Modernism and the Nuclear Family

• Functionalists say the family in the modern industrial times has moved away and become isolated and nuclear, so family members are no longer necessary, so in a sense the family has become privatised becoming a 'cereal packet' family
• The 'Cereal Packet' family is due to the ideological messages that are portrayed in the media that the family is isolated and become privatised
• Functionalists believe the cereal packet family is the most functional for society so the 'functionally fit'
• Neo-Functionalists do not consider the growing family diversity significant as the neo-conventional family is just a nuclear, dual-earner and conjugal role family - a symmetrical family
• Chester argues that most people at some point will be part of a nuclear family, and most people strive for this family type
• McGlone says people don't live in nuclear families just different extended families
• The Extended families are;

  • Local extended family
  • Dispersed extended family
  • Attenuated extended family
• The Local extended family is the traditional horizontal or vertical extended family were members will live with eachother
• The Dispersed extended family is the family were wider kin may live far away but the family is maintained by technology, Parsons says this demonstrated the isolated nuclear family not the extended family
• The Attenuated extended family are families were single people may move away from their kin
• Beanpole families mean few children are born each generation so the family tree is straight
• The Extended family is a lot of relatives living under a roof (over multiple generations)