Family Diversity & Different Structures

What is Family Diversity?

Family Diversity is term which describes the different type of family structures dotted all
around the globe, these mutations can occur on the basis of plethora of reasons, such as a
family structure may differ from others on the cause of ethnicity, region, type of society & the
current condition of its members (like are they married? Or do they have young children or
adult children?).
To further simplify the understanding, and streamline the concept, some distinguished
definitions of family diversity from different sources are quoted below;

Historically, the term family diversity referred to variations from a traditional family. This
implied that there was one best type of family, and that all other family types were
dysfunctional and deviant. In a more contemporary view, family diversity refers to a broad
range of characteristics or dimensions on which families vary, along with a recognition
that there are a multitude of different family types that function effectively. Family diversity
thus refers to variations along structural or demographic dimensions (e.g., race/ethnicity,
socioeconomic status), as well as in family processes (e.g., communication and parenting
behaviors), (Eeden-Moorefield & Demo, 2007).

Family diversity refers to the numerous family structures which exist outside the
traditional family structure. They maybe diverse due to the demographic changes taking
place in the society or how the others interpret the perspective of families.

Family Diversity refers to that Family/household structures are based on the idea that we
can identify differences in the way people relate to each other; in other words family and
household structures are differentiated (or different) from each other on the basis of the
different lifestyles, values and norms surrounding peoples relationships.

So, family is not mono-facial and it contains mutagens which allow it to reshape according
to the current norms & values of the society and in-current social beliefs. As this statement
mentions the presence of diversity, ergo we can deduce that there are many different
structures of family present in the global premises, so what are they, and how are they
devised, this we are going to study in the on-coming passages, But first we are going to see
the definitions and identification of the ways in which the families are diverse.

Types of Family Diversity

Organizational Diversity: Variations in household structure, type, kinship networks, division of

labour.
Cultural Diversity: There are differences in the lifestyle of families of different ethnic origins and
different religious beliefs.
Class Diversity: There are differences between middle and working-class families in terms of
relationships between adults and the way children are socialized.
Lifecycle stage Diversity: Newly married couples without children may have a different family life
to those with dependent children.
Each epoch or period Diversity: This cause of diversity refers to the social change resulting from
a war or revolution, as these families live in different ways than the families which live in relative
peace and stability.

Types Of Family Structures

Nuclear Family
Cereal-Packet Family
Blended Or Reconstituted Family
Lone Parent Family
Same Sex (Gay Or Lesbians) Family
Ethnic Diverse Family
Cohabitation
Classic Extended Family
Modified Extended Family
Patriarchal Family
Matriarchal (Matrifocal) Family
Adoptive Family
Broken home (Foster Home) Family
Transnational Family
Bi-Racial Or Multi-Racial Family
Trans-Racial Adoptive Family
Neo-Conventional (Dual Worker) Family

Nuclear Family
A family consisting of a married man & woman and their biological children. This family form is the one
most reinforced in the dominant society. It is also called an elementary family. But it is now under threat,
due to demand for other family structures. This structure of family is mutating into Neo-conventional Family.
Contacts with wider kin (aunts and cousins, for example) are usually infrequent and more likely to involve
impersonal contacts such as texting, telephone, or email. For this reason, this family structure is
sometimes called an isolated nuclear (reflecting its isolation from wider kin or conjugal family a selfcontained unit whereby family members are expected to support each other socially, economically and
psychologically.
Bronislaw Malinowski (Founder Of Functionalism)
Pioneer anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1913) stated that the nuclear family had to be universal
because it filled a basic biological need, caring for and protecting infants and young children. No culture
could survive, he asserted, unless the birth of children was linked to both mother and father in legally based
parenthood.
George Murdock
Anthropologist George P. Murdock (1949) elaborated on the idea that the nuclear family is both universal
and essential: "Whether as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which more
complex families form, [the nuclear family] exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every known
society".
He also claimed that this type of family structure, aka The Nuclear Family Structure is the universal family
structure, and is the most basic and contemporary plus common family type.
Talcott Parsons
The nuclear unit, he argued, fits the needs of industrial society. Independent of the kin network, the
"isolated" nuclear family is free to move as the economy demands. Further, the intimate nuclear family can
specialize in serving the emotional needs of adults and children in a competitive and impersonal world.
Young & Wilmott
This duo of functionalists sociologists claimed that Nuclear family is the most common type of family, and
their most highlighted argument was that this type of family is one of the most harmonic, and rosy type of
family structure which can be found in contemporary society. They assess that this type of family is the
most symmetrical in the society and the members of the family has complete equality between them.

Delphy & Diana Leonard

They claim this type of family structure to be completely patriarchal, where the women are at complete
disadvantage, and they face violence, rape in marriage and unpaid labor in a family where the whole power
lies with the male, and they made all decisions.
Jennifer Somerville
This Liberal sociologist sees Nuclear family as the uneven divide of power within a family, where the men
have power over women (so she refers this family type as patriarchal family). And she claims that the
conjugal roles within this family type are not possible, as it works on the bases of patriarchal societies.
Charles Murray & (The New Right)
This branch of sociologists believe that the traditional nuclear family is best in all regards for both the old
and contemporary societies, they relate all other types of families to the causing of social problems and
negativities. They are firmly opposed to family diversity.

Cereal Packet Family

This type of family is based on the idea recognized by the sociologists Young & Wilmott. This type of family
is portrayed as the perfect family, as shown in TV commercials for family products, hence the name.
Basically its a nuclear family, but with a perfectly harmonic scenario, where every family member is happy,
and the family is beneficial and productive to whole society.
Edmund Leech
In 1967 Edmund Leech recognized the power of the image of the traditional family. Leech called this image
the cereal packet image of the family because it was a socially constructed model laden with assumptions
of how families ought to be. Such an image creates a normalized social construction of what a family
should look like.
Ann Oakley
Ann Oakley (1982) described the cereal packet image of the family as one in which conventional families
are nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing the parenthood of one or
more (but not too many) children.
Barrie Thorne
Feminist Barrie Thorne (1992) attacked this image of family for being monolithic as it ignores diversity in
family structures. And argued again on the principle of non-equality and no symmetry whatsoever for
women.

Charles Murray & (The New Right aka Modernists)

The New Right argues that the nuclear family is ideally suited to teaching a child moral decency. Charles
Murray is a New Right sociologist who says the traditional nuclear family is under threat.

Blended Or Reconstituted Family

One form of family diversity which moves away from traditional notions of the family is the step-family now
more commonly known as the reconstituted or blended family. This is the family which results from divorce
and remarriage. A reconstituted family may consist of children from the parents previous marriages as well as
from the current one. Relations in such families are often multiplex involving different kinds of relationships that
are not found in simpler forms of family arrangements (e.g., three or more sets of grandparents). And the family,
in its first stages, doesnt necessarily be of blood-kinship.
Allan & Crow
Allan & Crow (2001), Found seven out of ten families with dependent children may be described as
married-couple families these do not all conform to the stereotype of the normal family as some are stepfamilies or reconstituted families. Step-families with dependent children account for 7% of all families and
there is evidence of an increase in the proportion of step-families in recent years.
Carol Smart
Carol Smart, co-author of The Changing Experience of Childhood, has conducted research with many
children whose families have broken up. In half the cases, at least one parent had found another partner. It
didnt mean the adults always got on terribly well, but where it worked, the children felt they had two
homes. But these homes were subtly different from the ones that had preceded them (and not only
because they were, one hopes, happier). Where there was still frequent contact with the biological parent,
Smart found, it was impossible for the step-parent to become a substitute mother or father. They tended to
assume instead a non-authoritarian, non-disciplinarian, companionship role. A new etiquette is emerging.

Lone Parent Family

This type of family has a single parent, rather than two, which look after their children. This can be either a
father or a mother who is singly responsible for the raising of a child. The child can be by birth or adoption.
They may be a single parent by choice or by life circumstances. The other parent may have been part of
the family at one time or not at all.
Hardey and Crow
These sociologists claimed that the experience of lone parenthood remains full of ambiguities with an
overall picture of resilience and inventiveness as well as unrelieved responsibilities and frustrations in the
face of adverse economic and social processes of marginalization.

