister-in-law’s car.

Watch the video below to understand better about these words.

4. Theme 4 – The Extended Family & The Family Mix

	Stepmother noun /ˈstɛpˌmʌðər/ the woman who is married to your father but who is not your real mother Example: Cinderella’s stepmother is an evil woman.
	Stepchild noun /ˈstɛptʃaɪld/ a child of your husband or wife by an earlier marriage Example: Could a stepchild love their new mother?
	Stepsister noun /‘stɛp,brəðər/ a sister who has only one parent in common with you Example: She is my stepsister.
	Half-brother noun /hæf ˈbrʌðər/ a brother who has either the same mother or the same father as you Example: Michel’s half-brother is a famous singer.
	Adopt verb /əˈdɑpt/ to take another person’s child legally into your own family to raise as your own child Example: He was adopted when he was six.
	Orphan noun /ɔrfən/ a child who does not have parents Example: Steve Jobs was an orphan.
	Ancestor noun /‘ænsɛstər/ Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) Example: Our ancestor discovered fire long time ago.
	Forefather noun /‘foʊr,fɑðər/ The founder of a family Example: We should keep the faith of our forefathers.
	Descendant noun /dɪ’sɛndənt/ A person considered as descended from some ancestor Example: Descendant of the Sun was a famous Korean series.
	Heir noun /ɜr/ A person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another Example: Paris Hilton is a rich heir of the Hilton family.
	Family tree noun /ˈfæmli ˈtri/ a drawing that shows all the members of a family, usually over a long period of time, and how they are related to each other. Example: Our family tree has been started over 100 years.
	Genealogy noun /,dʒini’ɑlədʒi/ Successive generations of kin Example: Genealogy study is the study or investigation of ancestry and family history.
	Godfather noun /ˈɡɑdˌfɑðər/ a male godparent Example: His godfather is really a gangster.
	Godchild noun /ɡɑd,ʧaɪld/ An infant who is sponsored by an adult (the godparent) at baptism Example: His godchild is an angel.

We’ve just learned quite a lot of English vocabulary about family. Let’s master all of them by practicing the exercises below.

Exercises

1. Multiple Choice

1. My mother’s daughter is my a. aunt b. cousin c. sister 2. My mother’s mother is my a. auntie b. great aunt c. grandmother 3. My father’s son is my a. uncle b. cousin c. brother 4. My step-mother’s son is my a. step-brother b. brother-in-law c. step-son 5. My brother’s daughter is my a. nephew b. niece c. cousin

6. My aunt’s children are my a. step-children b. cousins c. nephews and nieces 7. My grandpa’s father is my a. great uncle b. great grandpa c. great great grandpa 8. My dad’s brother is my a. uncle b. cousin c. brother-in-law 9. My sister’s husband is my a. brother-in-law b. sibling c. husband-in-law 10. My female spouse is my a. grandmother b. mother-in-law c.wife

2. Visual Vocabulary Practice

Choose a photo of your family, then try to figure out how you are related to each person in the photograph and how you call them in English.

(For example: grandmother, grandfather, mother…)

3. Reading Comprehension

Paul and Kerry McDonald would like to welcome their new son Christopher Casey to the clan! Weighing 4.2 kilograms, Chris was born on January 2nd at 3:30pm. He will join sister Rachel, 6 and brother Malcolm, 4 in the McDonald household in Vancouver, Canada. Christopher’s proud aunts Kathy McDonald and Sherry Smith were present at his birth. Grandparents, Lisa and Mike Smith were also present. Chris’s grandmother in Texas will be arriving soon to meet her new grandson. Cousins Jerry, Fern, and Lindsay can’t wait to meet baby Chris too! The proud parents would like to thank all of their extended family for the warm wishes and gifts.

• What is Christopher’s mother’s name?
• Who are Christopher’s siblings?
• How is Kathy McDonald related to the newborn?
• Who will be coming to see Chris soon?
• Who is Kathy in relation to Kerry?

Share your answers in the comment section below.

So above is our list of 33 essential English words about family. If you’d like to learn more vocabulary about other topics, then visit eJOY GO and get access to the 3000 Smart Word list. Happy learning and don’t forget to learn English vocabulary with eJOY eXtension!

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Idioms about Family: A family is a place of comfort and where every member staying at the house feels safe and protected. English can be a highly complex language, but that is the language by which we communicate, be it idioms for poor families or the wealthy, and it’s surprising how we have different idioms about different family relationships around us.

Idioms help elevate the conversation; idioms about family like idioms for father and daughter or idioms for parents have a huge list. We have thus made a shortlist of few commonly used expressions to help you have a great time ahead with your family.

Enrich your Vocabulary by practicing the English Idioms that are commonly used in everyday conversations and understand their actual meaning.

• Meaning and examples of few commonly used idioms about family

List of Idioms About Family

• Father figure
• Flesh and blood
• Accident of birth
• Small fry
• Big brother
• Family man
• The Black sheep
• Run in the blood
• Like father like son
• Men make house women make home
• Match made in heaven
• Sleep like a baby
• Born with a silver spoon
• Come hell or high water
• Baby boomer
• A mother hen
• Mother’s milk
• My old man or My old lady
• Kith and kin
• Pop the question
• Boys will be boys
• Child’s play
• The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
• A chip off the old block
• Spitting image
• Bad blood
• Following your footsteps
• Confirmed bachelor
• East or west, home is the best
• Home is where the heart is
• Alpha mom
• Baby brain
• Quality time
• Helicopter parenting
• Up the duff
• To keep mum
• Throw the baby out of the bathwater
• Blue blood
• Accident of birth
• Bob’s your uncle
• Born out of wedlock
• Spare the rod and spoil the child

Meaning And Examples Of Few Commonly Used Idioms About Family

Father figure

Meaning: Father in a family is the head and support of a family. If someone is called a father figure, it means that person can make you feel safe with help and advice, just like your father.

Example: I have seen Uncle Tim since I was a child; he is a father figure.

Flesh and blood

Meaning: flesh and blood mean someone who has feelings, emotions, and weakness as a human being, not a machine.

Example: he was, after all, my flesh and blood. How can I see him going to jail?

Accident of birth

Meaning: any property or qualities which a person enjoys because of being born in a particular family probably doesn’t deserve it.

Example: he travels in a Porsche, not to mention it is a mere accident of birth.

Small fry

Meaning: small fry is depicted to people or things that are not considered necessary; it is of no use anymore.

Example: we have kept three interns for extra work but didn’t work as a small fry.

Big brother

Meaning: the role of big brother is said to someone who has the ultimate authority for ruling power on someone. that person can control and limit the freedom for has the right to restrict the freedom of people through dictatorship

Example: the big brother says that we have to arrive there within an hour or be jobless.

Family man

Meaning: family man is said to be a person who can balance professional and personal life. It mainly depicts a person who loves to be at home to spend time with family.

Example: John is the type of family man every wife needs.

The Black sheep

Meaning: a black sheep is said to have different interests or act differently from the other family members or group.

Example: everyone in a family has been settled by 25, but Rachel is 30 and seems to be the only black sheep here.

Run in the blood

Meaning: any activity characteristics or other feature passed on to generation by generation in a particular family mostly means traits.

Example: your family has always been into a trading business. You are no exception; it runs in your blood.

Like father like son

Meaning: a person who has the same manners or characteristics as his father. You can also say it to the person who wants to follow the same footsteps or shares the same ideas as his father.

Example: Rahul decided to apply for the post of chief executive just like a father-like son.

Men make house women make a home.

Meaning: men make houses and women make the home can be controversial but refers to a man who goes out to earn money and makes the house where the woman stays at home and takes care of the house in a good way.

Example: Rachel balances a happy professional life and a house where her husband does anything, rightly said that men make houses while women make a home.

Match made in heaven.

Meaning: refers to two people of opposite gender mostly who are perfectly suited and compatible with each other. The partners bonding makes people say that it’s a match made in heaven.

Example: my sister has been the happiest Rahul in the last few days. It’s a match made in heaven.

