Unit: III.2.

Family Sociology for Health Sciences

Unit: 3.2. Family

Dr. G. Pitchaimani B.P.T., M.SC., PhD
Content
 Nature of family,
 Function and types of family,
 Influence of family on health and health practices.

1. Family
 Of all human groups the family is the most important primary group.
 It is the simplest and the most elementary form of society.
 It is an outstanding primary group, because, it is in the family that the child develops is
basic attitudes.
 It provides for the most enduring relationship in the one form or other.
 It is a small social group consisting ordinarily of a father, mother, and one or more
children.
 The word “Family” has been taken over form the ‘Roman’ word “Famulus” means a
servant.

2. Definition of Family
MacIver-
“Family is a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide
for the procreation and upbringing of children”.
Nimkoff –
“Family is a more or less durable association of husband and wife with or without children
or of a man or women alone, with children.
Clare-
“Family is a system of relationship existing between parents and children”.
Eliott and Merrill-
“Family is the logical social unit composed of husband, wife and children”.
3. Characteristics of Family
▪ A mating relationship: A family comes into existence when a man and woman establish
mating relation between them.
▪ A form of marriage: Mating relationship is established through the institution of
marriage.
▪ A system of nomenclature: Every family is known by a name and has its own system of
reckoning descent. Descent may be consider through the male or female line.
▪ An economic provision: The head of the family carries on certain profession and earns
money to maintain the family.
▪ A common habitation (surroundings): A family requires a home or house-hold for its
living. Without a dwelling place the task of child bearing and child rearing cannot be
adequately performed.

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

4. Nature of Family
 Universality
 Family has existed from the beginning.
 Each age and every society has a form of family organization.
 It is the first social institution in the history of man.
 Every individual is a member of a family.
 It is the most universal group in the world
 Emotional basis
 As a fundamental unit of human society, it projects emotions like parental care,
procreation, love and affection between members.
 Limited size
 The family as a social group is small in size as it is determined by biological
relationship.
 Formative influence
 The family influences an individual to a greater extent rather than an other group.
 The character and personality of an individual are determined by his family members.
 Nuclear Position
 The unique features of marriage, parental care and sibling relationships make the
family to be the primary and most important group in the society.
 Responsibility of the members
 The child learns the meaning of responsibility, co-operation and love from its family
members.
 Social regulation
 Family is regulated and guarded by social customs and these customs and legal
regulations cannot be violated.
 Permanent and Temporary
 Family is permanent and universal as a institution. However, as an association it is
temporary and transitional because the members associating in the family are
changing due to the entry of new members and outgoing disappearance of old
members.
5. Function of Family
MacIver divides the functions of the family into Two categories:
Essential Non-essential
 Satisfaction of sex needs.  Economic.
 Production and raring of children.  Religious.
 Provision of home.  Educational.
 Health.
 Recreation.
 Civic.
 Social.
 Role of socialization.

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

Essential Function of Family

1. Satisfaction of sex need:
 Sexual satisfaction as the primary objective of the family.
 Satisfaction of sex instinct brings the desire for life-long partnership among male and
female.
 The satisfaction of sex instinct makes for normal personality.
2. Production and rearing of children.
 Family is an institution par excellence for the production and rearing of children.
3. Provision of a home:
 The family satisfies the need for affection by human beings.
 Man after the hard toil of the day returns home where in the center of his wife and
children he sheds off his fatigue.

Non Essential Function of Family

1. Economic:
▪ It serves as an economic unit.
▪ In the traditional family most of the goods for consumption were made at home.
2. Religion:
▪ The family performs is of a religious character.
▪ It is the centre of religious training of the children.
3. Educational:
▪ The child learns letters under the guidance of parents.
4. Health:
▪ A sick man was cared for in the family, by his own kith and kin.
5. Recreation:
▪ Family provides recreation to its members.
▪ They use to sing and dance together and visit the family relations.
6. Civic:
▪ The qualities of love, co-operation, toleration, sacrifice, obedience and discipline are
first learn by the child in the family.
7. Social:
 Family imparts the knowledge of social, mores etc., to the coming generation.
 Its exercises social control over its members.
8. Role of family in Socialization:
 The family on account of its several characteristics is of strategic importance in
socialization.
E.g. imitation, suggestion, language etc.,

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

6. Types of Family
1. On the basis of Authority
 Patriarchal – male dominant, female subordinate.
 Matriarchal – female dominant, male subordinate
2. On the basis of Structure
 Nuclear – husband, wife with or without children.
 Join Family or Extended family – two Nuclear family.
3. On the basis of Residence
 Patrilocal – wife goes to husband’s house for live.
 Matrilocal – husband goes to wife’s house for live.
4. On the basis of Marriage
 Monogamous: – one man marries one woman.
 Polygamous: – one man marries two or more women.
 Polyandrous: - one woman marry two or more men
5. On the basis of Ancestry
 Patrilineal – ancestry continues through the father.
 Matrilineal – ancestry continues through the mother.
6. On the basis of In-group & Out-group
 Endogamous: – sanctions marriage only among members of the in-group.
 Exogamous: – sanctions marriage of members of an in-group with members of an
out-group.
7. On the basis of Blood Relationships
 Conjugal family
o A “conjugal” family includes only a husband, a wife, and unmarried children who are
not of age.
o In sociological literature, the most common form of this family is often referred to as
a nuclear family.
 Consanguineal family
o contrast, a “consanguineal” family consists of a parent, his or her children, and other
relatives. Consanguinity is defined as the property of belonging to the same kinship as
another person.
o In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same
ancestor as another person.

