Review the different types of family structures described in the text and identify two or three major characteristics or factors that differentiate each of the family structures.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Nuclear families consist of two opposite-sex parents and children in the home. Extended families include people outside the nuclear family in the same household sharing family tasks. Cohabiting opposite-sex couples are growing in popularity in the United States and may or may not have children in their households with them. Couples without children are also on the rise, some voluntarily childless, some involuntarily, and some temporarily. Lone-parent families have also increased across demographic groups in the United States; these families are more likely to struggle economically. Stepfamilies have always been relatively common, but now are more often formed post-divorce or breakup of a previous relationship that resulted in children. Same-sex partner families may adopt, foster, or have kids from previous relationships; children raised in these homes are not notably differently functional than kids from other homes.