Which of the following best captures the definition of a traditional nuclear family?

Extended Family – Kinship Care

Extended families consist of several generations of people and can include biological parents and their children as well as in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Extended families are typical of collective cultures where all family members are interdependent and share family responsibilities including childrearing roles (Waites, 2009; Strong et al., 2008).

Extended family members usually live in the same residence where they pool resources and undertake familial responsibilities. Multigenerational bonds and greater resources increase the extended family's resiliency and ability to provide for the children's needs, yet several risk factors associated with extended families can decrease their well-being. Such risk factors include complex relationships, conflicting loyalties, and generational conflict (Engstrom, 2012; Waites, 2009).

Complex intergenerational relationships can complicate the child–parent relationship as they can cause confusion regarding the identity of the primary parent. Such confusion can result in a child undermining the authority of her existing parent (Anderson, 2012) and feeling uncertain about her environment.

Extended families often value the wider kin group more than individual relationships, which can lead to loyalty issues within the family and also cause difficulties in a couple's relationship where a close relationship between a husband and wife may be seen as a threat to the wider kin group. Another factor that can add to the complexity of relationships in an extended family is the need to negotiate the expectations and needs of each family member. Complex extended family relationships can also detract from the parent–child relationship (Strong et al., 2008; Langer and Ribarich, 2007).

The literature points to various protective factors associated with extended families that can help the parents and family meet the children's various needs. Extended families usually have more resources at their disposal that can be used to ensure the well-being of the children. Also, when the family functions as a collaborative team, has strong kinship bonds, is flexible in its roles, and relies on cultural values to sustain the family, the family itself serves as a lifelong buffer against stressful transitions (Engstrom, 2012; Waites, 2009).

Kinship care as a cultural value in extended families is associated with positive child outcomes, yet this may not be the case when such families have to take responsibility for a child because his parents are unable to do so. In such cases, kinship care becomes similar to foster care. Situations like the latter usually arise from substance abuse, incarceration, abuse, homelessness, family violence, illness, death, or military deployment (Langosch, 2012).

Although children in kinship care often fare better than children in foster care, various risk factors can have a negative impact on the children's well-being. Risk factors include low socioeconomic status, inability to meet children's needs properly, unhealthy family dynamics, older kin, less-educated kin, and single kin (Langosch, 2012; Palacios and Jiménez, 2009; Harris and Skyles, 2008; Metzger, 2008; Winokur et al., 2008).

Kinship care as foster care is often characterized by complex relationships and the trauma caused by the loss of an able parent. The family member who assumes the role as parent often finds it difficult to balance his former relationship with his new role as the person responsible for the child's well-being. For instance, a grandmother may have to adapt to the idea of being a strict parent instead of a loving, indulgent grandmother (Engstrom, 2012; Langosch, 2012).

The extended family member who steps into the parenting role is often overwhelmed by the stress caused by new parental responsibilities, attachment difficulties, and possible feelings of resentment and anger toward the biological parent, as well as having to deal with traumatic transitions after the loss of an able parent. The relationship between the new parent and other family members may also experience strain due to loyalty issues. Besides complex relationships, changes in the child's environment call for new routines, the setting of new limits, and sometimes coparenting with the biological parent, all of which can contribute to a less stable environment (Engstrom, 2012; Langosch, 2012).

An extended family member who takes on kinship care faces many challenges, although positive experiences associated with such care can also serve as a protective factor buffering the child against the negative effect of traumatic transitions. The new parent may find this transition meaningful in the sense that it adds purpose to her life, and the child may also experience a sense of security, consistency, continuity in family identity, emotional ties, and familiarity (Langosch, 2012; Harris and Skyles, 2008; Metzger, 2008).

Extended Families

Extended families composed of grandparents, aunts, and uncles can be protective of children, given a nonabusive ideology. If there is an abusive ideology, however, the extended family can pose as much a risk as a buffer to children. Simple generalizations, therefore, about features of family structure and their role in child maltreatment cannot be made.

There are widespread beliefs that the presence of grandparents is a buffer for children and probably inhibits abuse. However, research findings on the support provided by grandparents to young children are mixed. In one study of African-American extended families, children within single- or divorced-mother–headed households did show signs of better adjustment when a grandmother lived with them. However, this effect did not seem due to the grandmother's parenting skills or direct care to the child, but to the support these grandmothers provided their daughters. The daughters, therefore, became more effective and less stressed during their own parenting tasks, and the children subsequently benefited. When single mothers are nested in supportive extended family contexts, the children benefit from the direct aid offered to the mother.

