Family Structure

Examples of Family Structure in the following topics:

• Family Structures

  • The traditional family structure consists of two married individuals providing care for their offspring, but this is becoming more uncommon.
  • The traditional family structure in the United States is considered a family support system which involves two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring.
  • However, this two-parent, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and alternative family forms have become more common.
  • The nuclear family is considered the "traditional" family and consists of a mother, father, and the children.
  • An American family composed of the mother, father, children, and extended family.

• What is a family?

  • How do family structures vary from culture to culture or subculture to subculture?
  • A variety of other family structures exist.
  • Family structures of some kind are found in every society.
  • You can see a good example of the changing nature of families in the family structure of Ancient Rome.
  • A map of the world regions where polygamy is a common form of family structure.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • The conflict perspective views the family as a vehicle to maintain patriarchy (gender inequality) and social inequality in society.
  • When we are analyzing any element of society from this perspective, we need to look at the structures of wealth, power and status, and the ways in which those structures maintain social, economic, political and coercive power of one group at the expense of others.
  • Because inheritance, education and social capital are transmitted through the family structure, wealthy families are able to keep their privileged social position for their members, while individuals from poor families are denied similar status.
  • The traditional family form in most cultures is patriarchal, contributing to inequality between the sexes.
  • The traditional family is also an inequitable structure for women and children.

• Family Life

  • Historically, working class rural populations in agrarian regions have had larger families than wealthier urban families.
  • Globally, the birth rate in countries with large impoverished populations is much higher than in wealthier countries, indicating that income and wealth play a role in shaping family structures.
  • Social class has both a cause and an effect relationship with family composition.
  • At the same time, single-parent families can contribute to financial and social instability.
  • Give examples for effects of social class on marriage, birth rates, and family composition

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • Structural functionalism is a framework that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
  • This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole.
  • Structural functionalism also took on the argument that the basic building block of society is the nuclear family, and that the clan is an outgrowth, not vice versa .
  • Structural functionalism also took on the argument that the basic building block of society is the nuclear family, and that the clan is an outgrowth, not vice versa.
  • Explain the social functions of the family through the perspective of structural functionalism

• Gender Roles in the U.S.

  • Social role theory proposes that the social structure is the underlying force in distinguishing genders and that sex-differentiated behavior is driven by the division of labor between two sexes within a society.
  • One main thread in discussions about gender roles in the United States has been the historical evolution from a single-income family, or a family unit in which one spouse (typically the father) is responsible for the family income, to a dual-income family, or a family unit in which both spouses generate income.
  • While some claim that this was a sexist structure, others maintain that the structure simply represented a division of labor, or a social system in which a particular segment of the population performs one type of labor and another segment performs another type.
  • Family structures vary across cultures and history, and the term nuclear family refers to a family unit of two parents and their children.
  • Parsons developed two models of gender roles within the nuclear family.

• RNA Bacteriophages

  • Nineteen families of bacteriophages that infect bacteria and archaea are currently recognized; of these, only two families have RNA genomes.
  • Nineteen families of bacteriophages that infect bacteria and archaea are currently recognized.
  • Bacteriophage Φ6 is a member of the Cystoviridae family.
  • Members of this protein family form the capsid of Pseudomonas phage PP7.
  • They adopt a secondary structure consisting of a six-stranded beta sheet and an alpha helix.

• Gender Messages in the Family

  • Families divide responsibilities between parents.
  • In many American families, the father serves as the breadwinner, while the mother maintains the household.
  • Social role theory proposes that social structure is the underlying force behind gender differences, and that the division of labor between two sexes within a society motivates the differences in their respective behavior.
  • Family is the most important agent of socialization because it serves as the center of a child's life.
  • Justify how the family acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and adolescents

• Gene Families

  • Gene families are groups of functionally related genes arising from a duplicated gene.
  • One such family are the genes for human haemoglobin subunits.
  • Furthermore, knowledge of the protein's secondary structure gives further information about ancestry, since the organization of secondary structural elements presumably would be conserved even if the amino acid sequence changes considerably.
  • If the genes of a gene family encode proteins, the term protein family is often used in an analogous manner to gene family.
  • Unequal crossing over generates gene families.

• Single-Stranded DNA Bacteriophages

  • Of these, only two families have RNA genomes and only five are enveloped.
  • The Inoviridae are a family of filamentous bacteriophages.
  • There are two genera in this family: Inovirus and Plectrovirus.
  • These groups differ in their hosts, genome structure, and virion composition.
  • Members of the subfamily Gokushovirus have only two structural proteins: capsid proteins F (Virus Protein 1) and DNA pilot protein H (Virus Protein 2) and do not use scaffolding proteins.