What are the variations in family patterns

What are the changes in family patterns?

Traditional Family Patterns

Sociologists have classified traditional human family patterns into three categories:

(1) nuclear family consisting of a husband and wife and their minor children

(2) main family consisting of a husband and wife, their parents, or their immediate elders, and their minor children

(3) extended family consisting of a nuclear or main family plus other collateral relatives

Extended family used to be the dream of the Chinese people, often referred to as "children and grandchildren". The extended family used to be the dream of the Chinese people, who often used the phrase "full of children and grandchildren" to express the success and happiness of their elders. But it has been pointed out that it is a misconception that traditional Chinese society is dominated by the extended family. While it is true that the ideal of a large family is held in high regard, the so-called large family is not a common phenomenon. In fact, the so-called extended family existed mainly among the clans, and

such people were a minority after all; the vast majority of the common people were small families with a nuclear or main family, and extended family-style extended families did not exist.

This is an understanding of the traditional family; the modern model of the family has moved far beyond a simple trichotomy and is evolving in a more pluralistic direction.

Non-traditional Family Patterns

(1)Single Parent Families: Families in which a single father or mother raises minor children

(2)Single Families: Families in which people do not get married when they reach the age of marriage or live alone without getting married after divorce

(3)Reorganized Families: Families in which one of the spouses remarries, or both of the spouses remarry

(4) Dink family: a family with double income, fertile but don't want children, romantic freedom and enjoy life

(5) Empty-nest family: a family where only the old two live

(6) 421 family model: refers to a pair of one-child children married and have a child, the structure of the family consists of: 4 parents and elders, 1 child and 2 of them. The two young people have to bear the burden of 4 elders' old age and the family pressure of at least one child. This pattern will increasingly become the basic family structure in our country.

Excerpted from the Internet