Sleep like a baby

Meaning: sleeping like a baby means sleeping very peacefully without worrying about getting up early the next day with a work headache. It means to be in peace, just like a tiny baby.

Example: you have worked so hard today, and it’s a week of the following week; you will sleep like a baby today.

Born with a silver spoon.

Meaning: being born with a silver spoon means being held in a wealthy family with lots of wealth and luxury is an advantage that ordinary people don’t have. It can also be said to children who are spoiled as their parents give them everything they want.

Example: the way she wastes all the money may fool you as if she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

Come hell or high water.

Meaning: it refers to you being solid and adamant no matter what big problems come in someone’s life or the family. You can also refer to someone sticking to their thoughts or objectives even after criticisms and obstacles.

Example: I will stand on my point, come hell or high water. I don’t care if I lose the job.

Baby boomer

Meaning: baby boomer refers to children born after World War II during the year of 1960s.

Example: The Last of the baby boomers is almost the same age as my father.

A mother hen

Meaning: a person who interfaces into people’s lives mostly but for good intentions like someone who needs help, guidance for food, or care. A person who is very fussy and always up to work and to look after other people.

Example: Shila is always buying extra groceries. She is a mother hen for a lot of children.

Mother’s milk

Meaning: an object or a person is an extreme necessity. It is depicted as something without which a particular activity cannot be finished or held.

Example: your script was like mother’s milk for a show today; it wouldn’t have been the same without you.

My old man or my old lady

Meaning: an old man or lady is referred to as a father, or someone’s husband can also refer to someone’s mother or wife, which means someone of the family who is very close to them or is a partner.

Example: I would love to go and get a coffee with you, but I have plans with my old man today.

Kith and kin

Meaning: kith and kin generally mean someone’s very close friends for relatives who are closely tied, associated with family.

Example: at my birthday party my mother made sure to invite all her kith and kins to understand why I should get married soon.

Pop the question

Meaning: to pop the question in a general word means to propose the idea of marriage to the partner or to that person’s family member to ask for consent in marriage.

Example: we have been dating for almost seven years now. I keep wondering when my boyfriend will pop the question.

Boys will be boys

Meaning: boys will be boys is referred to the type of behavior being mischievous, aggressive, and very noisy. This type of behavior trait is most common in boys and shows a kind of behavior expectation.

Example: it was just a conversation about your religious views, but they had to get into a fight with boys.

Child’s play

Meaning: child’s play refers to any task or activity that is very easy for anyone, especially if compared to something more complex or has challenges than others.

Example: oh, is this the assignment we have to do? It’s a child’s play for me.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Meaning: This identical phrase is used when you notice a child with looks, traits, and primarily identical qualities to their parents.

Example: her son is very interested in hip hop dance style proving, that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

A chip off the old block

Meaning: Bina chip off the old block means having similar characteristic behavior or personality like their parents, which can be positive or negative.

Example: he is the same, just like his sister; he is a chip off the old block, very down-to-earth and soft-spoken.

Spitting image

Meaning: I think, specifically, a person who looks almost similar or identical can be referred to in a family as a child who looks remarkably the same as one of the parents.

Example: look at those brown eyes and curly hairs; it’s very identical that he is the spitting image of his father.

Bad blood

Meaning: being off bad blood means someone who is very unfriendly and is always angry or rude to others for no reason

Example: don’t go to the store in the corner of the owner has bad blood; you will lose your temper.

Following your footsteps

Meaning: to follow someone with a specific career or choice and do the same thing. Is referred to in a family as a child who does the same thing as their parents

Example: she followed the footsteps of her father and became a successful engineer.

Confirmed bachelor

Meaning: a confirmed bachelor is a person who never wants to marry and be a part of family life; it can either be a woman or a man.

Example: he keeps on roaming in different cities and countries; he is a confirmed bachelor as he never likes to stay at home.

East or west, home is the best.

Meaning: the idiom East or west home is the best means no matter wherever you travel or expensive places. We went to a holiday home. It is a place of trust which is safe. There is no place that can be safe are comfortably like home.

Example: I have been to different countries, and I have almost started my teen life in Europe, but east or West home is the best.

Home is where the heart is

Meaning: it means that no matter where you are with your loved ones or family members, you feel safe and feel at home despite being in a new place. Aur can also be referred to as a place that is not very comfortable but is safe being with your loved one.

Example: I have never felt like an outsider in my fiance’s house home is where the heart is.

Alpha mom

Meaning: being Alpha mum is said to be a mother who prioritizes her work life very well and takes care of her family with almost the same efficiency.

Example: Neeta is the perfect example of an alpha mom, she is the owner of a private farm, but she also takes care of a two-year-old daughter

Baby brain

Meaning: the baby brain is subjected to you being confused or forgetting things due to lack of rest or sleep. Mostly said to someone who does wrong activities for misplaces things.

Example: my sister kept the ice tray in the micro-oven instead fridge; it must be a baby brain.

Quality time

Meaning: means to spend enough time with your loved ones and give them attention. Quality time means to spend your time in an accessible manner, excluding the work life.

Example: my husband loves to spend some quality time with the children every weekend.

Helicopter parenting

Meaning: helicopter parenting refers to highly attentive parents and takes part in every activity their child does. It means to someone who doesn’t allow any child’s freedom or space of privacy.

Example: don’t be a helicopter parent; your daughter is 25, and she then goes out to stay in a different place on her own.

Up the duff

Meaning: being after the death of means to be pregnant or with the child or, in other words, to carry a child in the mother’s Womb.

Example: you just graduated from college. I can’t believe you are updated if already now.

To keep mum

Meaning: to keep mum means to seal your mouth or keep quiet; it can also be said to make someone stay calm and not expose anything in front of others.

Example: tell your assistant to keep mum I don’t want all the plans to go in flowing water.

Throw the baby out of the bathwater

Meaning: throwing the baby out of the bathwater means accidentally through helpful something or good while discarding the bad or things without usefulness.

Example: did you just throw the newly bought umbrella? Don’t throw the baby out of the bathwater like that.

Blue blood

Meaning: Being Blue blood means someone a lot or has much ancestral wealth and fame, which makes them keep going in recent times. It can also be said to be someone superior to the other parts of society.

Example: you are a blue blood person, how can you understand the struggle of getting a job in the public sector for ordinary people.

Accident of birth

Meaning: inheritance of property and wealth has an advantage of belonging from a wealthy family. It mostly says someone who is not eligible to get the respect and wealth of being born in a wealthy family.

Example: he is going to London to study just by accident of birth; he does not qualify for this.

Bob’s your uncle

Meaning: bob’s your uncle who is used after finishing a straightforward task. It is used in place of its done, or there it is. It results from a specific job to do and as a result of easy and quick instructions.

Example: just a cup of hot water in the bowl, and bob’s your uncle! The noodles are done.

Born out of wedlock.

Meaning: a child who is born before marriage mainly can be used for someone who has no plans of marriage with their partner but has become parents to their children; those parents without marriage is called out of wedlock

Example: my parents married few months after I was born out of wedlock.

Spare the rod and spoil the child

Meaning: it means that children should be taught what is wrong and right if they are adamant and parents can use methods of hitting them. It means that unless children are there physically punished, they will not get lessons.

Example: your son has become very e-tourist spare the rod and spoil the child is appropriate for him.

Family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as members mature and learn to participate in the community.^[1] Historically, most human societies use family as the primary locus of attachment, nurturance, and socialization.^[2][3]

Anthropologists classify most family organizations as matrifocal (a mother and her children), patrifocal (a father and his children), conjugal (a wife, her husband, and children, also called the nuclear family), avuncular (a man, his sister, and her children), or extended (in addition to parents and children, may include grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins).

The field of genealogy aims to trace family lineages through history. The family is also an important economic unit studied in family economics. The word «families» can be used metaphorically to create more inclusive categories such as community, nationhood, and global village.