7. Joint Family
 The family in India does not consist only of husband, wife and their children but also
of uncles, aunts and cousins and grandsons.
 This system called Joint family or extended family system, is a peculiar characteristic
of the Indian social life.
 A son after marriage does not usually separate himself from the parents but continues
to stay with them under the same roof and holding property in common.
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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

 The earnings of all the members are put in a common fund out of which family
expenses are met.
 The family in India is based on Patrilineal descent.
Definition of Joint Family
 Iravati Karve
“A Joint Family is a group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food
cooked at one hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common worship
and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred”.
 I.P. Desai
“we call that household a joint family which has greater generation depth than
individual family and the members of which are related to one another by property, income
and mutual rights and obligations”.
Characteristics of Joint Family:
 Large size:
Joint family consists of parents, children, grand children and other near relatives along
with their women.
 Joint Property:
The ownership, production and consumption of wealth lakes place on a joint basis.
 Common Residence:
Joint family usually live under same roof.
 Co-operative Organization:
Joint family system is co-operation.
 Common religion:
Joint family believe in the same religion and worship similar deities.
 A productive Unit:
All the members work at one and the same field.
Joint family is found among agricultural families.
 Mutual Rights and Obligations:
The rights and obligations of the members of joint family are the same.
If one female member works in the kitchen, the other does the laundry work, and the third
one look after the children.
Merits of Joint Family System
 Ensures Economic Progress.
 Division of Labour.
 Economy.
 Opportunity of Leisure.
 Social Insurance.
 Social virtures (moral quality).
 Avoids Fragmentation of Holdings.
 Socialism.
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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

Demerits of Joint Family System

 Home for Idlers.
 Hindrance in the development of personality.
 Encourages Litigation.
 Leads to Quarrels.
 Privacy denied.
 Unfavourable to accumulation of capital.
 Un-controlled procreation.

Factors of Disintegration of Joint Family:

 Industrialization.
 Extension of Communication & Transport.
 Decline of agriculture & Village Trades.
 Impact of the West.
 New Social Legislation.

8. Nuclear Family
 The individual nuclear family is a universal social phenomenon. It also called Modern
Family.
 A nuclear family is one which consists of the husband, wife and their children.
 The children leave the parents as soon as they are married.
 A nuclear family is an autonomous unit free from the control of elders.
 There is minimum interdependence between them. E.g. American family
9. Blended Family
 A social unit consisting of two previously married parents and the children of their
former marriages.
 The term Blended family or Step Family describes families with mixed parents: one
or both parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family
 A Stepfamily is the family one acquires when a parent enters a new marriage, whether
the parent was widowed or divorced.
 Example
 If one's father dies and one's mother marries another man, the new man is one's
stepfather and vice versa.
10. Extended Family
▪ An extended family can be viewed as a merger of several nuclear families. An
extended family may be crammed into a single house, or it may occupy a cluster of
houses within an extended family compound.
There are two types of extended family.
 Small extended family.
▪ May included an old man and his wife, their son, the son’s wife and the son’s
children.

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

 Large extended family.

▪ May include the old man and his wives, their unmarried children and married
sons, and the son’s wives along with their unmarried children.
11. The modern Family
 The family has undergone some radical changes in the past half a century.
 Its structure has changed, its functions have been altered and its nature has been affected.
 That is various factors – social, economic, educational, legal, cultural, scientific,
technological etc.,
 The modern family is democratic bases on equality between husband and wife.
Changes or features of Modern Family
 Decreased control of the marriage contract:
 The modern family people are less subject to the parental control concerning whom
and when they will marry.
 Changes in the relationship of man and woman:
 In modern family the woman is not the devotee to man but an equal partner in life
with equal rights.
 Laxity in sex relationships:
 Illegitimate sex relationship of the husband and wife too can be seen in modern
family.
 Economic independence:
 Women in modern family have attained an increasing degree of economic
independence.
 Smaller family:
 The modern family is a smaller family.
 Decline of religious control:
 The modern family is secular in attitude.
 The religious rites of the traditional family such as early prayer, yagya etc., are not
longer performed in modern family.
 Separation of non-essential functions:
 The traditional family functions have now been taken over by specialized agencies.
 Hospital offers room for the birth of child.
 The kindergarten he is educated.
 The playground he recreates.
 Filocentric family:
 Filocentric family is one wherein the children tend to dominate the scene and their
wishes determine the policy of the family.
 In modern family physical punishment is rarely awarded to the children. The children
now decide which school they will study in, what clothes they will wear, what food
will be cooked and which movie they will go to enjoy.

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

12. Influence of Family on Health and Health Practices

 Family is the most important social unit which fulfils the needs of the individual.
 Every individual is living in the family from the time of birth to death.
 If largely determines the health of the individuals.
 Positive conditions of the family promote the health of its members and negative
conditions causes health problems to them.
Determinants of family health
 Living and working conditions
 Physical environment
 Psycho-social environment
 Education and economic factors
 Health practices
 Cultural factors
 Gender etc.
Roles of family in health
As there is a famous proverb, “The secret of health lies in the family”, a family can plays
various roles to uplift the health status of its members.
The family role may be as:
 Family as a teacher
 Family as a health service provider
 Family as a counselor
 Family as a motivator
 Family as a monitor
 Family as a trainer
 Family as a controller
 Family as a care taker
Responsibilities of family in health and disease:
1. Child Rearing
 “Parenting or child rearing is the process of promoting and supporting the physical,
emotional, social and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood.”
 Parenting may be influenced by various factors as:
 Social class, Economic status and Education etc.
Types of Child rearing practices
 Authoritarian (very rigid and strict)
 Authoritative ( positive reinforcement)
 Permissive (freedom & autonomy)
 Uninvolved (physically, emotionally not supportive)

2. Personality of the parents

 Personality of the parents influences health of the family members.
Extrovert:
 Extrovert parents serve as good models and their children learn to cope up with
the adverse conditions of social life.
 Their children have emotional equilibrium and health personality pattern.
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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

Introvert:
 On the contrary introvert parents serve as poor models.
 They themselves as well as their children are charecterised by inner struggle.
 Their social contacts are lesser.
 They do not reveal their health problems to others and hence get poor help.
 Such family members fail to cope up with illness and changed conditions.
3. Socialization
 Family has an important function of socializing the child.
 This process helps in moulding the new born child and developing human qualities in
him so that he can effectively function in the society.
 Families provide rewards and positive reinforcement for good behaviour and
punishment and negative behaviour for bad behaviour.
 These practices which are a part of socialization process vary across societies and
time.
 The pattern of this moulding process determines the health status of the child.

4. Care of Dependant Adult

Care of the sick and injured
 A sick or an injured person gets more nursing care from his family than that of his
hospital even in highly developed countries.
 Especially mother is capable of providing more care than others.
Care of women during pregnancy and child birth
 A woman’s health is considered important as she is the creator of new life.
 The attitudes of society to pregnancy and child bearing are major determinants of
infant mortality, maternal mortality and still birth
Care of the Aged and Disabled people
 The importance of care for the aged and infirm has increased because of increase in
their numbers.
 This is because of the fact that joint families are broken into nuclear ones due to
industrialization and urbanization.
 At present many nuclear families are unable to provide suitable care to the aged and
disabled person.
 So the negative influence of family on health status of people is very great.
5. Stabilization of adult personality
 The family functions as a shock absorber and protects the individual from the stresses
and strains of modern life.
 The stress of modern living is largely responsible for increased incidence of mental
illness and this reflects the chaotic personal habits also.
 The stress gives rise to chronic illness like peptic ulcer, hypertension, colitis, and
various other illness.
6. Familial predisposition to diseases
 Genetic Factors
 Diabetes, Hemophilia
 Environment:

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Unit: III.2.Family Sociology for Health Sciences

 Communicable disease like tuberculosis, chicken pox and diarrhea spread

among members of the family rapidly because of the common environment
that they share.
 Consanguineous marriage
 Consanguineous marriage is matrimony between individuals who are closely
related.
7. Consanguineous marriage
 Multiple studies have established consanguinity as a high cause for birth defects and
abnormalities.
 A risk of autosomal recessive disorders increases in offspring coming from
consanguineous marriages due to the increased likelihood of receiving recessive genes
from cognate parents.
 According to population based case-control studies, a higher risk of stillbirth is
associated with consanguineous marriages.
 Inbreeding is associated with decreased cognitive abilities in children.
8. Parental deprivation
 There are families where one or both the parents are not existing because of
separation or death. Such families are broken family.
 Children of such families suffer from ‘mental deprivation’.
 Father plays a role in controlling and providing security to the child and mother
provides training, love and care to the child.
 So the children are deprived according to the loss of the parent.
 The child may suffer from certain abnormalities like psychopathic behaviours,
immature personality and retardation of growth, speech and intellect. Also, may fall
into antisocial activities like prostitution, vagrancy and crime.
9. Alcoholism and drug addiction of the parents
 Many parents are addicted to alcohol and drug which deteriorate their own health and
that of the family members.
 As a result family suffers from strained relationship and mental health problems.
 Economic problems are not uncommon among such families.
 The condition negatively influences the health of the family members
10. Problem families
 Those families which suffer from low standard of living the accepted minimum and
unable to satisfy the physical and emotional needs of their children are referred to as
problem families.
 These families are charecterised by defective personality patterns and poor
relationship among members, backwardness, poverty, illness and mental disharmony.
 Children of such families frequently become social deviants and turn into prostitution,
crime and vagrancy.
 Members of such families are prone to different health problems.

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