Six Functions of the Family

A functional family is one in which family members:

fulfill their agreed upon roles and responsibilities;

treat each other with respect and affection; and

meet each others needs.

1. Socialization
The process by which children learn to become human and adopt certain
behaviour.

Children learn from what they see and experience in their developing years.

Since children spend most of their early years only interacting with their
family members, the family unit has the greatest impact on development.
Socialization and Language:
The ability to speak a language is one way to prove the impact a family can
have on socialization.
Children pick up the language of their parents by imitating the sounds of
their parents.
If no language is developed at a young age, it is very difficult to establish
communication skills later.
Socialization Proof Feral Children
Another way to prove that children learn language and behaviour from
families is through studying feral children.
These are children who have been deprived of human contact during their
early developing years.

One case involves two girls in India that were said to be raised by wolves.

They had no language but growled, yelped, and murmured.

They could not stand erect.

They did not use their hands to eat but lowered their heads instead.

2. Rules of behaviour
These types of cases show that human interaction is required for children to
acquire human behaviour.
The family teaches appropriate behaviour, what to expect, and how to interact
in everyday life.
Behaviour:
Charles Cooley argued that we learn emotions such as love, pity, pride,
sympathy, generosity, guilt and a sense of right and wrong, are taught to us by
our family.
One study showed that the emotional health of students was directly related
to the relationship between parents. So even emotional health is taught to us.

3. Patterns of interaction
Studies also show that children that have been deprived of close family
relationships which lead to emotional problems as adults.
This forms a cycle as these adults may have trouble meeting the emotional
needs of their future families.
Evidence: Abuse cycle:

Families who have abusive relations are prone to more abusive behaviours.

Studies have shown that as children grow if they are taught to express
violence when angry, they will continue this behaviour throughout their lives
unless they are re-socialized by choice.
Children also learn how to deal with problems from the example of their
parents

EX. Children with parents that smoke are also more likely to smoke.

Parents are role models for their children: both positive and negative.

4. Emotional support

 Students from parents that have a loving relationship, and are supportive,
have a more positive self image and were also more confident.
Students from families that have distrust and hostility are more likely to have
a negative self image and emotional problems.

5. Reproductive Function
In order for a society to continue to exist it must replace those people that
die.
The family is responsible for raising children to become contributing
members of society.

In many advanced countries, families are choosing to have less children.

Birth control has made choice possible since the 1970s.

In Canada we have an aging population. This means less young people and
more older people.
We will need to increase immigration to fulfill jobs such as doctors, nurses
etc.

There will be greater demand for healthcare since most people will be older.

Younger people will have to pay more taxes to maintain standard of living.

6. Economic Function
Families are the means whereby children are supplied with the necessities
food, shelter and clothing.
In the past, children were needed to work on farms and help provide for the
family at an early age.

Today children are normally dependant on the family until after high school.

Family Dysfunction
Failure to provide:
When families fail to provide any of the necessary element of these functions,
over time or repeatedly, they are considered to be dysfunctional.

 This can lead to emotional, social, and/or developmental difficulties for the
family members.
A dysfunctional family is one where the main family functions-providing love and
support, and sharing responsibilities-are absent.
This can occur when a parent is an alcoholic or neglectful, a teenager steals
to support a drug habit, or everyone in the family screams or is physically,
emotionally, sexually, or psychologically abusive to each other.
The functions which are basic in nature and which cannot be performed successfully by any
other institutions are called primary essential functions of family. Under this category the family
performs the following function:
(1) Stable Satisfaction of Sex need:
This is the Primary and essential function of family. Sex instinct is the natural urge of human
being. The satisfaction of this need requires that both male and female should live together as
life partners. It is the family where the husband and wife can satisfy their sex instincts easily and
comfortably. Without family the satisfaction of sex need is almost socially quite impossible. A
family not only satisfies but also provides the appropriate mechanism through marriage to
regulate sexual behavior of husband and wife.
(2) Reproduction or procreation:
Reproduction or procreation is another essential function of family. The family along with
regulating the sexual behavior in relation to the satisfaction of sexual needs secures a legitimate
basis for procreation. Since the inception of family, it has been performing this fundamental
function. This function of family contributes to the continuity of family and ultimately
perpetuates the human race as a whole.
(3) Protection and care of the young:
Protection and care of the children is another essential function of family. It is regarded as an
institution par excellence for the production and rearing of children. It is true that no other
institution can take required care of the child like family. The child at birth is complete helpless
and cannot survive at all without the help of the family. It is the family which provides care,
protection, security (Physical, mental) and fulfills all other needs to make him fit in the society.
(4) Socializing Functions:
Family is one of the primary agents of socialization. Family members teach the child the norms,
value morals, beliefs and ideals of society. In the family the children first learn what is good and
bad, what is right and wrong. They develop specific habits, traits of character, attitudes and