[edit]

One of the primary functions of the family involves providing a framework for the production and reproduction of persons biologically and socially. This can occur through the sharing of material substances (such as food); the giving and receiving of care and nurture (nurture kinship); jural rights and obligations; and moral and sentimental ties.^[5][6] Thus, one’s experience of one’s family shifts over time. 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.^[7] From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a «family of procreation», the goal of which is to produce, enculturate and socialize children.^[8] However, producing children is not the only function of the family; in societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage, and the resulting relationship between two people, it is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household.^[9][10][11]

C. C. Harris notes that the western conception of family is ambiguous and confused with the household, as revealed in the different contexts in which the word is used.^[12] Olivia Harris states this confusion is not accidental, but indicative of the familial ideology of capitalist, western countries that pass social legislation that insists members of a nuclear family should live together, and that those not so related should not live together; despite the ideological and legal pressures, a large percentage of families do not conform to the ideal nuclear family type.^[13]

Size[edit]

The total fertility rate of women varies from country to country, from a high of 6.76 children born/woman in Niger to a low of 0.81 in Singapore (as of 2015).^[14] Fertility is low in most Eastern European and Southern European countries, and high in most sub-Saharan African countries.^[14]

In some cultures, the mother’s preference of family size influences that of the children through early adulthood.^[15] A parent’s number of children strongly correlates with the number of children that their children will eventually have.^[16]

Types[edit]

Although early western cultural anthropologists and sociologists considered family and kinship to be universally associated with relations by «blood» (based on ideas common in their own cultures) later research^[5] has shown that many societies instead understand family through ideas of living together, the sharing of food (e.g. milk kinship) and sharing care and nurture. Sociologists have a special interest in the function and status of family forms in stratified (especially capitalist) societies.^[17]

According to the work of scholars Max Weber, Alan Macfarlane, Steven Ozment, Jack Goody and Peter Laslett, the huge transformation that led to modern marriage in Western democracies was «fueled by the religio-cultural value system provided by elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation».^[18]

Much sociological, historical and anthropological research dedicates itself to the understanding of this variation, and of changes in the family that form over time. Levitan claims:

Times have changed; it is more acceptable and encouraged for mothers to work and fathers to spend more time at home with the children. The way roles are balanced between the parents will help children grow and learn valuable life lessons. There is [the] great importance of communication and equality in families, in order to avoid role strain.^[19]

Multigenerational family[edit]

Historically, the most common family type was one in which grandparents, parents, and children lived together as a single unit. For example, the household might include the owners of a farm, one (or more) of their adult children, the adult child’s spouse, and the adult child’s own children (the owners’ grandchildren). Members of the extended family are not included in this family group. Sometimes, «skipped» generation families, such as a grandparents living with their grandchildren, are included.^[20]

In the US, this arrangement declined after World War II, reaching a low point in 1980, when about one out of every eight people in the US lived in a multigenerational family.^[20] The numbers have risen since then, with one in five people in the US living in a multigenerational family as of 2016.^[21] The increasing popularity is partly driven by demographic changes and the economic shifts associated with the Boomerang Generation.^[20]

Multigenerational households are less common in Canada, where about 6% of people living in Canada were living in multigenerational families as of 2016, but the proportion of multigenerational households was increasing rapidly, driven by increasing numbers of Aboriginal families, immigrant families, and high housing costs in some regions.^[22]

Conjugal (nuclear) family[edit]

The term «nuclear family» is commonly used to refer to conjugal families. A «conjugal» family includes only the spouses and unmarried children who are not of age.^{[23][failed verification]} Some sociologists^[which?] distinguish between conjugal families (relatively independent of the kindred of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindred).^[24][25]

Other family structures – with (for example) blended parents, single parents, and domestic partnerships – have begun to challenge the normality of the nuclear family.^[26][27][28]

Single-parent family[edit]

A single-parent family consists of one parent together with their children, where the parent is either widowed, divorced (and not remarried), or never married.^[29] The parent may have sole custody of the children, or separated parents may have a shared-parenting arrangement where the children divide their time (possibly equally) between two different single-parent families or between one single-parent family and one blended family. As compared to sole custody, physical, mental and social well-being of children may be improved by shared-parenting arrangements and by children having greater access to both parents.^[30][31] The number of single-parent families have been^[when?] increasing, and about half of all children in the United States will live in a single-parent family at some point before they reach the age of 18. Most single-parent families are headed by a mother, but the number of single-parent families headed by fathers is increasing.^[32][33]

Matrifocal family[edit]

A «matrifocal» family consists of a mother and her children.^[34] Generally, these children are her biological offspring, although adoption of children occurs in nearly every society. This kind of family occurs commonly where women have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men are more mobile than women. As a definition, «a family or domestic group is matrifocal when it is centred on a woman and her children. In this case, the father(s) of these children are intermittently present in the life of the group and occupy a secondary place. The children’s mother is not necessarily the wife of one of the children’s fathers.»^[35] The name, matrifocal, was coined in Guiana but it is defined differently in other countries. For Nayar families, the family have the male as the «center» or the head of the family, either the step-father/father/brother, rather than the mother.^[34]

Extended family[edit]

The term «extended family» is also common, especially in the United States. This term has two distinct meanings:

1. It serves as a synonym of «consanguinal family» (consanguine means «of the same blood»).
2. In societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to «kindred» (an egocentric network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group) who do not belong to the conjugal family.

These types refer to ideal or normative structures found in particular societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual composition and conception of families.^[36]

Historically, extended families were the basic family unit in the Catholic culture and countries (such as Southern Europe and Latin America),^[37] and in Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern Orthodox countries.^[37]

Family of choice[edit]

The term family of choice, also sometimes referred to as «chosen family» or «found family», is common within the LGBT community, veterans, individuals who have suffered abuse, and those who have no contact with biological «parents». It refers to the group of people in an individual’s life that satisfies the typical role of family as a support system. The term differentiates between the «family of origin» (the biological family or that in which people are raised) and those that actively assume that ideal role.^[38]

The family of choice may or may not include some or all of the members of the family of origin. This family is not one that follows the «normal» familial structure like having a father, a mother, and children. This is family is a group of people that rely on each other like a family of origin would.^[39] This terminology stems from the fact that many LGBT individuals, upon coming out, face rejection or shame from the families they were raised in.^[40] The term family of choice is also used by individuals in the 12 step communities, who create close-knit «family» ties through the recovery process.

As a family system, families of choice face unique issues. Without legal safeguards, families of choice may struggle when medical, educational or governmental institutions fail to recognize their legitimacy.^[40] If members of the chosen family have been disowned by their family of origin, they may experience surrogate grief, displacing anger, loss, or anxious attachment onto their new family.^[40]

Blended family[edit]

The term blended family or stepfamily describes families with mixed parents: one or both parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family.^[41] Also in sociology, particularly in the works of social psychologist Michael Lamb,^[42] traditional family refers to «a middle-class family with a bread-winning father and a stay-at-home mother, married to each other and raising their biological children,» and nontraditional to exceptions to this rule. Most of the US households are now non-traditional under this definition.^[43] Critics of the term «traditional family» point out that in most cultures and at most times, the extended family model has been most common, not the nuclear family,^[44] though it has had a longer tradition in England^[45] than in other parts of Europe and Asia which contributed large numbers of immigrants to the Americas. The nuclear family became the most common form in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s.^[46]

In terms of communication patterns in families, there are a certain set of beliefs within the family that reflect how its members should communicate and interact. These family communication patterns arise from two underlying sets of beliefs. One being conversation orientation (the degree to which the importance of communication is valued) and two, conformity orientation (the degree to which families should emphasize similarities or differences regarding attitudes, beliefs, and values).^[47]

Blended families is complex, ranging from stepfamilies to cohabitating families (an individual living with guardians who are not married with step or half siblings). While it’s not too different from stepfamilies, cohabiting families pose a prevalent psychological effect on youths.^[48] Some adolescents would be prone to «acts of delinquency,» and experiencing problems in school ranging from a decrease in academic performance to increased problematic behavior.  It coincides with other researches on the trajectories of stepfamilies where some experienced familyhood, but others lacking connection. Emotional detachment from members within stepfamilies contributes to this uncertainty, furthering the tension that these families may establish.^[49] The transition from an old family to a new family that falls under blended families would also become problematic as the activities that were once performed in the old family may not transfer well within the new family for adolescents.^[50]

Monogamous family[edit]

A monogamous family is based on a legal or social monogamy. In this case, an individual has only one (official) partner during their lifetime or at any one time (i.e. serial monogamy).^[51] This means that a person may not have several different legal spouses at the same time, as this is usually prohibited by bigamy laws, (the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another^[52]) in jurisdictions that require monogamous marriages.