There have been some studies on what kinds of skills promote nonviolent and nurturant parenting. For example, researchers in child development found that mothers who are able to develop higher levels of attunement or synchrony when interacting with toddlers and who are able to establish a mutual focus with the child on some activity or thought have children who are more compliant and happier than mothers who are less attuned, so to speak, to their young children. Flowing with the child rather than against her or him seems to be the best practice for socializing cooperativeness and stability. Finally, the quality of the relationship between parents has a profound impact on children's coping and mental health. These findings are consistent with the early fostering of the partnership model in Eisler and Fry's recent work.

Once again, the indicators of nonviolent parenting seem to be lodged within parenting beliefs more than in the structure of the family. Coercive parenting engenders aggression in children, either through modeling parental aggression or through the development of an internal mental script or “working model” of antagonistic interpersonal relationships. Although there have been few direct studies to date, it appears that parents who espouse a “partnership model” with each other are more likely to raise children to do the same and to develop mutual respect for boundaries, opinions, and interests that will benefit the child, as well as the parents. The “dominator model,” or the traditional patriarchal family, is a problematic environment for successful child rearing and, in fact, promotes “cycles of brutality and violence” (Eisler and Fry, 2019, p. 54).

Extended Families

Extended families composed of grandparents, aunts, and uncles can be protective of children, given a nonabusive ideology. If there is an abusive ideology, however, the extended family can pose as much a risk as a buffer to children. Simple generalizations, therefore, about features of family structure and their role in child maltreatment cannot be made.

There are widespread beliefs that the presence of grandparents is a buffer for children, and probably inhibits abuse. However, research findings on the support provided by grandparents to young children are mixed. In one study of African-American extended families children within single or divorced mother-headed households, however, did show signs of better adjustment when a grandmother lived with them. However, this effect did not seem due to the grandmother’s parenting skills or direct care to the child, but to the support these grandmothers provided their daughters. The daughters, therefore, became more effective and less stressed during their own parenting tasks, and the children subsequently benefited. In the United States, therefore, the nuclear family relationships remain the most critical for the children’s health and outcome. When single mothers are nested in supportive extended family contexts, the children benefit from the direct aid offered to the mother.

There have been some studies on what kinds of skills promote nonviolent and nurturant parenting. For example, researchers in child development found that mothers who are able to develop higher levels of attunement or synchrony when interacting with toddlers, and who are able to establish a mutual focus with the child on some activity or thought, have children who are more compliant and happier than mothers who are less attuned, so to speak, to their young children. Flowing with the child rather than against her or him seems to be the best policy for socializing cooperativeness and stability. Finally, the quality of the relationship between parents has a profound impact on children’s coping and mental health.

Once again, the indicators of nonviolent parenting seem to be more lodged within parenting beliefs than in the structure of the family. Coercive parenting engenders aggression in children, either through modeling parental aggression or through the development of an internal mental script or ‘working model’ of antagonistic interpersonal relationships. Although there have been few direct studies to date, it appears that parents who espouse a ‘partnership model’ with each other are more likely to raise children to do the same, and to develop mutual respect for boundaries, opinions, and interests that will benefit the child, as well as the parents. The ‘dominator model’, or the traditional patriarchal family, is a problematic environment for successful child rearing, and can diminish children’s own self-esteem and ability to forge intimate relationships.

3.2 Family Typology

As inferred in the previous definitions, there are different types of families. The structure refers to the positions of the members of the family (e.g., mother, father, daughter, grandmother, etc.) and the roles assigned to the family members by the culture. For example, traditional roles of the nuclear family in North America and northern Europe in the mid-20th century were the wage-earning father and the housewife and child-raising mother. Cultures have social constructs and norms related to the proper roles of family members—that is, what the role of the mother, father, etc. should be.

Family types or structures have been delineated primarily by cultural anthropological studies of small cultures throughout the world. However, family sociologists have also contributed to the literature on family typology, although sociology has been more interested in the European and American family and less interested in small societies throughout the world.

There are a number of typologies of family types, but a simple typology would be the nuclear and the extended family systems. To these can be added the one-parent family.

The nuclear family consists of two generations: the wife/mother, husband/father, and their children. The one-parent family is also a variant of the nuclear family. Most one-parent families are divorced-parent families; unmarried-parent families comprise a small percentage of one-parent families, although they have increased in North America and northern Europe. The majority of one-parent families are those with mothers.

