Nuclear family

It signifies the overview of a Nuclear Family

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
Definition ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
History of Nuclear Family -----------------------------------------------------------------------3
Who Are Part of a Nuclear Family ------------------------------------------------------------4
The Structure of Nuclear Family ---------------------------------------------------------------4
Debate About Nuclear Family ------------------------------------------------------------------5
Changing Definition of Nuclear Families -----------------------------------------------------8
Nuclear Family Vs Joint Family ---------------------------------------------------------------8
Pros and Cons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Nuclear Family and Bangladesh ---------------------------------------------------------------14
Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
Reference -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16

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Nuclear family
Introduction
The individual nuclear family is a universal social phenomenon. A nuclear family or elementary
family is a family amass comprising of a couple of grown-ups and their children. It is rather than
a solitary parent family, to the bigger more distant family, and to a family with more than two
guardians. It is considered as “traditional” family which contains a mother, father, and their
biological children. ("Family Structures", 2016)
In simple words, a nuclear family is one which consists of the husband, wife and their children.
They establish their separate household just after their marriage leaving their parental home.
Hence, a nuclear family is such a unit which is autonomous and free from the elder’s supremacy
and observation. In spite of having physical distance between parents and their married children,
there is minimum interdependence between them. Thus, a nuclear family is mostly independent in
a broader sense. The American family is an example of the modern independent nuclear family.
("Essay on Nuclear Family", 2012)
Definition
“Nuclear family, also called elementary family, in sociology and anthropology, a group of
people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults and
their socially recognized children. Sometimes, not always, the adults in a nuclear family are
married and such couples are most often a man and a woman. The definition of the nuclear family
has expanded with the advent of same-sex marriage. Children in a nuclear family may be the
couple’s biological or adopted offspring.” – Encyclopedia Britannica ("nuclear family |
anthropology", 2016)
“A social unit composed of two parents and one or more children.” – Dictionary.com ("the
definition of nuclear family", 2016)
“A primary social unit consisting of parents and their offspring” - British Dictionary definitions
for nuclear family (Ibid)

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“A small group composed of husband and wife and immature children which constitutes a unit
apart from the rest of the community.” - Duncan Mitchell in his “Dictionary of Sociology’. ("Essay
on Nuclear Family", 2012)
The nuclear family is a characteristic of all the modern industrial societies. As Lowie writes: “It
does not matter whether marital relations are permanent or temporary; whether there is polygyny
or polyandry or sexual license; the one fact stands out beyond all others that everywhere the
husband, wife and immature children constitute a unit apart from the remainder of the community”.
(Ibid)
According to T.B. Bottomore, the universality of the nuclear family can be accounted for by the
important functions that it has been performing. The nuclear family has been performing the
sexual, the economic, the reproductive, and the educational functions. According to him, the
indispensability of these and a few other functions has contributed to universality. (Ibid)
History of Nuclear Family
According to the Merriam-Webstar dictionary, the expression "nuclear family" was initially
utilized as a part of 1947, however the idea of a family that containing just guardians and
youngsters is much more established. This fundamental unit of a family's structure has existed for
periods, however it wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that the nuclear family turned into the larger
part circumstance. Around then, modern financial blasts and rising wages made it feasible for
young parents to bear the cost of their own homes without living with more distant family
individuals. In the meantime, better healthcare added to the nuclear family, as elderly individuals
turned out to be more independent and free for quite a long time after their children were
developed.
Today, the time of the nuclear family is frequently glamorized, complete with mother in the
kitchen, father out acquiring the wages, and the children fabricating a tree house or facilitating a
animal tea gathering. In actuality, there is no perfect kind of family, and today's meaning of an
nuclear family can extraordinarily contrast from crapped it was a couple of decades back.