Polygamous family[edit]

Polygamy is a marriage that includes more than two partners.^[53][54] When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. If a marriage includes multiple husbands and wives, it can be called polyamory,^[55] group or conjoint marriage.^[54]

Polygyny is a form of plural marriage, in which a man is allowed more than one wife .^[56] In modern countries that permit polygamy, polygyny is typically the only form permitted. Polygyny is practiced primarily (but not only) in parts of the Middle East and Africa; and is often associated with Islam, however, there are certain conditions in Islam that must be met to perform polygyny.^[57]

Polyandry is a form of marriage whereby a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time.^[58] Fraternal polyandry, where two or more brothers are married to the same wife, is a common form of polyandry. Polyandry was traditionally practiced in areas of the Himalayan mountains, among Tibetans in Nepal, in parts of China and in parts of northern India. Polyandry is most common in societies marked by high male mortality or where males will often be apart from the rest of the family for a considerable period of time.^[58]

Kinship terminology[edit]

Degrees of kinship[edit]

A first-degree relative is one who shares 50% of your DNA through direct inheritance, such as a full sibling, parent or progeny.

There is another measure for the degree of relationship, which is determined by counting up generations to the first common ancestor and back down to the target individual, which is used for various genealogical and legal purposes.^[59]

Kinship	Degree of relationship by coefficient	Coefficient of relationship	Degree of relationship by counting generations to common ancestor
identical twins	0	100%[60]	second-degree
sister / brother	first-degree	50% (2×2−2)	second-degree
mother / father / daughter / son[61]	first-degree	50% (2−1)	first-degree
half-sister / half-brother	second-degree	25% (2−2)	second-degree
grandmother / grandfather / granddaughter / grandson	second-degree	25% (2−2)	second-degree
aunt / uncle / niece / nephew	second-degree	25% (2×2−3)	third-degree
half-aunt / half-uncle / half-niece / half-nephew	third-degree	12.5% (2−3)	third-degree
first-cousin	third-degree	12.5% (2×2−4)	fourth-degree
half-first-cousin	fourth-degree	6.25% (2−4)	fourth-degree
great-grandmother / great-grandfather / great-granddaughter / great-grandson	third-degree	12.5% (2−3)	third-degree
first-cousin-once-removed	fourth-degree	6.25% (2⋅2−5)	fifth-degree
second-cousin	fifth-degree	3.125% (2−6+2−6)	sixth-degree

Terminologies[edit]

In his book Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) performed the first survey of kinship terminologies in use around the world. Although much of his work is now considered dated, he argued that kinship terminologies reflect different sets of distinctions. For example, most kinship terminologies distinguish between sexes (the difference between a brother and a sister) and between generations (the difference between a child and a parent). Moreover, he argued, kinship terminologies distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently some anthropologists have argued that many societies define kinship in terms other than «blood»).

Morgan made a distinction between kinship systems that use classificatory terminology and those that use descriptive terminology. Classificatory systems are generally and erroneously understood to be those that «class together» with a single term relatives who actually do not have the same type of relationship to ego. (What defines «same type of relationship» under such definitions seems to be genealogical relationship. This is problematic given that any genealogical description, no matter how standardized, employs words originating in a folk understanding of kinship.) What Morgan’s terminology actually differentiates are those (classificatory) kinship systems that do not distinguish lineal and collateral relationships and those (descriptive) kinship systems that do. Morgan, a lawyer, came to make this distinction in an effort to understand Seneca inheritance practices. A Seneca man’s effects were inherited by his sisters’ children rather than by his own children.^[62] Morgan identified six basic patterns of kinship terminologies:

• Hawaiian: only distinguishes relatives based upon sex and generation.
• Sudanese: no two relatives share the same term.
• Eskimo: in addition to distinguishing relatives based upon sex and generation, also distinguishes between lineal relatives and collateral relatives.
• Iroquois: in addition to sex and generation, also distinguishes between siblings of opposite sexes in the parental generation.
• Crow: a matrilineal system with some features of an Iroquois system, but with a «skewing» feature in which generation is «frozen» for some relatives.
• Omaha: like a Crow system but patrilineal.

Roles[edit]

Most Western societies employ Eskimo kinship terminology.^[63] This kinship terminology commonly occurs in societies with strong conjugal, where families have a degree of relative mobility. Typically, societies with conjugal families also favor neolocal residence; thus upon marriage, a person separates from the nuclear family of their childhood (family of orientation) and forms a new nuclear family (family of procreation). Such systems generally assume that the mother’s husband is also the biological father. The system uses highly descriptive terms for the nuclear family and progressively more classificatory as the relatives become more and more collateral.

Nuclear family[edit]

The system emphasizes the nuclear family. Members of the nuclear family use highly descriptive kinship terms, identifying directly only the husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and sister. All other relatives are grouped together into categories. Members of the nuclear family may be lineal or collateral. Kin, for whom these are family, refer to them in descriptive terms that build on the terms used within the nuclear family or use the nuclear family term directly.

Nuclear family of orientation

• Brother: the male child of a parent.
• Sister: the female child of a parent.
• Father: a male parent.
  • Grandfather: the father of a parent.
• Mother: a female parent.
  • Grandmother: the mother of a parent.

Nuclear conjugal family

• Husband: a male spouse.
• Wife: a female spouse.
• Son: a male child of the parent(s).
  • Grandson: a child’s son.
• Daughter: a female child of the parent(s).
  • Granddaughter: a child’s daughter.

Nuclear non-lineal family

• Spouse: husband or wife
  • Stepparent: a spouse of a parent that is not a biological parent
• Sibling: sister or brother
  • Half-sibling: a sibling with whom the subject shares only one biological parent
  • Step-sibling: a child of a parent that is not a biological parent

Collateral relatives[edit]

A sibling is a collateral relative with a minimal removal. For collateral relatives with one additional removal, one generation more distant from a common ancestor on one side, more classificatory terms come into play. These terms (Aunt, Uncle, Niece, and Nephew) do not build on the terms used within the nuclear family as most are not traditionally members of the household. These terms do not traditionally differentiate between a collateral relatives and a person married to a collateral relative (both collateral and aggregate). Collateral relatives with additional removals on each side are Cousins. This is the most classificatory term and can be distinguished by degrees of collaterality and by generation (removal).

When only the subject has the additional removal, the relative is the subject’s parents’ siblings, the terms Aunt and Uncle are used for female and male relatives respectively. When only the relative has the additional removal, the relative is the subjects siblings child, the terms Niece and Nephew are used for female and male relatives respectively. The spouse of a biological aunt or uncle is an aunt or uncle, and the nieces and nephews of a spouse are nieces and nephews. With further removal by the subject for aunts and uncles and by the relative for nieces and nephews the prefix «grand-» modifies these terms. With further removal the prefix becomes «great-grand-,» adding another «great-» for each additional generation. For large numbers of generations a number can be substituted, for example, «fourth great-grandson», «four-greats grandson» or «four-times-great-grandson».

When the subject and the relative have an additional removal they are cousins. A cousin with minimal removal is a first cousin, i.e. the child of the subjects uncle or aunt. Degrees of collaterality and removals are used to more precisely describe the relationship between cousins. The degree is the number of generations subsequent to the common ancestor before a parent of one of the cousins is found, while the removal is the difference between the number of generations from each cousin to the common ancestor (the difference between the generations the cousins are from).^[64][65]

Cousins of an older generation (in other words, one’s parents’ first cousins), although technically first cousins once removed, are often classified with «aunts» and «uncles».

