Preview

Family Structure Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
420 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Family Structure Essay Example
family structure in the UK and China

Family is the combination of love. Although the function or the purpose of family is similar around the world, family structure differs significantly from society to society. As a result, family structure of the United Kingdom and China has a huge difference. In generally, families are categorized into three types according to their structures, nuclear family, extended family and single-parent. With the development of society, the structure of family has undergone changes. This essay will outline the family structure both in the UK and China, namely the traditional and current family structure in the UK, the conventional and present family structure in China, and finally the comparison of family structure between the UK and China.

In ancient China, the main family structure is extended family, which is a big family that consists of three of even more generations related by blood or marriage living in the same home. Chinese people would live together and take care of the elder people and children. While in the modern China, nuclear family is becoming more and more popular and extended family disappeared gradually. Because of the “one child policy” in China, so the normal form of nuclear family is “4-2-1”, 4 means the parents and parents-in-law, 2 represents the husband and wife, and 1 is the only one child.

In contrast, nuclear family is the major traditional British family structure,rather than the extended family. They usually have one or two children and the mother usually stay at home to take consideration of their children. With the economy developed and gender equality in nowadays, many women seek for a job and can earn their own bread. As women become more independent and rights than before, they can choose to divorce when met some family problem. It is reported that Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe. As a result, single-parent takes up the major family structure.
In conclusion,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When we talk about family, there should be a house where parents and children can live together, with extended family link with grandparents, uncles, aunts and so on. Although the notions of family may be the same, there still are a lot of diversities between different countries ' family life. A comparison of family life in Australia and China from governmental, cultural and social aspects will be given in the following essay.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A traditional view of the family is held by Functionalists. Functionalists favour the nuclear family which Murdock identifies as ‘a social group characterised by common residents, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children (own or adopted) of the sexually cohabiting parents.’ Leach describes the nuclear family as the cereal packet family because it is seen as the ideal family of a Functionalist society. Parsons identifies the nuclear family as having a strict division of roles between the two parents. Their roles are segregated where the man has the instrumental role of being the breadwinner. Then his wife has the expressive role with domestic and childcare responsibilities. Similarly the New Right favour the nuclear family and pinpoint this family as the best family for raising children. However the nuclear family is not the most common family type in the UK today. This can be seen in the statistics that show 20% of households in the UK are made up of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation 1.5 nuclear family. Furthermore only 5% of the UK lives in a traditional nuclear model.…

    • 1479 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is no single “true” form or definition of a family. Looking at the present day norm, a family can consist of a husband, wife and their children, two wives and their children, blended families with children from previous marriages, and many other variations due to the diversities that are now present in society. Back in the day, families were mostly economic units meaning that families must have worked together productively in order to survive economically. Today, the family unit has evolved to being more of a psychological unit. This essay will outline how the traditional family economic unit has transformed to a psychological unit one that is more affectionate between the family members and how the emotional relationship is more important than that of surviving the economy.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis: This article demonstrates that parent’s role in Chinese marriage customs have stayed the same since time immemorial.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The majority of society sees the Nuclear family as 2 parents (Mum and Dad) being married and with at least one child, with Dad being the main financial contributor and Mum being the home maker as popularised by sociologists such as George Murdoch (3). This is no longer seen as common place as it once was. Children within this family structure receive strength and stability from both parents and generally have more opportunities due to the financial ease of two parents who both contribute this way to the household.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the book "Random *****: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx." by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Specifically it will contain a book report on the *****, focusing on three problem areas the book discusses. The book follows ten years in ***** lives ***** two ***** girls, Jessica and Coco, and illustrates the *****s and social inequ*****ies of growing up in poverty with little hope for escape. This book describes so many problems facing these two young women as they mature in the Bronx that it is difficult to choose only three, but *****me of ***** most pervasive ***** facing ***** ***** and others are drugs, poverty, ***** lack ***** education. Al***** all the residents face these problems, and they deal with them in very different ways.…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the past, traditionally families have mostly been the ‘traditional nuclear family’ made up of a married man and woman and at least one child. However there has recently been a decline in the amount of traditional nuclear families and an increase in the amount of diverse families. There are now less people following the traditional view that the nuclear family is the ‘normal’ way to live. The diverse families now include families such as, lone parent families, reconstituted family, extended family, lone person households, cohabiting couples and same sex couples. In this essay I will discuss the view that the traditional nuclear family has decline as a result of the growth of family diversity and the reasons why people are no longer following past tradition. Cohabitatiion is an arrangement where two people who is not married live together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally and/or sexually intimate one, on a long-term or permanent basis. Before 1970, cohabitation was illegal in certain countries e.g. America. Due to a change in the law, Cohabitation is now a common pattern among people around the world, as well as sex/birth outside of marriage, leaving at least 50% to 60% of coupless cohabitating, starting from the late 1990âs. This leads to the amount of traditional nuclear families decreasing as people want to live in companionship as nearly half the amount of marriages end in divorce, also cohabiting is an easier way as its much cheaper and doesnt cause much hassle. The New Right see the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity as negative trends in modern society.…