Mark Brown And Alison Park

Mark Brown (1995) puts the increase of singlehood down to a decline in shotgun weddings in addition to a
growing social acceptance of cohabitation. And if that relationship fails, then singlehood becomes the
outcome. The increased acceptance of having children outside marriage was also uncovered from Alison
Parks (2001) research.
New Right And Functionalists
New Right and Functionalists believe that they are to blame for societys negatives. They believe loneparent families are incredibly bad for the individual, and cause problematic areas in society such as:
They cause social problems
Children lack both role models
They have financial problems and therefore live off Government Benefits
They are responsible for crime
They underachieve
Theyre more susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse
Theyre more likely to live in poverty
New Right and Functionalists do not like them because they believe that lone-parent families are
responsible for all that is wrong for their precious sociological theory that society is an absolute positive
thing.
They also think that it's a very bad idea to have children brought up in families where adults aren't working
and in lone parent families or fatherless families. Moral panic and fear of breakdown in social fabric are due
to lone parent families. New Right sociologists believe that the increase in lone-parent and reconstituted
families and the easier access to divorce have led to a breakdown in traditional values. They say that this
causes social problems such as crime increase.
Ropoports (Robert & Rohanna)
They claimed that the lone parent family was increasingly becoming accepted as one aspect of growing
family diversity. They also believed that it was important emerging form of family which was becoming
accepted as a legitimate alternative to other forms of family structures.

Same Sex (Gay Or Lesbians) Family

A family where one or both of the parents sexual orientation is gay or lesbian. This may be a two-parent
family, an adoptive family, a single parent family or an extended family.

Stacey
Stacey (1996) argues that gay and lesbian families represent an ideal model of postmodern kinship
because their conscious efforts to devise intimate relationships are freed from the constraints and the
benefits of traditional patterns of family life.
Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager, in arguing that marriage should be defined exclusively as the union of one woman and one
man, claims that families provide the procreative foundation that is the chief building block of civilization. So
the relationship between gays & lesbians should never be labeled as family.
Catherine Donovan & Brian Heaphey
These sociologists stated that; during the past generation the possibilities of living an openly lesbian or gay
life have been transformed. Many sociologists, including these believe that such households, where they
incorporate long-term gay or lesbian relationships, should be seen as constituting families.

Ethnic Diverse Family

This type of family is only reduced either to the Hindu families, where both spouses (and their children) may
have different ethnic classes, and or Christian families, where both married partners (and their children)
may be the part of the different church.

Cohabitation
Cohabitation is arrangements where two people who are not married live together in an emotionally and/or
sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. "Cohabitation" usually refers to unmarried
couples who live together without formally registering their relation as a marriage.
Casper & Bianch
They argue that Cohabitation has increased so much over the years because of the increased uncertainty
about the stability of a marriage, the erosion of norms against cohabitation and sexual relations outside of
marriage, the availability of reliable birth control, and the weakening of religious beliefs.
Bumpass & Sweet
These sociologists argue that cohabitation reduces the cost of partnering, it also couples to experience the
benefits of an intimate relationship without committing to marriage, and more things have been accepted
throughout time such as premarital sex and living with a partner before marriage .

Classic Extended Family

A family where several related nuclear families or family members live in the same house, street or area. It
may be horizontally extended, where it contains aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., or vertically extended, where it
contains more than two generations.
Ronald Fletcher
This functionalist sociologist believed that classic extended family was not able to fulfill the demands of the
contemporary society, so it evolved into the nuclear family as it was super-seeded by the industrialization.

Modified Extended Family

A family type where related nuclear families, although living apart geographically, nevertheless maintain
regular contact and mutual support through visiting, the phone, e-mail and letters. This family is actually the
mutation of classic extended family, evolved into modified one because of the introduction of mass
communications (the revelation of information society).
Max Stanton
In his 1995 article Patterns of Kinship and Residence, Max E. Stanton offers clarity in defining an
extended family as an ongoing body with a geographical base and it transcends the lifetime of its
members. The composition of the extended family with its nuclear families and independent single adults
changes constantly, but the extended family itself continues with new leaders and new members as
individuals depart or as the generations pass away.
Bernard Farber
Bernard Farber (2000) and Maria Schmeeckle and Susan Sprecher (2004) support a definition of extended
family as a vertical extension of a core nuclear family to include a third (e.g., grandparents) or even fourth
generation.
Colleen Leahy Johnson
Colleen Leahy Johnson (1998), Riley and Riley (1993), and Judith Stacey (1990) observe that extended
family occurs in various, voluntary, and malleable contexts, making membership changeable and
somewhat ambiguous. It is composed of three interlocking nuclear families: family of origin, family of
procreation, and family of affinal relations (e.g., in-laws).