Aggregate relatives[edit]

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 wife of one’s son becomes one’s daughter-in-law and the husband of one’s daughter becomes one’s son-in-law. The term «sister-in-law» refers to two essentially different relationships, either the wife of one’s brother, or the sister of one’s spouse. «Brother-in-law» is the husband of one’s sister, or the brother of one’s spouse. The terms «half-brother» and «half-sister» indicate siblings who share only one biological parent. The term «aunt-in-law» is the wife of one’s uncle, or the aunt of one’s spouse. «Uncle-in-law» is the husband of one’s aunt, or the uncle of one’s spouse. «Cousin-in-law» is the spouse of one’s cousin, or the cousin of one’s spouse. The term «niece-in-law» is the wife of one’s nephew, or the niece of one’s spouse. «Nephew-in-law» is the husband of one’s niece, or the nephew of one’s spouse. The grandmother and grandfather of one’s spouse become one’s grandmother-in-law and grandfather-in-law; the wife of one’s grandson becomes one’s granddaughter-in-law and the husband of one’s granddaughter becomes one’s grandson-in-law.

In Indian English a sibling in law who is the spouse of your sibling can be referred to as a co-sibling (specificity a co-sister^[66] or co-brother^[67]).

Types of kinship[edit]

Patrilineal[edit]

Patrilineality, also known as the male line or agnatic kinship, is a form of kinship system in which an individual’s family membership derives from and is traced through his or her father’s lineage.^[68] It generally involves the inheritance of property, rights, names, or titles by persons related through male kin.

A patriline («father line») is a person’s father, and additional ancestors that are traced only through males. One’s patriline is thus a record of descent from a man in which the individuals in all intervening generations are male. In cultural anthropology, a patrilineage is a consanguineal male and female kinship group, each of whose members is descended from the common ancestor through male forebears.

Matrilineal[edit]

Matrilineality is a form of kinship system in which an individual’s family membership derives from and is traced through his or her mother’s lineage.

It may also correlate with a societal system in which each person is identified with their matriline—their mother’s lineage—and which can involve the inheritance of property and titles. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant in which the individuals in all intervening generations are mothers – in other words, a «mother line».

In a matrilineal descent system, an individual is considered to belong to the same descent group as her or his mother. This matrilineal descent pattern is in contrasts to the more common pattern of patrilineal descent pattern.

Bilateral descent[edit]

Bilateral descent is a form of kinship system in which an individual’s family membership derives from and is traced through both the paternal and maternal sides. The relatives on the mother’s side and father’s side are equally important for emotional ties or for transfer of property or wealth. It is a family arrangement where descent and inheritance are passed equally through both parents.^[69] Families who use this system trace descent through both parents simultaneously and recognize multiple ancestors, but unlike with cognatic descent it is not used to form descent groups.^[70]

Traditionally, this is found among some groups in West Africa, India, Australia, Indonesia, Melanesia, Malaysia and Polynesia. Anthropologists believe that a tribal structure based on bilateral descent helps members live in extreme environments because it allows individuals to rely on two sets of families dispersed over a wide area.^[71]

History of theories[edit]

Early scholars of family history applied Darwin’s biological theory of evolution in their theory of evolution of family systems.^[72] American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan published Ancient Society in 1877 based on his theory of the three stages of human progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization.^[73] Morgan’s book was the «inspiration for Friedrich Engels’ book» The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State published in 1884.^[74]

Engels expanded Morgan’s hypothesis that economical factors caused the transformation of primitive community into a class-divided society.^[75] Engels’ theory of resource control, and later that of Karl Marx, was used to explain the cause and effect of change in family structure and function. The popularity of this theory was largely unmatched until the 1980s, when other sociological theories, most notably structural functionalism, gained acceptance.

The nuclear family in industrial society[edit]

Contemporary society generally views the family as a haven from the world, supplying absolute fulfillment. Zinn and Eitzen discuss the image of the «family as haven … a place of intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanizing forces in modern society».^[77]

During industrialization, «[t]he family as a repository of warmth and tenderness (embodied by the mother) stands in opposition to the competitive and aggressive world of commerce (embodied by the father). The family’s task was to protect against the outside world.»^[78] However, Zinn and Eitzen note, «The protective image of the family has waned in recent years as the ideals of family fulfillment have taken shape. Today, the family is more compensatory than protective. It supplies what is vitally needed but missing in other social arrangements.»^[78]

«The popular wisdom», according to Zinn and Eitzen, sees the family structures of the past as superior to those today, and families as more stable and happier at a time when they did not have to contend with problems such as illegitimate children and divorce. They respond to this, saying, «there is no golden age of the family gleaming at us in the far back historical past.»^[79] «Desertion by spouses, illegitimate children, and other conditions that are considered characteristics of modern times existed in the past as well.»^[79]

The postmodern family[edit]

Others argue that whether or not one views the family as «declining» depends on one’s definition of «family». «Married couples have dropped below half of all American households. This drop is shocking from traditional forms of the family system. Only a fifth of households were following traditional ways of having married couples raising a family together.»^[81] In the Western World, marriages are no longer arranged for economic, social or political gain, and children are no longer expected to contribute to family income. Instead, people choose mates based on love.^[82] This increased role of love indicates a societal shift toward favoring emotional fulfilment and relationships within a family, and this shift necessarily weakens the institution of the family.^[83]

Margaret Mead considers the family as a main safeguard to continuing human progress. Observing, «Human beings have learned, laboriously, to be human», she adds: «we hold our present form of humanity on trust, [and] it is possible to lose it» … «It is not without significance that the most successful large-scale abrogations of the family have occurred not among simple savages, living close to the subsistence edge, but among great nations and strong empires, the resources of which were ample, the populations huge, and the power almost unlimited»^[84]

Many countries (particularly Western) have, in recent years, changed their family laws in order to accommodate diverse family models. For instance, in the United Kingdom, in Scotland, the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 provides cohabitants with some limited rights.^[85] In 2010, Ireland enacted the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. There have also been moves at an international level, most notably, the Council of Europe European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock^[86] which came into force in 1978. Countries which ratify it must ensure that children born outside marriage are provided with legal rights as stipulated in the text of this convention. The convention was ratified by the UK in 1981 and by Ireland in 1988.^[87]

In the United States, one in five mothers has children by different fathers; among mothers with two or more children the figure is higher, with 28% having children with at least two different men. Such families are more common among Blacks and Hispanics and among the lower socioeconomic class.^[88]

However, in western society, the single parent family has been growing more accepted and has begun to make an impact on culture. Single parent families are more commonly single mother families than single father.^[89] These families sometimes face difficult issues besides the fact that they have to rear their children on their own, for example, low income making it difficult to pay for rent, child care, and other necessities for a healthy and safe home.

Furthermore, there are families that consist of two mothers, two fathers, non-binary, trans, and queer folks raising children. This is made possible due to surrogacy, IVF, IUI, adoption, and other processes.

Domestic violence[edit]

Domestic violence (DV) is violence that happens within the family. The legal and social understanding of the concept of DV differs by culture. The definition of the term «domestic violence» varies, depending on the context in which it is used.^[90] It may be defined differently in medical, legal, political or social contexts. The definitions have varied over time, and vary in different parts of the world.

The Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence states that:^[91]

«domestic violence» shall mean all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.

In 1993, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women identified domestic violence as one of three contexts in which violence against women occurs, describing it as:^[92]

Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation.

Family violence[edit]

Family violence is a broader definition, often used to include child abuse, elder abuse, and other violent acts between family members.^[93]

Child abuse is defined by the WHO as:^[94]

Child maltreatment, sometimes referred to as child abuse and neglect, includes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity. Within this broad definition, five subtypes can be distinguished – physical abuse; sexual abuse; neglect and negligent treatment; emotional abuse; and exploitation.

There exists legislation to prevent and punish the occurrence of these offences. There are laws regarding familial sexual activity, which states that it is a criminal offence to have any kind of sexual relationship between one’s grandparent, parent, sibling, aunt or uncle.^[95][96]

Elder abuse is, according to the WHO: «a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person».^[97]

Parental abuse of children (child abuse)[edit]

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children.^[98] In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child.^[99] Child abuse can occur in a child’s home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.