The extended family consists of at least three generations: the grandparents on both sides, the wife/mother and the husband/father, and their children, together with parallel streams of the kin of the wife and husband. There are different types of extended families in cultures throughout the world. The following is one taxonomy:

The polygynous family consists of one husband/father and two or more wives/mothers, together with their children and kin. Polygynous families are found in many cultures. For example, four wives are permitted according to Islam. However, the actual number of polygamous families in Islamic nations is very small (e.g., approximately 90% of fathers in Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia have only one wife). In Pakistan, a man seeking a second wife must obtain permission from an arbitration council, which requires a statement of consent from the first wife before granting permission.

In a few societies in Central Asia there are polyandrous families, in which one woman is married to several brothers and thus land is not divided. However, this is a rare phenomenon in cultures throughout the world.

The stem family consists of the grandparents and the eldest married son and heir and their children, who live together under the authority of the grandfather/household head. The eldest son inherits the family plot and the stem continues through the first son. The other sons and daughters leave the household upon marriage. The stem family was characteristic of central European countries, such as Austria and southern Germany. The lineal or patriarchal family consists of the grandparents and the married sons. This is perhaps the most common form of family and is also found in southern Europe and Japan.

The joint family is a continuation of the lineal family after the death of the grandfather, in which the married sons share the inheritance and work together. Joint families were found south of the Loire in France, as were patriarchal families, whereas the nuclear family was predominant north of the Loire. Joint families are also found in India and Pakistan.

The fully extended family, or the zadruga in the Balkans countries of Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, had a structure similar to that of the joint family but with the inclusion of cousins and other kin. The number of kin living and working together as a family numbered in the dozens.

A point needs to be made regarding the different types of extended families. Historical analyses of the family by anthropologists and sociologists indicated that people considered to be members of a family or a household were not necessarily kin. For example, in central European countries until the 18th century, servants (who were often relatives), semipermanent residents, visitors, workers, and boarders were considered to be members of the household. The term familia was used to denote large households rather than “family” in the modern sense. Until the 18th century, no word for nuclear family was employed in Germany but the term “with wife and children.” Frédéric Le Play, considered to be the father of empirical family sociology, discussed the emergence of the nuclear family as a product of the industrial revolution. He also characterized the nuclear family, the famille, as unstable in comparison with the stem family.

One theory regarding the change from feudal familia to the famille of Western Europe is based on the following analysis. After the reformation, vassals left the feudal towns to seek work in the cities. This led to the separation of the dwelling place and place of work and resulted in privacy and the sentimentality of the nuclear family. This pattern, however, was not found among the peasants in the agricultural areas. The strengthening of the relationship between parents and children was also a result of the religious influence of the Age of Enlightenment. These changes led to the releasing of servants from the close community of the household. Servants and workers became less personal and part of the household and more contractual. This led to the emergence of many new nuclear families (e.g., those of early factory workers and clerks). A new word in German, Haus, referred only to those living within it.

Historical analyses of the family during this period in Western Europe also emphasize that not all families were large extended families because establishing this type of household was dependent on land ownership. Most families worked for large feudal types of households and were essentially nuclear in structure. In England during this period, where land ownership was restricted to the nobility, the vast majority of families, which either worked for the landowners or rented small plots, were necessarily nuclear families.

Abstract

Families and extended families already present an entangled terrain of emotional experience that is further complicated by the range of technologies available for communication. This chapter argues that choosing between platforms to convey different content is deeply embedded in relationships, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a small down in Trinidad. For this argument, “polymedia,” a term coined by Madianou and Miller (2012, 2013), is a particularly useful theory of communications for personal relationships. Polymedia captures how Trinidadians navigate the expectations and etiquette within the messiness of lived relationships, where resolving conflicts and tensions have consequences, face-to-face. As social media bridges different aspects of relationships, polymedia is particularly concrete when thought of in relation to transnational family connections. Most often, sorting out which platforms to use is heavily intertwined with sorting out relationships, where sparing emotions and keeping peace are valued among extended families living in small towns.

Extended Family History

Information about the extended families is useful for several reasons. First, it is important to understand how the extended family is currently involved with the child client and his or her family. Also, because many caregivers bring their own histories of being parented into parenting relationships with their children, information about their family-of-origin experiences may be helpful. How much you decide to focus on this area when gathering the initial intake information depends on how much the presenting maternal grandmother had moved into the home approximately 8 months earlier and was providing afterschool care for the child. She was an alcoholic and extremely critical of the child. One family session in which the grandmother was included provided a clear picture, for both the play therapist and the parents, of the destructive interaction between this grandparent and the child. The parents immediately made changes in the environment to limit the contact the grandparent had with the child, and provided the child with messages to counteract the negative messages she had been getting from the grandmother. The parents were referred to Al-Anon resources in the community. Within a month, the child was doing better in school and play therapy was discontinued.