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Who Are Part of a Nuclear Family?
A nuclear family, also called a conjugal, elementary, or traditional family,
typically consists of two married or legally-bound parents and their
biological or adopted children all living in the same residence and sharing
the values, duties, and responsibilities of the family unit. There can be any
number of children in the family, and one or both parents may work outside
the home.
The Structure of Nuclear Family
The nuclear family depends very much on incest taboos. The members of the family cannot have
marriage from among themselves. Hence it is confined to two generations only. A third generation
can be established by the formation of new families.
This can be done by an exchange of males and females between existing nuclear families. It means
daughters can be given in marriage to other nuclear families and girls
of the other nuclear families can be taken in as spouses to the sons. This
gives rise to two kinds of nuclear families: (a) the family of orientation,
and (b) the family of procreation.
Every normal adult in every human society belongs to two nuclear
families. The first is the family of orientation in which the person was born and brought up, and
which includes his father, mother, brothers and sisters. The second is the family of procreation
which the person establishes by his marriage and which includes the husband or wife, the sons and
daughters.
The structure of the nuclear family is not the same everywhere. Bottomore makes a distinction
between two kinds of family system; (i) the family systems in which the nuclear family is relatively
independent, and (ii) systems in which the nuclear family is incorporated in, or subordinated to, a
larger group, that is to the polygamous or the extended family. The independent nuclear family is
more often incorporated in some larger composite family structure.

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The independent nuclear family which is dominant in modern industrial societies has emerged
mainly due to the growth of individualism and intense geographic and social mobility. The social
welfare functions of the modern state have also affected it. The state now comes to the help of the
individual to face misfortunes. Hence he is no longer dependent on his family in times of distress.
The modern nuclear family is mostly found in the advanced societies of the West and in the U.S.A.
Its solidarity largely depends on sexual attractions and the companionship between husband and
wife and between parents and children. But the family bonds tend to weaken as the children grow
up. ("Essay on Nuclear Family", 2012)
Debate about Nuclear Family
The term nuclear family can be defined simply as a wife/mother, a husband/father, and their
children. However, this straightforward structural definition is surrounded by a cloud of ambiguity
and controversy. Most of the debates have centered around three questions. First, is the nuclear
family universal—found in every known human society? Second, is the nuclear group the essential
form of family—the only one that can carry out the vital functions of the family (especially, rearing
the next generation) or can other family patterns (e.g., single mothers, single fathers, two women,
or two men) be considered workable units for fulfilling these functions? The third issue concerns
the link between the nuclear family household and industrial society. In the old days, before work
moved outside the home to factories and offices, did parents and children live together under one
roof with grandparents and other relatives? Did the nuclear family break away from this extended
family system as a result of industrialization?
The debate over the universality and necessity of the nuclear family began in the early twentieth
century. Pioneer anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1913) stated that the nuclear family had
to be universal because it filled a basic biological need—caring for and protecting infants and
young children. No culture could survive, he asserted, unless the birth of children was linked to
both mother and father in legally based parenthood. Anthropologist George P. Murdock (1949)
elaborated on the idea that the nuclear family is both universal and essential: "Whether as the sole
prevailing form of the family . . . or as the basic unit from which more complex families form, [the
nuclear family] exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every known society" (p. 2).

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The debate about the nuclear family and industrialism centered around the writings of one of the
leading sociologists of the post-World War II era, Talcott Parsons (1955). The nuclear unit, he
argued, fits the needs of industrial society. Independent of the kin network, the "isolated" nuclear
family is free to move as the economy demands. Further, the intimate nuclear family can specialize
in serving the emotional needs of adults and children in a competitive and impersonal world.
In later years, the assumptions about the family held by Malinowski, Murdock, and Parsons have
been challenged by family sociologists as well as by anthropologists, historians, feminist scholars,
and others. Research in these fields has emphasized the diversity of family not only across cultures
and eras but also within any culture or historical period.
Anthropologists have pointed out that many languages lack a word for the parent-child domestic
units known as families in English. For example, the Zinacantecos of southern Mexico identify the
basic social unit as a house, which may include one to twenty people (Vogt 1969). In contrast,
historical studies of Western family life have shown that nuclear family households were
extremely common as far back as historical evidence can reach, particularly in northwestern
Europe—England, Holland, Belgium, and northern France (Gottlieb 1993). These countries have
long held the norm that a newly married couple moves out of their parents' homes and sets up their
own household. Despite the continuity of form, however, different social classes, ethnic groups,
religious persuasions, and geographical regions have had different practices and beliefs with regard
to parent-child relations, sexuality, family gender roles, and other aspects of family life.
Family life also has changed in response to social, economic, and political change. Many scholars
believe that in the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, the modernizing countries
of Western Europe witnessed a transformation of family feeling that resulted in "the closed
domesticated nuclear family." The new family ideal, Lawrence Stone (1977) argued, prescribed
domestic privacy and strong emotional attachments between spouses and between parents and
children. On the other hand, some scholars have argued that strong emotional bonds between
family members have existed for centuries, and others have argued that the "closed domesticated
nuclear family" was a middle-class ideal that came to be applied slowly and incompletely outside
that class. In Eastern Europe, however, the nuclear norm did not prevail. Households were
expected to contain other relatives besides the nuclear unit (i.e., a third generation or a parent's

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sibling and possibly that person's spouse and children). It is true that in those parts of Europe about
half of the households at any particular time were nuclear, but this unit served as just a stage the
family might pass through.
As these examples show, it is important to distinguish between the nuclear family as a cultural
symbol and as an observable domestic group (Schneider 1968). The nuclear family is a symbol
deeply rooted in Western culture; it is represented in art, family photographs, advertising, and
television. However, the family ideal of any particular culture does not necessarily describe the
social realities of family life. For example, the nuclear family remains the preferred cultural pattern
in the United States despite the fact that the proportion of nuclear family households is smaller
than in the past (Skolnick 1991). The persistence of this ideal is reflected in the fact that most
divorced people remarry. Further, there is no evidence that most single mothers prefer to raise their
children by themselves. In most Western nations, particularly the United States, the wish to
become a parent at some time in one's life is virtually universal. Today's longevity means that the
parent-child relationship can last fifty years or more. It remains a central attachment in most
people's lives.
In any particular time and place, families have always been more varied than the prevailing image
of what the ideal family should be. However, although family types are even more diverse than in
the past, most contemporary families are still variations on the traditional nuclear family pattern
(e.g., the two-job family, the empty nest couple with grown children, or the blended family). An
unsettled period of family transition has resulted from major shifts in economic, demographic,
political, and cultural trends in the industrialized world and beyond. These changes have altered
people's lives dramatically, but other institutions of society—government, business, religion—
have not yet caught up with the new realities.
The traditional Western concept of the nuclear family as the only normal, natural family has had a
profound influence on research, therapy, and public policy. It has encouraged the tendency to
define any departure from that arrangement as unhealthy or immoral. This concentration on a
single, universally accepted pattern has blinded students of behavior to historical precedents for
multiple legitimate family arrangements.

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Changing Definition of Nuclear Families
The nuclear family today may be in the minority considering the increasing diversity of Western
societies. While the classic definition of a nuclear family may only include two parents of opposite
genders, today's definition often includes two-parent families with same sex parents raising the
biological children of one parent or the children that both have adopted. Other types of families,
such as single parents, non-married parents, foster families, blended families, and couples without
children are on the rise, and the traditional nuclear family, while still strong, is increasingly in the
minority. (Mayntz, 2016)
Nuclear family vs. Joint family
1. Composition
A typical nuclear family consists of a husband, a wife, a couple of children. The number of
members are very few in a nuclear family.
In a joint family system, the number of dependents living under the roof is much larger. Those
living with a joint family may include, in addition to the above, grandparents, married brothers,
sisters, wives of sons, grandsons, granddaughters, other dependents and relatives.
2. Responsibility
The responsibility of a nuclear family rests on the couple. The joint-family system lays down a
responsibility on the head of the family. The elders trains the younger ones for different
occupations, marries them, gives them a start in life, and takes care of the infirm and the old.
3. Bond of unity and affection
Compared to nuclear family, there is higher bond of unity and affection among different family
members and relations in a joint family. In a joint family, the prosperity and adversity of the family
are shared equally.
4. Subsistence
The subsistence of a nuclear family is dependent upon either on husband or wife, or both.
A joint family system ensures a minimum of subsistence to all the members of the family.