values. The senior members of the family pass the family culture to the new generation thought
socialization process. Thus, family acts an instrument of culture transmission.
(5) Provision of a home:
Family makes a provision of a home or a common habitation for its members. Here both
husband and if live together for procreation, protection and care of the children. It is a place of
multifarious activities. All the members of the family depend on home for comfort, protection
and peace. It is that institution which provides the mental or the emotional satisfaction.
Members of the family exchange their love, sympathy and affection among themselves.
FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY
Structural-Functionalists suggest that family performs several vital functions. In fact in this perspective
family has been considered as "The backbone of society". At the same time the social conflict paradigm
considers the family central to the operations of society, but rather than focusing on societal benefits,
conflict theorists investigate how the family perpetuates social inequality. The important functions are:
1.
Regulation of sexual activity. Every culture regulates sexual activity in the interest of
maintaining kinship organization and property rights. One universal regulation is the incest
taboo, a cultural norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain kin. Precisely which kin fall
within the incest taboo varies from one culture to another. Mostly marriage with close relatives
like parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, is prohibited.
The incest taboo may have medical explanations as reproduction between close relatives of any species can
mentally and physically impair off springs. Yet it has social reasons. First the incest taboo minimizes sexual
competition within families by restricting legitimate sexuality to spouses. Second incest taboo forces people
to marry themselves outside their immediate families, which serve the purpose of integrating the larger
society. Third, since kinship defines people's rights and obligations towards each other, reproduction among
close relatives would hopelessly confuse kinship ties and threaten social order.
2.
Reproduction. Perhaps the only function that seems to have been left to a great extent
untouched is reproduction. Without reproduction the continuation of society is at stake and
the legitimate births take place only within the wedlock. Yet even this vital and inviolable
function has not gone unchallenged. A prime example is the number of single women in the
Western society who have children (about one third of all births in US).
3.
Socialization of children. The family is the first and most influential setting for socialization.
Ideally the parents teach children to be well-integrated and participating members of society. In
fact, family socialization continues throughout life cycle. Adults change within marriage, and, as
any parent knows, mothers and fathers learn as much from raising their children as their
children learn from them.
The conflict sociologists try to find fault with the outcome of this socialization through which there is likely
to be the transmission of cultural values. There is the continuity of patriarchy, which subordinates women
to men. Families therefore transform women into the sexual and economic property of men. Most wives'
earnings belong to their husbands.
4.
Social placement. Parents confer their own social identity in terms of race, ethnicity,
religion, and social class on children at birth. This fact explains the long-standing preference
for birth to married parents. This is more like ascription of social status to the children,
Nevertheless, racial and ethnic categories shall persist over generations only to the degree that people marry
others like themselves. Thus endogamous marriage shores up the racial and ethnic hierarchy of a society.
Conflict sociologists traced the origin of the family to the need to identify heirs so that men (especially in
the higher classes) could transmit property to their sons. Families thus support the concentration of wealth
and reproduce the class structure in each succeeding generation. Therefore family plays an important
function in maintaining social inequality; hence it is a part and parcel of capitalism.
5.

Care of the sick and elderly. Family has been a big insurance against the old age as well as
during sickness. As the society moves towards the industrialization this function is likely to be
taken over by institutionalized medicine and medical specialists. Care of the aged is likely to
change from a family concern to a government obligation. In Pakistani society, by and large, it
remains to be an important function of the family.

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otective function. Family provides some degree of physical, economic, and psychological
security to its members. Attack on a person is considered to be an attack on the family.
Similarly guilt and shame are equally shared by the family. People view the family as a "haven in
the heartless world", looking to kin for physical protection, emotional support, and financial
assistance. People living in families tend to be healthier than living alone.
7.
Economic production. Prior to industrialization, the family constituted an economic team.
Family members cooperated in producing what they needed to survive. When industrialization
moved production from home to factory, it disrupted this family team and weakened the bonds
that tied family members together. In Pakistan family still performs an important function at
least in helping its members in establishing their careers and obtaining jobs