Society needs to regulate sexual activity. The nuclear family regulates a married couple's sexual behaviour and helps to maintain their relationship.
Reproductive function
Society needs new members if it is to survive over time. The nuclear family produces the next generation of society's members.
Economic function
Society needs a way of providing people with financial support (for instance, food and shelter). Economic cooperation is based on a division of labour between the husband and wife within a nuclear family.
Educational function
Society needs to ensure that new members learn its culture. This learning takes place through socialisation within the nuclear family.
Functionalist approach
Focuses on the positive functions that the nuclear family performs for individuals and for society
Parsons' functional perspective
Viewed the traditional nuclear family (made up of a married couple and their biological children) as a key part of society during the 1940s and 1950s
Today, many nuclear families are made up of cohabiting couples and their children
Critics argue that the functionalist approach is too idealistic and does not reflect the diversity of family structures in modern society