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5. Freedom
In a nuclear family, the young couple gets more freedom. They can freely do the things that they
like. They can also take risk with their money and display their enterprising nature.
In a joint family, the individuals get less freedom. The family members have joint rights in family
property and wealth. There is less scope for the development of individuality. ("Nuclear family vs.
Joint family - Important India", 2015)



Fig: Nuclear family vs Joint Family

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Pros & Cons
Anthropologists too have consistently emphasized the economic functions of the family in
primitive societies. A major factor in maintaining the nuclear family is economic co-operation
based upon division of labor between sexes. Levi Strauss has said much about the miserable
situation of unmarried individuals in most of the primitive societies. ("Essay on Nuclear Family",
2012)
Think of the popular television shows The Simpsons and The Cosby Show. Though both are
comedies, they're different in many ways. One is animated, while the other is live action. One
focuses on absurdist humor, while the other is a more traditional sitcom. However, the two shows
have one somewhat surprising thing in common - they both offer depictions of a nuclear family.
So, what does that mean? In simple terms, a nuclear family system is a family structure that
consists of two parents living with their children, also known as an immediate family. For example,
in The Simpsons, Homer and Marge are the parents, and they live with their children, Bart, Lisa
and Maggie. This system is different from an extended family system, in which the household may
include non-immediate family members, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Many believe that a nuclear family is the best arrangement, yielding numerous advantages.
However, with any system, there are also disadvantages.
Advantages
 Family members develop greater self-sufficiency and independence
 Family members share the strongest bonds with their immediate relatives
 Less conflict of family values across different generations
There are a number of advantages for having a nuclear family. Let's take a look at a couple of
them, now.
In today's traditional nuclear families, it is common to have dual incomes. Both parents work to
provide financial stability for the household, creating a larger cash flow to supply the basic family
needs of housing, food and healthcare. Financial stability also allows the parents to provide

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additional extracurricular opportunities for their children, such as music or athletic lessons. These
opportunities allow children to flourish socially and develop a higher level of confidence.
A 2-parent household is more likely to have a higher consistency with raising their children. By
reaching agreements on discipline and modeling appropriate behavior, parents act as a team to
strengthen and reinforce child behavior. Children get consistent messages about behavioral
expectations. Nuclear families have more daily routines, like eating dinner together, adding to
consistency. ("Nuclear Family: Definition, Advantages & Disadvantages - Video & Lesson
Transcript | Study.com", 2016)
(1) Development of Personality:
Nuclear family plays an important role in the development of personality of individuals. Children
are more close to the parents and can have more free and frank discussion about their problems
with parents which helps for the better development of their personality.
(2) Better Condition of Women:
In nuclear families the condition of woman is better than joint families. She gets enough time to
look after her children. She also gets time to plan and manage her house according to her own idea.
There is no interference of elders. Her husband can also devote more attention to the wife in nuclear
family.
(3) Less number of children:
Family planning program becomes successful in nuclear families. The members of nuclear family
have to plan and limit their family as they have to bear all the responsibilities and expenses
themselves to rear their children. The children also are benefited in the long run as they inherit
directly property from their parents.
(4) Peace and Harmony:
Peace and harmony are very much essential for a pleasant family life. In nuclear families there is
no misunderstanding and they enjoy a harmonious atmosphere by living together.

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(5) Individual Responsibilities:
In nuclear family there is no shifting of responsibility like in joint family. The parents are bound
to take responsibility of their children by themselves. The head of family has to work hard to take
care of his family.
(6) Problem Free Unit:
There is no chance of in-law’s conflict. Financial problem does not arise in nuclear family. Money
can be saved for future achievement and to face uncertain crisis of family. All enjoy independent
life and can be engaged in any economic activities to supplement family income. The will and
desires of children are considered and are given proper weight. All members of nuclear family are
emotional secured. No superiority complex is felt by anybody. All are given equal weightage.
("Nuclear Family: Advantages and Disadvantages", 2015)
Disadvantages
 Less support emotionally or financially for individual family members
 Less contact with extended family members may result in lost traditions or poor
communication
 Smaller families may be less resilient in emergencies due to a smaller support structure
(1) Economic disadvantage:
The property of the family is divided among the brothers and each live separately. The land being
subdivided does not yield much production resulting the land as an uneconomic holding. On the
other hand one has to employ other labours to achieve the desired goal due to limited size of family.
In this way the economic loss is more in nuclear family by paying remuneration to the labourers.
(2) Insecurity of Children:
In nuclear family both husband and wife adopt profession outside the family, then children are
neglected and looked after by the servants. They feel lonely and emotional insecure. They develop
more anxiety. If the bread winner dies or becomes incapable to en, there is no one to support the

