family concepts

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wich is the real definition or concept of family?

-- vanessa silvio mendez (silvanes@hotmail.com), December 05, 2001

Answers

I don't think you can claim there is a 'real' definition of family. If you check the literature, there will be distinctions between the nuclear family and the extended family (families may be extended both horizontally [aunts, uncles, cousins] and vertically (grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, etc.). You may want to check The Dictionary of Family Psychology and Family Therapy, 2nd edition (Sauber, L'Abate, Weeks & Buchanan; Sage, 1993). There, family is defined as "a basic unit of society, characterized as one whose members are economically and emotionally dependent on one another and are responsible for each other's development, stability, and protection." (p. 142) Family therapists also distinguish between the family of origin (in which you were a child) and the family of procreation (in which you are the parent). Note that the quoted definition leaves a lot of room for cultural differences: the unit responsible for socializing children etc. can be a nuclear or extended family; parents could be a gay or lesbian couple, a single parent, a set of grandparents, etc.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), December 05, 2001.

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