Patriarchal Family
This family structure "a form of social organization in which the male is the family head and title is traced
through the male line" - in other words a family where the father is the authority figure and everyone gains

his approval or follows his instructions. A matriarchal family is the opposite where the mother rules the
roost.
Mary Boulton
Mary Boulton argued that men are relatively at ease in patriarchal families as all the burden is on women;
her claim is evident as she found out that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare.
Young And Wilmott
This duo of Functionalists claimed that there is no such thing as patriarchy in contemporary society, as the
families have become symmetrical and the power within the family is equally shared between spouses.
Ann Oakley
In contrast to Willmott and Young, Oakley claims that the division of labour within families remains unequal
with the burden of domestic work still falling on women even when they are also in paid employment. This
is referred to as the "double" or "dual burden" which benefits men as this means the family is still
patriarchal.

Matriarchal (Matrifocal) Family

A matrifocal family structure is one where mothers head families and fathers play a less important role in
the home and in bringing up children.
A matriarchal family is a family structure organized around the principle of mother-rule in which mothers, or
females, are at the top of the power structure. There is no solid evidence that a matriarchal society has
ever existed. Even in societies with matrilineal descent, the power structure is either egalitarian or
dominated formally by the father or some other male figure. In order for a social system to be considered a
matriarchy, it would need the support of a culture that defined womens dominance as desirable and
legitimate. So, even though women are the authority figures in single-parent families, they are not
considered matriarchies.
Shape
A study conducted by Shape (1996) with students from the University of the West Indies suggested that
Caribbean men have poor emotional relationships with their children. As a result, young boys may view
family patterns such as matriarchal households, male absenteeism, and extramarital relationships as norms
and continue them as adults.

Adoptive Family
A family where one or more of the children has been adopted. Any structure of family may also be an
adoptive family.

Broken home (Foster Home) Family

A highly derogatory term used to describe the homes of children from divorced families.

Transnational Family
These families live in more than one country. They may spend part of each year in their country of origin
returning to the work country on a regular basis. The child may spend time being cared for by different
family members in each country.

Bi-Racial Or Multi-Racial Family

A family where the parents are members of different racial identity groups, such as one parent being Asian,
and the other being English.

Trans-Racial Adoptive Family

A family where the adopted child is of a different racial identity.

Neo-Conventional (Dual Worker) Family

A neo-conventional family is a dual-earning family where both parents go to work. The main difference
between the neo-conventional and a traditional nuclear family is that women are now being employed
outside the home, instead of just the husband working alone.
Robert Chester
Chester argued that family life has hardly changed at all (i.e. society stills sees the nuclear family as the
'norm') except that women now do paid work in addition to their roles of mum/house wife and therefore men
do slightly more around the house and help with childcare more than they used to. This is what he termed
the neo conventional family.

Stephen Edgell
He stated that (on the basis of his search), there is still no symmetry between and equality between the
both spouses, and the claims of Young & Wilmott are false but nothing. He argued that, in neo-conventional
families, its women who are always at disadvantage and they are the ones who make all the sacrifices
rather than males.
Ann Oakley
Oakley rejects the March of progress view described by Young and Willmott as she suggests that this is
simply exaggerated as we still live in a patriarchal society where women do most of the housework. She
suggested that the methodology used by Young and Willmott was hardly convincing as their questions
lacked in detail. In Oakleys research, she found only 15% of husbands had a high participation in
housework, showing how the statement is flawed as this clearly does not show evidence of equality in
relationships and gender roles.
Mary Boulton
Mary Boulton also argues that Young and Willmott exaggerated the husbands contribution as she found
fewer than 20% of men had a role in childcare; again showing a lack of equality.
Gershuny
Gershuny, in his arguments, stated that although women are still at disadvantage in the families, but there
is equality present between both sexes on the basis of work hours, as he found that men & women spend
approximately same amount of time on work, but he also agreed that, as normally men do the work of their
passion, and get paid for their job, this is not the case for most women, who do unpaid house labor, which
is rather monochromic also.
Elsa Ferri and Kate Smith
Elsa Ferri and Kate Smith (1996) suggest that the changed position of women in terms of employment has
only created a dual burden as they now have to undertake paid work as well as the unpaid housewife role.
Ferri and Smith suggest that unlike Gershuny, increased employment has had little impact of the domestic
labour as fewer than 4% of families had a father responsible for childcare. Therefore, women still remain
responsible for the children as well as their employment responsibility; clearly suggesting that modern
family life is not as equal as it seems. The dual burden is also supported by Dunscombe and Marsdens
theory of a triple burden in that women are expected to do the double shift of housework and paid work but
also the caring of the emotional welfare of the family. This clearly disputes Gershunys idea that women are
more equal due to employment as the triple burden means that they in fact gain more responsibilities than
losing them.

