A family is a group of two or more persons related by blood, adoption, marriage, or marriage-promise who live together, or have lived together at one point in time, and who share the expectations and obligations to provide and care for one another. When these groups are combined at the aggregate level, their expectations, obligations, and behaviors create the normative expectations associated with a family institution. Four ways to type families include nuclear, extended, families of orientation, and families of procreation.

There are two approaches to studying families: a micro approach that examines families as small groups, and a macro approach, that looks at families as an institution. The framework that bridges the micro and macro approaches is systems theory: a blend of family systems and ecological systems. There are several important concepts from these theories that are used to analyze and interpret family behavior:

• Interrelatedness
• Interdependence
• Wholeness
• Organization
• Structure
• Boundaries
• Stability
• Homeostasis
• Equilibrium
• Adaptability
• Openness
• Feedback mechanisms
• Microsystem
• ExosystemMesosystem
• Macrosystem
• Chronosystem

These concepts are combined with four small group processes central to family life: patterns of communication, the development of consensus, the management of conflict, and the ability to sustain commitment.

At the institutional level race, ethnicity, beliefs, and values (both cultural and sub-cultural) are important concepts. Change over time in family behavior is an important factor when studying families at the institutional level. There are exchanges occurring between families and other social institutions (such as the economy, the law, political processes, government agencies, schools, and religious centers) that exemplify the interrelatedness of institutions. In addition, there is ongoing interaction among families in their neighborhoods and communities.

The ecological systems theory describes how physical and social settings within neighborhoods and communities influence family members and how families, in turn, influence these settings. These are described below:

a. Microsystems are where direct face-to-face interaction takes place.

b. Mesosystems represent the connections between various Microsystems, or micro- and exosystems, in which family members are involved.

c. Exosystems include environmental settings in which family members may or may not be directly involved but nevertheless influence families. These include a family member’s place of employment that has an indirect influence on other individuals in the family. Exosystems include settings that may not directly involve family members (such as criminal justice, medical, or political settings), but which may negatively or positively affect families.

d. Macrosystems include values, ideologies, attitudes, and norms of society. These influence the way family members interpret the behaviors associated with their positions and roles, and help determine normative expectations.

e. Chronosystems represent the dynamic, ever-changing aspect of social systems. This concept accounts for change that comes with the passage of time.

A great deal of diversity based on race, ethnic background, religion, gender preference, social class, and family structure exists among families in the United States. Family structures usually vary depending on marital status: cohabiters, married, widowed, single parent, and remarried. A new category has emerged in the last decade called a “skipped generation” family, in which grandparents raise grandchildren.

Class status is determined in several ways and typical categorizations include:

• Upper Class/Elite.
• Middle Class/White Collar.
• Working Class, Blue Collar/ Lower Class.
• Poor/Homeless.

The data and statistics you will find reported in the text are based on social science research. The last section of the chapter reviews some key points about the research process and the scientific method. Research is conducted in order to a) describe some phenomenon, b) explain it, or c) predict it. This is done using several different methods, including:

1. Questionnaires

2. Surveys

• Unstructured
• Open-ended
• Structured
• Closed-ended

3. Interviews

• Unstructured
• Open-ended
• Unstructured
• Close-ended

4. Observation

• Unobtrusive observation
• Naturalistic observation
• Structured laboratory observation

5. Secondary analysis

• Diaries
• Letters
• Census data
• Previously collected data

A researcher may compile data by (a) collecting information from the same group of people at more than one point in time (longitudinal), or (b) gathering information at one point in time from a wide group of individuals who have different responses to the key variable of interest (e.g., age at marriage) (cross-sectional).