    • 757 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Assess the view that, despite recent changes in family life, “the conventional nuclear family remains the norm” for families and households in Britain today. (24 marks)…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the History of the family Historians, the life cycle can give a larger look into the way individuals lived in previous periods from childhood to death. The life cycle may help find connections in which a person’s childhood caused certain behaviors in their adulthood or even their own child rearing methods. The life cycle is unique because it looks into the psychological and sociological aspect of individuals in the past. The life cycle can also help with understanding gender roles from certain time periods and how men and women were treated in the various phases. Historians can also look into certain issues that can affect the lifecycle at a certain age, such as divorce, pregnancies out of wed-lock and poverty. As well as the family life cycle and how the two coexist.…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are 15.8 million families in Britain. The family in Britain is very diverse; diversity means that there is a wide range of different ‘things’, in terms of family it means lots of different family types. There has been diversity in the family structure in Britain, an example of this is ‘lone parents’, lone parents have always been part of Britain’s family structure but even more so during the World Wars, this is due to the premature death of the partner. During the 50’s and the 60’s the most popular family was nuclear family, nuclear family is a family that only the parents and the children live together. There were also some extended families during this time; extended family is where the grandparents live with or near the children as well as the children’s parents. The reason why nuclear family and extended family were so popular is due to marriage being very popular and cohabitation was very rare. During these times some types of family were frowned upon, some examples of this are: Homosexual families, Single parent families and reconstructed families. Homosexual families were frowned upon due to the stigma towards homosexuals during these times. Due to marriage being very popular single parent families were also frowned upon. Reconstructed family was also frowned upon due to the popularity of marriage; you would have to be divorced to be able to have been able to have a reconstructed family. However over the last 50 years there have been significant changes in the family structures due to various social changes in society.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the last 30 years, the British society has experienced many changes affecting the family. There have been changes in attitudes to and expectations of family life, as well as official changes such as government legislation. Society has been affected by feminism, which has led to increased awareness of women’s rights and freedoms, as well as postmodernism and secularisation. The changes resulting have affected marriage rates, which are decreasing, and more people are now marrying later in life and more than once. More people are choosing to cohabit, either before or instead of marrying, and this is becoming increasingly common in young couples. Divorce rates have also increased in the last 30 years, following changes in legislation and attitudes.…

    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before i had a family, i dreamed of my "made up family", having a joyous time. Well that sure made me understand perception can alter your true life experiences when you go thru real situations. My point being, it was June of 2015 last year, and my small family and my mother planned to take a trip. My mother resides in New Mexico and we live in Las Vegas, so the demand for togetherness was of a longing feeling. One could say even mutual. When all the plans went thru we were on our way to Las Cruces,N.M. We were initially going to pick up my baby daughter. She had been with my mother for a few months and daddy was missing her. At this time i had'nt seen my family in 16 years and they were interested in meeting my wife and kids for the first…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Families are cells of a society which make it and empower it. Family is the place which gives children love, attention, and prepares them for living in a big society .family is the place which let a man and a woman share their love, respect and receive their solace .it is the base of each society and it shapes characteristics of a society. by changing generations, families had changed too. In this paper I tried to contrast today and past families according to values, and structure.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modern day families come in all shapes and sizes – divorce, remarrying, single parenting, out-of-wedlock and a number of other variables have turned the nuclear family into the exception rather than the norm. Even within the modern nuclear family, homemaker and breadwinner roles have evolved into something that makes it impossible to have one specific definition for family. As a matter of fact, the…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the sociological theory of cultural variation, the differences in social behaviors that prevail within cultures justify the differences in one's perception of the ideals in terms of family and gender roles.For what one may consider the perfect functional family system may not grasp another cultures familial system.Different cultures share different perceptions of family such as;Siberia’s ideal kinship involving polygamy,meaning a man having more than one wife at a time.Aswell as India’s expectation that the extended family lives under one household. With these cultural differences of perceptions of the ideal family comes to the core the family, gender roles. Gender roles within cultures vary significantly, with the expectations of…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays