Family in America and Its Most Common Types Essay

In the United States, the common understanding of a family is a couple living with their young and unmarried children. This nuclear family configuration is perceived as the ideal basic unit of a society (Yau, 2016). In addition, Americans view marriage as monogamous relationships, and detest any polygamous family entities. Moreover, they perceive both maternal and paternal relatives as equally important. Authority in the family is mostly vested on the husband, although the idealised condition is an egalitarian family where both spouses hold equal power. In most cases, Americans marry outside of their clans, which is referred to as exogamy. However, some racial groups prefer to marry within their racial confines. In all cases, parental responsibility is shared by the married couple based on their incomes. In some cases, the couple might not be legally married but still cohabit as a husband and wife. Families with cohabiting couples have been on the increase in the US. Nevertheless, while cohabiting spouses and single-parent households have been on the rise, most Americans prefer to settle in a marriage, and even a majority of divorcees end up remarrying. Lastly, the divorce rate has declined sharply since the 1980s. Nonetheless, the rising cases of divorce and remarriage have led to a steady increase in stepfamilies across the country.

The following are the definition of common terms that relate to the modern family unit (Little, 2016).

1. Cohabitation. This refers to a state of two people that live together and have a sexual relationship but are not married.
2. Domestic partnership. It is a legal relationship among two individuals that live together but are not married. These partners share common domestic life but lack a marriage agreement.
3. Egalitarian family. It refers to a family whose decision-making power is shared equally among the members. Each member has an equal right to make decisions in the family.
4. Endogamy. It is a custom that entails individuals marrying strictly from their own tribe or community.
5. Exogamy. It is a custom that entails individuals marrying strictly from outside from ones’ own tribe or community.
6. Extended family. It is a family that extends beyond the single nuclear family to include grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
7. Family. It refers to a group of one or more parents and their children that live within together as a unit. The children could be their own or adopted.
8. Incest taboo. It is a cultural norm that prohibits members of the same family or blood relatives from having sexual relations.
9. Machismo. This refers to men’s aggressive and chauvinistic pride.
10. Matriarchy. It refers to a society where women hold the ultimate power.
11. Monogamy. This refers to the state of being married or marrying one spouse at a time.
12. Nuclear family. It refers to a set of people that share close ties based on blood, marriage, partnership, or adoption.
13. Polyandry. It is the practice where a woman marries two or more men concurrently.
14. Polygamy. It is the practice where a man marries two or more women concurrently.
15. Serial monogamy. It is the practice of entering into a several monogamous sexual relationships, one after another.
16. Single parent family. It is a unit comprising of one principal caregiver and one or more children. The caregiver does not receive any support from any adult partner in provision of care.

Reference

Little, W. (2016). Introduction to sociology. OpenEd.

Yau, N. (2016). Most common family types in America. Flowing Data. Web.