Parental abuse by children[edit]

Abuse of parents by their children is a common but under reported and under-researched subject. A factor why this subject is under-researched is because of the overshadowing effect caused by parents abusing their children instead. Parents are quite often subject to levels of childhood aggression in excess of normal childhood aggressive outbursts, typically in the form of verbal or physical abuse. Parents feel a sense of shame and humiliation to have that problem, so they rarely seek help and it is usually little or no help available anyway.^[100][101]

Elder abuse[edit]

Elder abuse is «a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person».^[102] This definition has been adopted by the World Health Organization from a definition put forward by Action on Elder Abuse in the UK. Laws protecting the elderly from abuse are similar to, and related to, laws protecting dependent adults from abuse.

The core element to the harm of elder abuse is the «expectation of trust» of the older person toward their abuser. Thus, it includes harms by people the older person knows or with whom they have a relationship, such as a spouse, partner or family member, a friend or neighbor, or people that the older person relies on for services. Many forms of elder abuse are recognized as types of domestic violence or family violence.

Forced and child marriage[edit]

Forced and child marriages are practiced in certain regions of the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, and these types of marriages are associated with a high rate of domestic violence.^{[103][104][105][106]}

A forced marriage is a marriage where one or both participants are married without their freely given consent.^[107] The line between forced marriage and consensual marriage may become blurred, because the social norms of many cultures dictate that one should never oppose the desire of one’s parents/relatives in regard to the choice of a spouse; in such cultures it is not necessary for violence, threats, intimidation etc. to occur, the person simply «consents» to the marriage even if he/she doesn’t want it, out of the implied social pressure and duty. The customs of bride price and dowry, that exist in parts of the world, can lead to buying and selling people into marriage.^[108][109]

A child marriage is a marriage where one or both spouses are under 18.^[110][103] Child marriage was common throughout history but is today condemned by international human rights organizations.^{[111][112][113]} Child marriages are often arranged between the families of the future bride and groom, sometimes as soon as the girl is born.^[111] Child marriages can also occur in the context of marriage by abduction.^[111]

The concept of family honour[edit]

Family honor is an abstract concept involving the perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects the social standing and the self-evaluation of a group of related people, both corporately and individually.^[114][115] The family is viewed as the main source of honor and the community highly values the relationship between honor and the family.^[116] The conduct of family members reflects upon family honor and the way the family perceives itself, and is perceived by others.^[115] In cultures of honor maintaining the family honor is often perceived as more important than either individual freedom, or individual achievement.^[117] In extreme cases, engaging in acts that are deemed to tarnish the honor of the family results in honor killings. An honor killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the perpetrators’ belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family or community, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their relatives, having sex outside marriage, becoming the victim of rape, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations.^{[118][119][120][121][122]}

Economic issues[edit]

A family is often part of a sharing economy with common ownership.

Dowry, bride price and dower[edit]

Dowry is property (money, goods, or estate) that a wife or wife’s family gives to her husband when the wife and husband marry.^[123] Offering dowry was common in many cultures historically (including in Europe and North America), but this practice today is mostly restricted to some areas primarily in the Indian subcontinent.

Bride price, (also bride wealth or bride token), is property paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. It is practiced mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South-East Asia (Thailand, Cambodia), and parts of Central Asia.

Dower is property given to the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage, and which remains under her ownership and control.^[124]

Property regimes and taxation[edit]

In some countries married couples benefit from various taxation advantages not available to a single person or to unmarried couples. For example, spouses may be allowed to average their combined incomes. Some jurisdictions recognize common law marriage or de facto relations for this purposes. In some jurisdictions there is also an option of civil partnership or domestic partnership.

Different property regimes exist for spouses. In many countries, each marriage partner has the choice of keeping their property separate or combining properties. In the latter case, called community property, when the marriage ends by divorce each owns half. In lieu of a will or trust, property owned by the deceased generally is inherited by the surviving spouse.

Rights and laws[edit]

Reproductive rights[edit]

Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. These include the right to decide on issues regarding the number of children born, family planning, contraception, and private life, free from coercion and discrimination; as well as the right to access health services and adequate information.^{[125][126][127][128]} According to UNFPA, reproductive rights «include the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of children, the right to voluntarily marry and establish a family, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health, among others».^[129] Family planning refers to the factors that may be considered by individuals and couples in order for them to control their fertility, anticipate and attain the desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births.^[130][131]

The state and church have been, and still are in some countries, involved in controlling the size of families, often using coercive methods, such as bans on contraception or abortion (where the policy is a natalist one—for example through tax on childlessness) or conversely, discriminatory policies against large families (e.g., China’s one-child policy in place from 1978 to 2015) or even forced abortions. Forced sterilization has often targeted ethnic minority groups, such as Roma women in Eastern Europe,^[132][133] or indigenous women in Peru (during the 1990s).^[134]

Parents’ rights[edit]

The parents’ rights movement is a movement whose members are primarily interested in issues affecting parents and children related to family law, specifically parental rights and obligations. Mothers’ rights movements focus on maternal health, workplace issues such as labor rights, breastfeeding, and rights in family law. The fathers’ rights movement is a movement whose members are primarily interested in issues related to family law, including child custody and child support, that affect fathers and their children.^[135]

Children’s rights[edit]

Children’s rights are the human rights of children, with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors, including their right to association with both parents, their right to human identity, their right to be provided in regard to their other basic needs, and their right to be free from violence and abuse.^{[136][137][138]}

Marriage rights[edit]

Each jurisdiction has its own marriage laws. These laws differ significantly from country to country; and these laws are often controversial. Areas of controversy include women’s rights as well as same-sex marriage.

Legal reforms[edit]

Legal reforms to family laws have taken place in many countries during the past few decades. These dealt primarily with gender equality within marriage and with divorce laws. Women have been given equal rights in marriage in many countries, reversing older family laws based on the dominant legal role of the husband. Coverture, which was enshrined in the common law of England and the US for several centuries and throughout most of the 19th century, was abolished. In some European countries the changes that lead to gender equality were slower. The period of 1975–1979 saw a major overhaul of family laws in countries such as Italy,^[139][140] Spain,^[141] Austria,^[142] West Germany,^[143][144] and Portugal.^[145] In 1978, the Council of Europe passed the Resolution (78) 37 on equality of spouses in civil law.^[146] Among the last European countries to establish full gender equality in marriage were Switzerland. In 1985, a referendum guaranteed women legal equality with men within marriage.^[147][148] The new reforms came into force in January 1988.^[149] In Greece, in 1983, legislation was passed guaranteeing equality between spouses, abolishing dowry, and ending legal discrimination against illegitimate children.^[150][151] In 1981, Spain abolished the requirement that married women must have their husbands’ permission to initiate judicial proceedings^[152] the Netherlands,^[153][154] and France^{[note 1]} in the 1980s. In recent decades, the marital power has also been abolished in African countries that had this doctrine, but many African countries that were former French colonies still have discriminatory laws in their marriages regulations, such regulations originating in the Napoleonic Code that has inspired these laws.^[152] In some countries (predominantly Roman Catholic) divorce was legalized only recently (e.g. Italy (1970), Portugal (1975), Brazil (1977), Spain (1981), Argentina (1987), Ireland (1996), Chile (2004) and Malta (2011)) although annulment and legal separation were options. The Philippines still does not allow divorce. (see Divorce law by country). The laws pertaining to the situation of children born outside marriage have also been revised in many countries (see Legitimacy (family law)).