Case Example

Three-Generation Housing

It is difficult for extended families to live in close proximity in public housing environments. Young families may have to move across town to another site to find an apartment. As the young family grows in number of children, it is common for them to have to move several times to find more bedroom space. Over time the same families need less space as older children leave the home. A new concept of three-generation housing is actually a rebirth of the pre-World War II practice of providing room for boarders within the existing house design.

Three-generation housing concepts include the planning of architectural options to modify existing structures to increase apartment size or to provide for rental opportunities within one structure. That is, the apartment is designed to be broken into two apartments of various sizes. Conversely, an apartment could be designed to provide for an attic or attached efficiency that could be used for short-term rentals by college students or single tenants who can provide the adult presence needed to support a lone parent. Public housing applications will vary only to the extent of who serves as the landlord.

Three-generation planning for public housing provides architectural options that make it possible for extended families to stay close. Apartments may be modified or originally designed to allow for either upsizing or downsizing the number of bedrooms. One-bedroom flats may be joined or separated as families change. Two kitchens in one large apartment may be useful in promoting harmony among an extended family. This apartment could be split when the large family moves out. Such flexibility allows the apartment to undergo many changes over the years to accommodate the needs of various and changing families.

The value of three-generation housing is potentially enormous. The lone parent will benefit from the potential support of other adults within the home. Child supervision will improve, which may result in less delinquency and vandalism. Higher achievement levels in school may result from improved attendance and study habits that will be influenced by increased parenting and supervision. Finally, it should be expected that quality-of-life issues will be affected in positive ways, thus making the housing community more popular for working families.

American Indian/Alaska Natives

Within tribes that value extended families, Indian elderly are highly valued and occupy an important place in making major decisions for the family and tribe. About three-fourths of rural American Indians between 65 and 74 years of age live with their families, whereas only about one-half of the urban Indian population over age 75 live within a family environment. Those who live with their children do so because of cultural preferences and the ability to share in family resources. Care is generally given by the families or in elderly facilities on reservations (Red Horse, 1990). Other differences between rural- and urban-dwelling elderly can be seen in the rates of nursing home placement. Urban elderly are more likely to be placed in nursing homes than are rural elderly (Manson & Calloway, 1990).

Role of the Family in Fertility Decision-Making

While Caldwell conceptualized the extended family as a family structure that required transfers from young to old members, other researchers have argued that extended kin operate to provide additional resources for childbearing (Hrdy, 2005). The loss of the extended family structure may mean that the costs of children become larger for parents because they cannot be dispersed to extended kin members (Turke, 1989) or that pronatal messages, which may come disproportionally from kin, are reduced as individuals are located further from extended kin members (Newson et al., 2005).

Evidence has been mounting for the positive effects extended kin (usually parents or in-laws) have on the survivorship of children and fertility rates. Children are more likely to survive in many contexts if grandparents are alive, with effects generally being strongest for maternal grandmothers (Beise and Voland, 2002; Beise, 2005; Hadley, 2004; Kemkes-Grottenthalef, 2005; Lahdenperä et al., 2004; Sear et al., 2000; Sear, 2008; Tymicki, 2004). There is also evidence that grandmothers have positive effects on children's nutritional status (Gibson and Mace, 2005; Sear et al., 2000). In several contexts, grandmothers provide needed help to children and grandchildren; grandmothers reduce mother's work energy expenditure and reduce maternal direct child care among the Aka foragers of central Africa (Meehan et al., 2013), they reduce risk of grandchild mortality and low birth weight when they are the primary source of support for mothers in Puerto Rico (Scelza, 2011), and they relieve daughters of heavy domestic tasks in rural Ethiopia (Gibson and Mace, 2005). Finally, there is evidence that individuals who have close bonds with parents are more likely to engage in reproduction (Mathews and Sear, 2013a,b; Waynforth, 2012) and that having kin available who provide child care increase the likelihood of additional births (Bereczkei, 1998; Kaptijn et al., 2010). This thriving research area has demonstrated the positive effects grandparents have on grandchild outcomes, again providing evidence that resources flow from parents to children and grandchildren instead of the reverse.

