The Pros And Cons Of A Non-Traditional Family

Examining the View that the Traditional Nuclear Family is in Decline When evaluating the view that the traditional nuclear family (of two opposite sex married parents living in a household that contains only them and their own dependant children), is in decline, I will be taking various pieces of research and evidence from Sociologists, Journalists and other sources, into consideration in order to try to determine how true this view is. The nuclear family would appear to be found internationally and would be described as ‘universal’ by Murdock, varying in popularity from country to country, however I will be concentrating mainly in the UK. The idea that the ‘traditional’ nuclear family is in

A family helps mold each person into who they eventually will become. The family is a guide for the success of a child's future. The stability of family creates a building block for how the child will progress throughout life. When parents divorce, the children are left with no stability causing them to lose basic concepts of childhood that may carry with them throughout life. Children of divorced parents have less success and happiness creating less productive citizens in our nation.

There is a 50 percent rate that a heterosexual parents become a parent accidentally.(“Pappas2”) Supporting the idea that homosexual people would obviously be further committed, since they know when they are actually ready to become parents and it is impossible they would have a child accidentally. The majority of people argues that having gay parents causes children to be bullied, but kids also get bullied whether they have homosexual parents or not. Maybe for different reasons, but nonetheless still bullying. If anything, it is a society that can make having gay parents a disadvantage. Their parents’ gender isn’t what bothers the kid, but the way that society might see it is what affects them negatively.() If everyone was more supportive of gay adoption, everything wouldn’t be as hard as is right now for these people. According to Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark University in Massachusetts, people that were raised by gay and lesbian parents”feel like their perspectives on family, on gender, and on sexuality have largely been enhanced by growing up with gay parents.” (“Pappas3”) Many people that have been raised by gay couples can agree with this because it is true. They don't judge so

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

The idea of family diversity suggests that there is no dominate type of family, therefore none can be considered as the norm. However there are studies to suggest that in historical periods of Britain like when it was industrializing there is dominating types, in this period it was considered to be the nuclear family.

The Decline of Traditional Family Being Detrimental to Society Some people believe that the decline of the traditional family (Nuclear family) is detrimental to society because a lot of people are not socialising. This is one of the basic roles that a traditional family performs for individuals to meet the expectations of society. Only through a family can a person play a full part in society.

. . who cares if the family is gay? These children are most likely run down, depressed, and lonely. They want a family. One good example of this is a cartoon. In the cartoon there is a legal/ “important” guy saying, “. . . the present law banning gay adoption protects our family values!” Then behind him are a bunch of children one saying, “Um. . . we’d all really value a family mister. . .” and another child is saying, “Any family!” This simple cartoon is actually very accurate and correct. These children are alone in the world people who think they care if they go to a gay family are wrong. Also if the child does care let the couple adopt a different child. If the child went to a family instead of living in an orphanage they would get the parent’s full attention, not the occasional attention of workers at an orphanage; which is really important because a child needs to know that they have someone always there for them and just for them, maybe a brother or sister, but not a whole group of young children. Also these children need and want a family, any family; they won’t be concerned about sexuality. At their age the children aren’t hindered by opinionated views toward people so they don’t care about sexuality. Being with a gay family will more than likely teach them to not judge people based on biased thoughts because the family they love is openminded so the child will probably grow up like the people they are around all the

In a sociological perspective, family is interpreted as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties or a combination of all three. The sociological theories the connect to this concept are functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. First, functionalism states that the family socializes children, it provides emotional and practical support for its members, and it provides its members with a social identity. Secondly, conflict theory states that members create disagreements, and create emotional support and comfort. Finally, symbolic interactionism claims family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis. "Families are defined as a relationship by blood, marriage, or affection" (Seccombe 5).

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

Traditional families versus single parent families. A traditional family household is a household with two parents, mother and father. A single parent family household is a one parent household a mother, or father. This household is usually occurs when a parent dies, parents divorce, or the parents was never married and separated after having a child together. The question at hand is would a child be more successful and mentally stable in life growing up in a traditional family household, or single parenting household? This has been an intriguing argument for many years. I strongly believe a child in a single parent home could grow up to be just as emotionally stable and also be just as successful as a child who grows up with both parents.

There are varieties of families in the world. People develop different personalities and mind sets because they have their own experience and knowledge gain from their individual families. In this essay, I will contrast and summarize each of nuclear, which is traditional, family and non-traditional families and also compare each of the families and examine how changing in non-traditional and nuclear families will affect people’s behaviors and minds in the view of sociologist and psychologist in order to argue how changing family affect individuals and the society.

Compared to children of divorced families, children of non-divorced families are not exposed to custody battles, divorce settlements, etc. Children of intact families are less likely to be exposed to traumatic experiences at a young age, thus keeping their lives stable and secure, while children of divorce are more likely to have an unstable life moving forward. Because of this, children of divorce are more likely to latch onto abusive behaviors throughout adolescent years, such as drug abuse.

One of the biggest effects of divorce is the effect it has on our children. Most couples get married and have children shortly after, and all decision made by the couples directly affect their children. Studies show that divorce has one of the most negative effects on children. Children living in single parent homes are more likely to be pregnant as teenagers, drop out of high school, abuse drugs and have behavioral issues. Furthermore due to the high dropout rates of single parent children they often have hard times finding jobs due to their lack of education. Often times we will see that children from broken homes will also have issues maintaining long term relationships as well. Studies show that children who parents are divorced or separated marriages will end in divorce as well. One last scary effect of divorce is that 92 percent of inmates in California State correctional facilities are products of single parent homes; in other words at some point when they were children their parents either divorced or became separated.

I grew up in a single parent household, and was a part of one until recently when my mom decided to remarry my now step dad. Growing up in this type of household has affected me in more ways than one would like to believe. It has affected the way my family is seen by others, how we speak to one another, and has had a large impact on my education. It has also given me a bigger stressor than simply living and growing in a single parent household with my mom; it gave me separation anxiety because of how we ended up in this

Since the nineteenth century began, the American family has gone through many changes. Among the many changes that researchers have studied, a few of these changes have been very apparent. The evolution and structure of American households have never seemed to be more diverse than they are now in these modern times. Families have become more racially, religiously, and ethnically diverse (Angier, 2013). Although some still frown upon it, one marrying another person of a different race is much more common and accepted now. Individuals of different religions will marry one another and find ways to make it work. People from different cultures have also come together and formed families. Overall, today’s society seems to be much more accepting than in the beginning of the nineteenth century.