Health[edit]

Family medicine[edit]

Family medicine is a medical specialty devoted to comprehensive health care for people of all ages; it is based on knowledge of the patient in the context of the family and the community, emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion.^[158] The importance of family medicine is being increasingly recognized.^[159]

Maternal mortality[edit]

Maternal mortality or maternal death is defined by WHO as «the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.»^[161] Historically, maternal mortality was a major cause of women’s death. In recent decades, advances in healthcare have resulted in rates of maternal mortality having dropped dramatically, especially in Western countries. Maternal mortality however remains a serious problem in many African and Asian counties.^[161][162]

Infant and child mortality[edit]

Infant mortality is the death of a child less than one year of age. Child mortality is the death of a child before the child’s fifth birthday. Like maternal mortality, infant and child mortality were common throughout history, but have decreased significantly in modern times.^[163][164]

Politics[edit]

While in many parts of the world family policies seek to promote a gender-equal organization of the family life, in others the male-dominated family continues to be the official policy of the authorities, which is also supported by law. For instance, the Civil Code of Iran states at Article 1105: «In relations between husband and wife; the position of the head of the family is the exclusive right of the husband».^[165]

In some parts of the world, some governments promote a specific form of family, such as that based on traditional family values. The term «family values» is often used in political discourse in some countries, its general meaning being that of traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family’s structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals, usually involving the «traditional family»—a middle-class family with a breadwinner father and a homemaker mother, raising their biological children. Any deviation from this family model is considered a «nontraditional family».^[166] These family ideals are often advanced through policies such as marriage promotion. Some jurisdictions outlaw practices which they deem as socially or religiously unacceptable, such as fornication, cohabitation or adultery.

Work–family balance[edit]

Work–family balance is a concept involving proper prioritizing between work/career and family life. It includes issues relating to the way how work and families intersect and influence each other. At a political level, it is reflected through policies such maternity leave and paternity leave. Since the 1950s, social scientists as well as feminists have increasingly criticized gendered arrangements of work and care, and the male breadwinner role, and policies are increasingly targeting men as fathers, as a tool of changing gender relations.^[167]

Protection of private and family life[edit]

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one’s «private and family life, his home and his correspondence», subject to certain restrictions that are «in accordance with law» and «necessary in a democratic society».^[168]

Article 8 – Right to respect for private and family life

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedom of others.

Criticism[edit]

An early opponent of the family was Socrates whose position was outlined by Plato in The Republic.^[169] In Book 5 of The Republic, Socrates tells his interlocutors that a just city is one in which citizens have no family ties.^[170][171]

The family being such a deep-rooted and much-venerated institution, few intellectuals have ventured to speak against it. Familialism has been atypically defined as a «social structure where … a family’s values are held in higher esteem than the values of the individual members of the family». Favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit is called nepotism.

The Russian-American rationalist and individualist philosopher, novelist and playwright Ayn Rand compared partiality towards consanguinity with racism, as a small-scale manifestation of the latter.^[172] «The worship of the family is merely racism, like a crudely primitive first installment on the worship of the tribe. It places the accident of birth above a man’s values and duty to the tribe above a man’s right to his own life.»^[173] Additionally, she spoke in favor of childfree lifestyle, while following it herself.^[172]

The family and social justice[edit]

One of the controversies regarding the family is the application of the concept of social justice to the private sphere of family relations, in particular with regard to the rights of women and children. Throughout much of the history, most philosophers who advocated for social justice focused on the public political arena, not on the family structures; with the family often being seen as a separate entity which needed to be protected from outside state intrusion. One notable exception was John Stuart Mill, who, in his work The Subjection of Women, advocated for greater rights for women within marriage and family.^[174] Second wave feminists argued that the personal is political, stating that there are strong connections between personal experiences and the larger social and political structures. In the context of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, this was a challenge to the nuclear family and family values, as they were understood then.^[175] Feminists focused on domestic violence, arguing that the reluctance—in law or in practice—of the state to intervene and offer protection to women who have been abused within the family, is in violation of women’s human rights, and is the result of an ideology which places family relations outside the conceptual framework of human rights.^[176]

Global trends in family composition[edit]

Statistics from an infographic by Olivier Ballou showed that,^[177]

In 2013, just over 40% of US babies were born outside marriage. The Census bureau estimated that 27% of all children lived in a fatherless home. Europe has seen a surge in child-free adults. One in five 40-something women are childless in Sweden and in Switzerland, in Italy one in four, in Berlin one in three. So-called traditional societies are seeing the same trend. About one-sixth of Japanese women in their forties have never married and about 30% of all women that age are childless.

However, Swedish statisticians reported in 2013 that, in contrast to many countries, since the 2000s, fewer children have experienced their parents’ separation, childlessness had decreased in Sweden and marriages had increased. It had also become more common for couples to have a third child suggesting that the nuclear family was no longer in decline in Sweden.^[178]: 10

See also[edit]

• Childlessness
• Familialism
• Family economics
• Household
• Nepotism
• Parent
• Stepfamily
• Voluntary childlessness

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

• «Family» . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). 1911.

Family. It’s not just any other word lost in the pages of a vast dictionary. ‘Family’ is an emotion. Just the mere mention of this word can invoke the most innate feelings of love and belonging in you. Love and belonging is a true family definition. Everyone, even the most solitary soul needs someone they can call a family because family is the one humane aspect that makes a house a home.  And that’s why we must know the true meaning of family.

A family doesn’t necessarily mean your parents, your siblings or your immediate blood relatives. Family can mean your best friends, your classmates, your teachers, your pet, or even that one person you always wave to at your local coffee shop.

In fact, a family can mean anyone who gives you that comforting feeling of familiarity. Family is the group of people who you know accepts you for you. You feel comfortable, safe, special, that you matter and that your voice matters. Family is that which can make you happy as soon as you see them. They are the ones who stand by you through thick and thin. They are your entire support system. Moreover, keep you going forward in life.

Family Definition – How Do You Define Your Family?

To be a part of a family is a beautiful phenomenon. It gives us a sense of belonging and love we all crave. But your family isn’t always limited to just your parents, grandparents or siblings. Your family can also be your closest friends, your teachers or your mentors -your chosen family. The true definition of family lies not in blood relations, but it is measured in the amount of love and respect people hold for each other.

The definition of a true family is just this. A group of people who have each other’s back and are willing to go to the ends of the earth to bring a smile to the others’ face. Call it a true family or a real family—the true family definition is the sense of loyalty, selflessness, love, and genuine care and concern for others.

Strengthen Your Ties

It is difficult to find people who want the best for you without any ulterior motives. However, once you do, make sure you fight for them to stay no matter what. There will be hurdles along the way, and huge fights where your relationship may seem too fragile to hold on to. But remember this, overcoming these hurdles together will only strengthen your ties. After all, at the end of the day, the true meaning and definition of family lies in how much you care for one another.

Sometimes your chosen family, vis-a-vis your friends, co-workers, mentors, or teachers may seem more helpful in rising above yourself but never forget your family too. After all, they have known you your entire life and have loved and cared for you since the very beginning, no matter what. 

So go out there into the real world and find your chosen family. Those who will stand by you no matter what, and will always support you no matter what. But make sure you never forget where you came from because that is where you will always truly belong.

The Importance Of A Family

When we talk about the basic necessities required to sustain life, we focus mainly on food, clothing, and shelter. However, we forget to talk about human interaction. Believe it or not, all human beings require some sort of human association. Without it, we cannot survive. We slip into extreme depression or resort to suicide as a cure to the loneliness we feel due to the lack of this human feeling. Therefore, we require exposure to our own species. Man cannot survive in a solitary unit.

Family is your primary exposure to the same species as you. It is the most basic level of human recognition. A child begins to develop a sense of self-concept by comparing himself to his family. Therefore, a family is essential for the very building of your personality. Family teaches you your first lessons in everything, be it responsibility, forgiveness, letting go of petty fights or caring about others. One cannot stress the importance of having a family anymore. And this is the true meaning of family.

Family Bond Matters

Man is a social animal. Ever since the beginning of time, man has required an association with emotional make-up designed similarly to their own. Basically, we all have an innate need to connect with our own species. Family is one of the major factors that fulfill this necessity.

The need for love and validation is literally a human necessity. Family is that one body that will willingly fulfil those needs. A family with an unbreakable bond can be challenged but never severed. No matter how bad the times are, your true family will be within a mere arm’s reach. They’ll stand ready to help you fight your battles and guide you on the long path of life. After all, a family is what helps a person make their life worth living, and we should value the true meaning of family. For many people, the best approach to life when it comes to the importance of family is a family approach or being family-oriented. So what is family oriented meaning? 

