How do sociologists explain why we have families? What function does the family serve in the larger society? We know that families are the primary socialization, which begins the process of teaching norms, values, and roles. Primary socialization, or the process that occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions expected of individuals within a particular culture, is the most important phase of social development, and lays the groundwork for all future socialization. These foundational lessons guide children’s ideas and understandings of the world and society. We can consider society’s macro and micro levels to gain a broader view of the family’s function. We will also look at the three main theoretical perspectives and how they explain what happens inside and outside the institutions of family. These perspectives are summarized in the table in figure 6.12.

Figure 6.12. Sociological Approaches to the Family

6.4.1 Structural Functionalism and the Family

Looking at the function of the family through the lens of functionalism, we should remember that this perspective is based on social institutions performing functions to preserve stability and maintain order so that society works correctly and is balanced. We described this previously as thinking of society as a body with different parts that have to work together to maintain the whole body. If one area is struggling, another must correct it to create stability.

Applying this concept to family means that we examine the ways family maintains the functions of society. Functionalists also look at the role each family member plays in helping this smaller social unit to function, and in turn, keeping larger elements of society functioning. Through the functionalist lens, family units are key to maintaining norms, beliefs, values, and roles as families pass them down to future generations. Gender roles also play a key part in this theory as typically, a father may be the breadwinner, and the mother may do more care work. However, if the father stays home to care for the family and children, the mother must economically increase her contribution to balance the family’s needs.

Family is ideally a major source of practical and emotional support for its members. It provides them food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials, and it also provides them love, comfort, help in times of emotional distress, and other types of intangible support that we all need. Family unity maintains functioning members, those that are able to, that supply societal needs, including laborers and social participants, therefore creating societal stability, according to structural functional approaches to the family.

The family also helps regulate sexual activity and sexual reproduction. All societies have norms governing with whom and how often a person should have sex. The family is the major unit for teaching these norms and the major unit through which sexual reproduction occurs. One reason for this is to ensure that infants have adequate emotional and practical care when they are born. It also teaches the norms of sexual interactions and relationships, which we will discuss later in this chapter in depth.

Finally, the family provides its members with a social identity. Children are born into their parents’ social class, race and ethnicity, religion, etc. As we have seen in earlier chapters, social identity is important for the opportunities we will be given in life. Some children have more life advantages because of the social identity they acquire from their parents. In contrast, others face many obstacles because they are born at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The functional perspective maintains that sudden or far-reaching changes in conventional family structure and processes threaten the stability of the family unit and society. For example, most sociology and marriage-and-family textbooks during the 1950s maintained that the male breadwinner and female homemaker nuclear family was the best arrangement for children, as it provided for a family’s economic and child-rearing needs. Any shift in this arrangement, they warned, would harm children, the family as a social institution, and even society itself. Textbooks no longer contain this warning, but many conservatives worry about the impact of working mothers and one-parent families on children’s development.

6.4.2 Conflict Theory and the Family

Conflict theorists agree with much of the functional view of family, but they also point to problems within the family that the functional perspective minimizes or overlooks altogether. For one, the family as a social institution contributes to social inequality in several ways. Social identity affects a child’s lifetime opportunities, but it also reinforces a society’s stratification systems. Because families pass along their wealth to their children, and because families differ greatly in the amount of wealth they have, the family helps reinforce existing inequality.

As it developed through the centuries, especially during industrialization, the family became more and more of a patriarchal unit, helping to ensure men’s status at the top of the social hierarchy. Lower-income families socialize their children more to follow directions and conform to certain roles so they can be workers, since those children will likely have less access to high-quality education and opportunities for climbing the socio-economic ladder.

Family can also be a source of conflict for its own members. Although the functional perspective assumes the family provides its members emotional comfort and support, many families do the opposite. They are far from the harmonious, happy groups depicted in 1950s television shows. News stories frequently depict families arguing, shouting, and using emotional cruelty and physical violence.

We also see that children’s lives can negatively impact harmony in a family. Children coming out as LGBTQIA+ to their families can cause significant struggles and emotional pain within the family through parents lack of acceptance, anger, or dismissal of their children’s identity. We return to LGBTQIA+ families and family violence later in the chapter.

6.4.3 Social Interactionism and the Family

Social interactionist perspectives on the family examine how family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis and arrive at shared understandings of their situations and experiences. Studies grounded in social interactionism give us a keen understanding of how and why families operate the way they do. This theory examines the micro level of family dynamics, the day-to-day interactions between and within families. This means that symbolic interactionists emphasize that shared activities help build emotional bonds and that marriage and family relationships are based on negotiated meanings. Rituals such as family meals, holidays, game nights, and so on reinforce or rebuild family bonds through interactions.

Some studies focus on the perception of parenting styles by young adults. The experiences and perceived style were much more influential on young adults than the actual parenting style used. These four parenting styles are based on responsiveness and demandingness (authoritarian, authoritative, neglectful, or permissive), meaning how much warmth and response a parent gave and how much they demanded, pressured, or commanded children.

This research reflected some of the staple perspectives of symbolic interactionist theory. What adult children thought of their parent’s styles impacted their socialization and perspectives as adults. Gender also impacted the view of parenting styles. Men expressed much more authoritarian styles than women, even within the same household. And third, male children felt they had more freedom than female children. This type of research illustrates the small interactions and symbols within families and how they impact the outcomes of being raised in those families (Totkova, 2016)

According to the symbolic interactionist perspective, family problems often stem from different understandings, perceptions, and expectations that spouses have of their marriage and their family. Instead of focusing on larger social struggles and the impact those may have on families, like income, it looks within families and studies the struggle and outcomes of those interactions. When these differences become too extreme, and the spouses cannot reconcile their disagreements, spousal conflict and divorce may occur (Kaufman & Taniguchi, 2006).