Given that the variation in kin effects across contexts is not well understood and we expect kin to have differing effects depending on the local fertility norms and socioecologies, this provides a thriving area for future research. Further, we may expect variation depending on the type of kin member, as some kin are more closely related than others and some kin have their own reproductive opportunities, which may lead to kin reproductive conflict instead of cooperation. Empirical evidence shows mothers-in-law tend to have a positive effect on fertility outcomes for daughters-in-law (more so than mothers on daughter's fertility) (Sear and Coall, 2011), but we do not truly understand why this occurs. Both social and economic hypotheses have been brought forward as potential explanations, but future work will likely explore this evolutionary puzzle.

C Use of Alternative Sources of Information

Family members (including extended family), community members, and medicine men or tribal doctors can be invaluable sources to consult (with a client’s consent). As part of the culture and the client’s daily life, these individuals possess a rich understanding of the client’s social, emotional, physical, and spiritual functioning across time. In addition, these individuals are perhaps most able to render culturally sensitive and accurate judgments about pathology. For example, it may be difficult for a non-AI/AN clinician to decipher whether an AI male’s high level of mistrust stems from a realistic need to protect himself from the dangers and injury associated with discrimination or if he is paranoid in a delusional sense. Family and community members might rather effortlessly be able to identify the mistrust as normal or pathological.

To give another example, O’Nell and Mitchell (1996) conducted in-depth interviews with teens and other community members about teen drinking in a Northern Plains community. The community definition of pathological drinking was not related to frequency or quantity of alcohol consumption. Instead, local norms defined a teen as having a drinking problem when drinking interfered with the adolescent’s acquisition of cultural values like courage, modesty, humor, generosity, and family honor. Thus, in assessing a potential alcohol problem, asking a Northern Plains adolescent if she or he felt these values were affected by alcohol use might prove more fruitful than asking how often or how much the youth drinks. The People Awakening project of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research also found that definitions of sobriety among ANs interviewed emphasized culture, spirituality, and interpersonal responsibility rather than the amount or frequency of alcohol consumed (Mohatt et al., 2008; Mohatt et al., 2004).

Other sources to consider consulting include clinicians with AI/AN experience, anthropologists who have researched the particular tribe or group, and the academic literature (ethnographies, histories, and the literature of the culture; Westermeyer, 1987). Home or school observations might also help capture for the clinician the “flavor” of a client’s life beyond the capabilities of any test. Observing an AI/AN engaging in hobbies or other activities can help provide a balanced view of the client as possessing strengths in addition to weaknesses. For example, an AI child might be performing well below average in academics and seem to be severely delayed according to intellectual testing and teacher observations. However, during a home visit, a clinician might observe the child has a strong facility in beadwork, making highly complex patterns. The “delay” thus might not be as severe as thought and more related to cultural issues like activity preferences and language rather than innate ability.

On a final note, assessing the client’s level of acculturation to Western ways and enculturation or identification with his or her own cultural roots should be a focus with most every AI/AN. As mentioned by Trimble et al. (1996), “For some individuals…otherwise fairly healthy, the conflicts surrounding movement between cultures may be what brings them into counseling … These issues become more salient for Indian people who are living in an urban or other non-reservation environment” (p. 204). These conflicts were described earlier. In addition, some scholars (e.g., Trimble et al., 1996) argue understanding the client’s ethnic identity and level of acculturation and enculturation can increase the effectiveness of treatment. An AI/AN who is fairly acculturated, for example, may have previous counseling experience and be quite comfortable with the process and roles of the therapist and client. In contrast, a very traditional AI male is unlikely to have previous counseling experience and may be highly uncomfortable with some aspects of his role (e.g., self-disclosure) and behaviors of the therapist (e.g., direct questioning). The content and structure of therapy with this client thus could involve rather informal meetings at the client’s home with limited self-disclosure over a long period of time.

There are several models of how to assess level of acculturation and enculturation. Several standardized scales for AIs (e.g., American Indian Enculturation Scale, Native Identity Scale) with limited psychometric data exist (Gonzales & Bennett, 2011; Winderowd et al., 2008). Other approaches are more open-ended. Trimble et al. (1996) recommend open-ended questions about education, employment, religion, language, political participation, urbanization, media influence, social relations, daily life, and past significant events and their causes while Hays (2006) uses the acronym ADDRESSING to assess age and generational influences, developmental and acquired disabilities, religion or spiritual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender. Another useful framework is presented in the DSM-IV Outline for Cultural Formulation, addressing the cultural identity of the individual, cultural explanations of the individual’s illness, cultural factors related to the psychosocial environment and levels of functioning, and cultural elements of the relationship between the individual and clinician (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Although the Outline has limitations (Novins et al., 1997), Christensen (2001), Fleming (1996), and Manson (1996) present useful applications to the AI population.