Family Structures

• Family


  The basic unit of society, the smallest organization in the community, a group of individuals living together in one household
• Types of family structures


  • Nuclear family
  • Extended family
  • Single parent family
  • Step family
  • Foster family
  • Adopted/adoptive family
  • Bi-racial or multi-racial family
  • Trans-racial adoptive family
  • Conditionally separated family
  • Childless family
  • Migrant family
  • Immigrant family
  • Gay or lesbian family
• Nuclear family


  Married couples and their offspring
• Extended family


  Includes all relatives in proximity, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, typically living together and sharing household chores
• Single parent family


  One parent and their children only, could be due to divorce, death of a parent, or single parent adoption
• Step family


  Parents have divorced and remarried, bringing children from other unions together to form a new nuclear family, also known as a "blended" family
• Foster family


  Parents serve as temporary guardians for one or more children to whom they may or may not be biologically related
• Adopted/adoptive family


  Parents adopt a child to whom they share no blood relationship, or one parent may adopt the child of the other parent
• Bi-racial or multi-racial family


  Parents are from different races
• Trans-racial adoptive family


  Parents adopted a child with a different race
• Childless family


  Married couple without children
• Conditionally separated family


  One family member is conditionally separated from the others, due to job, employment, or hospitalization
• Gay or lesbian family


  One or both parents has a different sexual orientation and is part of the LGBT community
• Migrant family


  Family who settles together in a different place, could be due to circumstances such as the father's job
• Immigrant family


  One or both parents are already immigrants of another country, their children may or may not be immigrants
• Emotional legacy


  Children need an enduring sense of security and stability, nurtured in an environment of safety and love, to overcome negative emotional legacies and develop emotional wholeness
• Elements of a strong emotional legacy


  • Provides a safe environment for deep emotional roots to grow
  • Fosters confidence through stability
  • Conveys a tone of trusting support
  • Nurtures a strong sense of positive identity
  • Creates a "resting place" for the soul
  • Demonstrates unconditional love
• Social legacy


  Children need to learn the art of relating to people, the art of socialization, to cultivate healthy and stable relationships
• Key building blocks of children's social legacy


  • Respect, beginning with themselves and working out to other people
  • Responsibility, fostered by respect for themselves, cultivated by assigning duties and accountability
  • Unconditional love and acceptance by parents, combined with conditional acceptance when disciplining
  • Setting of social boundaries concerning how to relate to god, authority, peers, environment, and siblings
  • Rules given within a loving relationship
• Spiritual legacy


  Parents need to take the initiative and present faith to their children, modeling and reinforcing the unseen realities of the godly life
• The family is the most important social institution as it provides us with our first experiences of love, care and security.