Post Modernists
Post modernists take a different view than structuralists such as Marxists or Functionalists. They argue that
these theories ignore 2 facts; 1. We make choices about our relationships and family life, 2. We now have
much greater choice about our personal relationships and thus family diversity has increased, we can no
longer talk about a dominant or best family type (nuclear).
Post modernist argue that family has gone through a radical change; 1. We no longer live in a modern
world with predictable and orderly structures such as the nuclear family, 2. We live in a postmodern world
which is chaotic, family structures are fragmented and people have much more choice in their lifestyles

The New Right

New Right and Functionalists - Their Familial Ideology

New Right and Functionalists believe that the best and only type of family is the traditional, nuclear family.
This is a family of two heterosexual adults, who are married and in a sexual relationship, producing children
and teaching them the same norms and values that they were taught when they were children.
George Murdock defined the family as:
A social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction. It includes
adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved relationship, and one or more
children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults."

The New Right Familial Ideology:

Is patriarchal - the family is male dominant. Feminists argue that this is negative for women
Ignores the dark side of the family e.g. domestic abuse, poverty, conflict
Is harmful, calling other family-types inadequate - schools, advertisements and television reinforce this
idea
Is anti-social - it stereotypes, labels and discriminates against other family-types; inadequate
Has a Them and Us theory - Nuclear families are the only family type, other family types arent families

Urbanization
In simple terms, this involves the notion that there was a population movement away from small-scale,
agricultural, settlements to larger-scale communities based upon towns and cities. This is sometimes
characterized as a social migration from the countryside to the towns (which themselves started to arise as
industrialization gathered pace with the establishment of factories)
It is now widely accepted that urbanization is as much a social process as it is an economic and territorial
process. It transforms societal organizations, the role of the family, demographic structures, the nature of
work, and the way we choose to live and with whom. It also modifies domestic roles and relations within the
family, and redefines concepts of individual and social responsibility.
Causes of Urbanization

Industrial Revolution
Industrialization following the Industrial Revolution
Emergence of large manufacturing centers
Job Opportunities
Availability of easy transportation
Migration

The main social effects of this process are:

1. Contact with the labour market: established in urban areas population adjusts to match the work market,
specializing in the needs of existing brand and thus framing and adaptation, as well as winning amounts to
cover everyday needs
2. Families and the urban society: it has been often seen a decline in the concept of the family, through the
proliferation of less traditional forms and new types of households. This tendency is manifested as a
consequence of the diversity of the many options for individuals, in which individuals are organizing into
form collective units.

3. Domestic relations: an increase in the rate of participation of women in the labor market, they became
even decision makers who have had to balance professional responsibilities with the family responsibilities
4. Fertility Rates: stepping from rural social space in urban space generates changes in the natural growth
rate of population, the phenomenon manifested setting up smaller families, with a reduced number of
members (Bradbury, A).
5. State of health and pollution: development of new urban areas without complying with the necessary
measures for the development of sustainable areas determine a negative impact both on the environment,
but by the general condition of reciprocity and on the health of individuals, often affected by increased
pollution levels in these areas, in particular the pollution of air and water.
6. Access to education and training: access of the population of rural space set in urban space ensure their
access to education, personal and intellectual development, which provide new features and modes of the
evolution of the individual
7. Poverty, lack of opportunities and problems of psychological adaptation: this overlapping of issues is
identified to a part of the population displaced by the urban space, which fails to adapt, to align to the
standards of urban areas, where evolution, social and economic development are the real engines of
existence, thus generating a chain of negative effects from deviant behaviors to offenses or violent
personalities, as determined by the mirage of developed urban areas, which offers multiple possibilities,
being real centers of development, progress and social well-being( Gilbert, O.L.).