Family Oriented Meaning

A family-oriented person thinks profoundly about each family member and cares for them; besides ensuring that his family holds importance in his life, they make them feel seen and heard and accept them for who they are. In other words, family-oriented means putting your family first. In a family-oriented system, you value your family’s feelings, decisions, and, most importantly, thoughts. Always appreciate your bond with them and put them first on your priority list. Moreover, a family-oriented approach is important for personal well-being. It helps to grow professionally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. So when you make a decision, you ensure that you made your decision while considering your parents’ and families’ feelings. A family-oriented system teaches respect and cares toward family members; it provides support in difficult times. Again, it is a positive trait that enhances personal beliefs and morals.

What Does It Mean To Be “Family-Oriented” In Today’s World?

The traditional concept of family-oriented work has evolved as both men and women work and devote time to their families. The family-oriented concept was different a few decades ago than it is now. Women at the time had strong family ties and preferred not to work, stay at home, looking after all household chores; their primary objective was to take care of their family. In contrast, family-oriented men worked to support their families. However, with time, the family-oriented concept has changed; now, both men and women work to support their families, sharing the load equally. Today’s men have surpassed the socially perceived meaning of family-oriented; they work, look after their kids when needed, and treat their partners equally. Women are balancing both home and work, maintaining their work-life balance, and proving that their professional life will not affect their values towards the family. 

Are You Family-Oriented? What Does It Mean To Be Family-Oriented To You?

The family-oriented concept may vary depending on a person’s values, ideas, and way of thinking. A family-oriented person places their family and close relationships first and foremost. They strongly rely on the family to make decisions, and they prioritize their family’s needs over their own. Furthermore, these people emphasize family values and morals more than anything else. In my opinion, it’s good to be family-oriented. Prioritizing your family first is nothing to be ashamed of, so always prioritize your family. For this reason, always consider ways to become more family-oriented. If your family has grown estranged from you, express your love and appreciation to them before it’s too late.

How To Build A Strong Relationship Within Your Family

Every relationship blossoms on the basis of trust. If your child begins to trust you fully and completely at an early stage, the odds are, they’ll still be that connected to you in their teenage stage.

Build Trust

Getting someone as pure as a little child to trust you is easy. What makes it hard is to maintain that trust as they grow up. That means their secrets should remain secrets, no matter how silly they may seem. That means you should be able to make time to hear them out, no matter how bad the work is. This also means being able to trust your child to tell the truth, no matter how fishy things may seem.

Trust is like a spider’s web. You invest all your time and effort trying to build it up, and one small mistake may ruin it all. Trust is fragile and complicated and when you try to build it up again, it won’t ever be the same. Something as delicate and exquisite as trust must be protected and treasured. Apart from this, there are certain things you should do as parents in order to create smooth compatibility within your family. All you need to do to set the gears going is to facilitate contact among the different members of your family.

Spend Time

Sit together and plan to spend quality time with your family; organize family get-togethers, family dinners, karaoke nights, and family game nights where you all sit and sing together or play a board game and whatnot. This will help the family get to know each other better.

You can also have daily talk sessions where you all leave everything aside and just talk to each other about any random thing for at least 15 minutes. This will help you think of the people in your family as individual people and not just members of a family. For example, kids think of their mothers only as mothers and they often fail to recognize that their mother is a separate entity, who has certain likes, dislikes, opinions, or problems. It helps family members to disengage from their own personal bubbles and step into others’ shoes.

How Does A Family Affect Teenagers?

Most teenagers stop feeling this sense of familiarity with their parents once they start growing up. They lose that confidence and trust that they once had in their parents and begin to search for a family amongst their peers. While this is healthy, “normal”, one might say, it does play a major role in a teenager’s life. Making friends that seem as close as a family is a great thing, but not when you begin to push away people who truly care about you.

All of us experienced that one stage in life, where your own family embarrassed or irritated you. Most of these experiences are direct results of parents attempting to connect with their children. While they mean well, the method they use to make this connection can often result in uncomfortable situations for teenagers.

Parents try to adhere to teenage trends thinking that by doing so, their children will be more receptive to their attention. Parents should try to dress, talk and behave in such a way that give a sense of belonging and understanding to the children. In an attempt to befriend their children, parents lose out on their primary goal: preparing their children for the tough future they have to face.

However, this usually has negative consequences, wherein children start to think of their parents as a source of embarrassment, rather than someone they look up to.

A strong connection can be maintained among parents and their children if there is an undisputed understanding within them. Parents and children can be the best of friends if they trust and understand each other, it should be the parents’ duty to rebuke as well as reform.

Also Read: For every single person in the world, a family is everything!. Celebrate your family love with these family quotes.

Recent Examples on the Web

The area also ranked nationally with high rates of unsheltered homelessness for multiple populations including unaccompanied youth, families with children, chronically homeless individuals and veterans.


—oregonlive, 11 Apr. 2023




So many lives had been claimed by 2016, touching countless families.


—Cincinnati Enquirer, The Enquirer, 11 Apr. 2023




It is owned by the billionaire Magnier family, who dominate the Irish stud industry (Queen Elizabeth once visited their nearby breeding operation, Coolmore Stud), and equine activities predominate at the property.


—Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 11 Apr. 2023




More:’Wrap our arms around these families‘: Beshear, Greenberg react to Louisville mass shooting The other shooting victims Monday were Jim Tutt Jr., 64; Josh Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Deana Eckert, 57.


—Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 11 Apr. 2023




Alabama’s defense has lost eight starters to the NFL draft and was without four others Friday because of injuries to inside linebackers Deontae Lawson, outside linebackers Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell, and the absence of cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry for a family matter.


—Mike Rodak | Mrodak@al.com, al, 11 Apr. 2023




The 35-year-old actress dropped several pics of herself and her family on Instagram—including husband Ryan Reynolds, her mom, and her mother-in-law—hanging out in and around a beach, looking all kinds of blissed out.


—Korin Miller, Women’s Health, 11 Apr. 2023




Tucson police announced Monday that officers arrested a man after finding a woman dead inside her family home from a gunshot wound last week.


—Andrea Ramirez, The Arizona Republic, 10 Apr. 2023




The young men may have recently turned 18 and now qualify, or have cleared up family obligations that previously stopped them from joining.


—Kostiantyn Khudov, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2023

The development at 105 S. Forest Ave. would include seven buildings with a total of 106 multi-family units and a separate, central amenities building with an outdoor pool, clubhouse and expansive patio, according to city documents.


—Cathy Kozlowicz, Journal Sentinel, 11 Apr. 2023




However, multi-family unit permit applications rose 2.8%, suggesting builders are preparing to capitalize on the hot rental market.


—Q.ai — Powering A Personal Wealth Movement, Forbes, 17 Aug. 2022




More than 500 multi-family residential units, 60,000 square feet of retail space, a parking garage, parks, boardwalks, riverwalks, an amphitheater.


—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Aug. 2022




Waterway Wines has received site plan approval to develop a mixed-use project including a retail wine store, wine tasting room, restaurant and four multi-family units at 2301 E. 2nd St., in Gulf Shores, according to city planning.


—Kathy Jumper, al, 29 May 2022




Continental Properties is proposing 149 built-for-rent single- and multi-family housing units on 23 acres near the same area of the future redesigned Wolf’s Crossing Road and Douglas Road intersection in unincorporated Kendall County near Oswego.


—Linda Girardi, chicagotribune.com, 27 Dec. 2021




Almost 30,000 single- and multi-family homes and businesses could benefit if approved in the coming months.


—Megan Rodriguez, San Antonio Express-News, 16 Mar. 2023




City Council members unanimously supported the ordinance, which changed property use in an area previously zoned for retail and multi-family homes.


—Rachel Fradette, The Indianapolis Star, 14 Mar. 2023




The residence is a multi-family home with five bedrooms and two bathrooms, according to a Zillow listing.


—Haley Hersey, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2023


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