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family. Even in time of emergency like sickness, accident or during pregnancy family members
are very much neglected and there is no one to take care of them.
(3) Agency to Develop Bad Qualities of Inmates:
As it is an autonomous unit, it is free from the social control of elders. So the children develop all
sorts of bad qualities like theft, her and lead their lifestyle in indiscipline way. They become
unsocial as they do not get opportunity to mix with other members of the family.
(4) Loneliness:
Feeling of loneliness is one of important drawbacks in nuclear family. After completion of
household task, the housewife becomes alone at home. At the time of emergency one can get any
help and support from any other.
(5) Insecure for Old, Widow and Divorce:
In nuclear family widowed, old and divorce fare very much neglected. No one in the family bothers
to take care of them. Physically and psychologically they feel insecure. Above all in nuclear family
children are socially, emotionally and educational maladjusted. There is a chance of family
breakage in case of conflict between the compel. Still then everybody wants to go for a nuclear
family in the modern society because of its advantages which certainly outnumber the
disadvantages. (Ibid)

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Nuclear Family and Bangladesh
In the nation's urban ranges, large joint families have for some time been out of trend. These are
the seasons of nuclear families. They include a solitary leader of the family with companion, and
maybe a couple children. This is a general view among both the middle and upper middle class.
As the financial reviewing descends, the quantity of relatives may increment - with the version of
more youngsters and dependents. In any case, regardless of the classes, the families stay little in
the urban areas. ("The changing family structures in Bangladesh", 2016)
The rural Bangladesh once took much pride in its age-old large families. Be that as it may, the
bragging has decreased. In the towns, the conventional joint families have since quite a while ago
began part into littler units. Somewhat not the same as their urban partners, the provincial nuclear
families stay inside the limits of a fatherly property. It is the different cooking plans that tell a
spouse wife-kids family from a bigger, joint one. A few siblings with their own particular families
living in similar compound offers a typical view in today's rustic Bangladesh. Possibly, a
patriarchal or a matriarchal figure dwells on similar premises with independent kitchen. In this
situation, the kids don't miss their granddads or grandmas. Those in the urban areas do, intensely
at that. (Ibid)
The more extensive Bangladesh society has customarily been made out of joint families. But the
married girls, the fathers and mothers were accustomed to living with their posterity. Indeed, even
after marriage, the children would start their family lives with their spouses in similar compound.
Suspecting something, such as cooking or taking dinners independently, would be viewed as
hellish cursedness. Keeping the ties in place with alternate individuals from a family was viewed
as hallowed. (Ibid)
In the large cities in Bangladesh, joint families have long been disintegrating. Capital Dhaka
includes these cities. In its case, except the older part of the historic city all its premier areas are

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peopled by families having no more than four members. The older Dhaka has been trying its best
to keep the tradition of extended families alive. It is a nearly unassailable family cohesion that
distinguishes the lifestyle in that part of the city. This integrity and the strong sense of fraternity
among the native Dhaka dwellers at times border on warranting disapproval. Many inclusive
people would like to define this camaraderie as monolithic. This may also prompt a section of local
demographers to use the phrase 'closed society' to define the people living in old Dhaka. (Ibid)
Conclusion
It can never be said so specifically that which family structure is good rather it depends. Pros and
cons are present everywhere, matter is how we are taking these. In joint families, children learn
responsibility but they become critical minded sometimes. On the contrary, nuclear family’s
children becomes independent but huge possibility is there to get ruined. However, care of parents
matters, neither family structure. If the guardian keeps good monitoring over youngsters, they
won’t be misguided.