Sociology of the Family

The sociology of the family and kinship studies family forms, household relations, marriage, and kinship systems, and how they change with social and economic transformation.

Scope

It covers family structure and household, marriage and divorce, gender and the domestic division of labour, socialization, and cross-cultural and historical variation in kinship.

Core questions

• How are families and households structured?
• How do family forms change with modernization?
• How is domestic labour divided?
• What functions does the family serve?
• How does kinship vary across cultures?

Key concepts

• Family structure
• Conjugal/nuclear family
• Marriage and divorce
• Domestic division of labour
• Socialization
• Kinship

Key theories

Family and modernization

Goode argued industrialization is associated worldwide with a shift toward the conjugal (nuclear) family.

Functions of the family

Parsons and Bales analysed the modern family's specialized functions of socialization and personality stabilization.

History

Functionalist accounts of the modern nuclear family (Parsons, Goode) were challenged from the 1970s by feminist analyses of gender and domestic labour and by research on family diversity, cohabitation, and changing household forms.

Debates

Is there one modern family form?

Functionalist claims about a converging nuclear family contend with evidence of growing family diversity.

Key figures

• William J. Goode
• Talcott Parsons
• Robert Bales

Seminal works

• goode-1963
• parsons-bales-1955

Frequently asked questions

Is the nuclear family universal?

No; while common in industrial societies, family and kinship forms vary widely across cultures and history, and modern households are increasingly diverse.