Definition of Family Assignment Report

Definition of Family Assignment Report

Running head: DEFINITION OF FAMILY
DEFINITION OF FAMILY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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DEFINITION OF FAMILY
Abstract
In this assignment, I will discuss about the meaning of family from both my own experiences
and from the broader Canadian perspective. The aim for doing this is to understand the concept
of family and the way it has changed over the years. For this assignment, I have chosen three
images from Google depicting my idea of a family. In the assignment, I will explain the three
images and their representation of the definition of family on my experience of family and in
general as well. I will also compare my perception of family with that of the forms of family in
Canada.

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The first image depicts a family that belongs to an Iranian race. I have chosen the image
because I could relate to it completely since I too come from an Iranian family. We could see in
the image that the family is very happy with three children - all daughters – and the parents (see
Appendix A). In my family, we are three siblings and I have two other sisters. My father and
mother both are Iranian and we have a nuclear family. I came to Canada with my husband after
marriage in 2015. The image demonstrates the general definition of a family, which states that a
family is a group of people who share different bonds. It is headed by the mother and the father
and the children later complete it. In the picture that I have chosen, the group consists of a father
and a mother along with the three children. Family is the one that shares genetic, emotional and
legal bonds (Kupavskii & Zakharov, 2018). Families have legal bond in the sense that they are
legally connected through marriages, guardianships, adoptions and rights, obligations and duties.
Any member of the family could not willfully separate from the family without legal procedure.
Genetic or blood bonds mean individuals who are related directly to their family through a
common ancestor. The genetic bonds could include those related both closely and distantly such
as mother, father, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces and so on. Emotional bonds refer
to the bon we create through living together and being by each other’s side through thick and
thin. Sometimes, emotional bonds are stronger than other bonds and it is not necessary that the
bond is created within the members of the family. From my experience, I could define family as
a unit that stays together, looks after each other and makes an extra effort when things are not
going well. In technical terms, my family comes under the category of married couple family.
In Canada, the average family is a nuclear family with the extended family staying
separately (Culturalatlas.sbs.com.au, 2019). A nuclear family is the one where only the parents
and children live in the same residence. Extended or joint family is the opposite of nuclear

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family where grandparents, aunts and uncles also live together along with others (Sear, 2016).
The family structure in Canada has been dominated by the married couple families as they make
up more than 67% of the total population (Justice.gc.ca, 2019). The common-law couples,
meaning those couples who have not formally registered their relationship as either a civil or
religious union, constituted only 16.7% of the census families followed by lone parent families
representing 16.3% of the population. Lone-parent families are those where only one parent is
present. Furthermore, intact families dominated the Canadian family structure with 87% of
couples living with children (Justice.gc.ca, 2019). Intact families refer to the family structure
having two parents and their children – both biological and adopted (Justice.gc.ca, 2019). The
trend over the past few decades demonstrated that the common-law couples and lone-parent
families increased manifold whereas the number of married couple families decreased
significantly. I could relate to these statistics because I have seen many of my friends and
cousins preferring common-law marriage over marriage, which is very different from what my
family believed and still believes in.
The second image of the family that I found in Google represents the present-day trend of
families across the world. In the image, we could see that the parents belong to the same sex, that
is, both are females (see Appendix B). This is a lesbian family with a child. The image represents
my experience of family especially the experience I had in the last few years. I know many
same-sex couples who reside as married couple family. The image reminds me especially of a
friend of mine who has a family like this. Both she and her partner are bread winners for the
family although after adopting a child, her partner had to quit the job. To my experience, this was
completely new because I belong to a family that is generally considered a complete and normal
family with father, mother and children. To see the two lesbian couples forming a family was

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very new to me. In Canada, the last two decades especially have witnessed remarkable changes
in the family structure and forms. The concept of “traditional” family comprising a father and
mother is diminishing with each passing day (Esping‐Andersen & Billari, 2015). We could see
that some new family types are starting to form although it is also true that these families had
before as well but were largely overlooked. These families included lesbians, gays and bisexuals.
These families are often not even recognized as a family. Apart from that, family relationships
involving foster and adoptive children are also given less consideration as compared to other
forms of family. It is a fact because I have a cousin who has been adopted by my uncle and aunt
but the people in their apartment do not call them a family because to them, family means
genetic bond only. The Canadian family demographics are changing also because of the the
diverse Canadian population. I have found that a significant number of Canadian families extend
beyond the nuclear family. To provide an instance, Canadian families with three generations
living under one roof have become a common phenomenon.
The major trends that we could witness in the Canadian family context include the trends
of common-law marriages, divorce, single-parent families, LGBTQ couples and female partners
in the paid labor force. The trend of LGBTQ couples especially saw a rise in the last few
decades. One of the primary reasons I could fathom for such changes in the familial structures is
the globalization phenomenon that led to the exposure to cultures where such family forms are
followed. Globalization caused massive interchange of cultures with marriages happening
beyond the native borders and people being exposed to a different culture (Rasmi, Daly &
Chuang, 2014). The LGBTQ family is also a result of the socio-cultural changes that happened
in Canada over the years. These socio-cultural changes have been fueled by the increasing
number of immigrants drawn towards the country over the last few decades (Liu & Kerr, 2003).

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This has led to a more diverse Canada where families were no longer confined to traditional
families. The first census on same-sex couples’s families was collected in 2001, the period when
globalization was emerging rapidly. The census found that around 0.5% of all the couples
included the same-sex couples (Ohrc.on.ca, 2019). While 15% of the households in which,
lesbian couples stayed had children, only 3% gay couples had children (Ohrc.on.ca, 2019). The
figures might seem to be low but given the time when it was taken, I am sure that many couples
did not reveal their information. A decade later, the trends changed and the figures increased
remarkably. In the 2011 census, it was reported that 42.6% same-sex couples made up the total
census family in the country (Www12.statcan.gc.ca, 2019).. Out of the 64, 575 same-sex
couples, 43,560 were common-law couples while 21, 015 were married couples
(Www12.statcan.gc.ca, 2019). As we could see, the figures in terms of common law and married
couples for same-sex and other individuals vary. While the figures for common-law couples in
other individuals are lower than married couples, for the same-sex people, it is the opposite. I
think it is because the Canadian society is yet to accept the same-sex couples as complete
families.
The changing demographics of the Canadian family could be evident from the third
image as well. In this image, we could see that not only the parents and children are there but
their grandparents are also present (see Appendix C). The Canadian familial structure is
witnessing a rapid change with the increasing cultural exchange and exposure. At one time, I
remember, most of the families were nuclear with grandparents staying away. However, the
trend has changed now and extended families have increased in numbers. This is mostly true in
case of families that come from other cultural backgrounds. However, this trend is different from
what my experience has been belonging to an Iranian nuclear family. I have always lived in a

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nuclear family as my parents live in Iran and I live in Canada with my husband. In my personal
opinion, I am happier with a nuclear family because it gives me an opportunity to visit my
parents and the extended family in Iran with my husband.
While I was discussing the various aspects of families, I was not completely aware about
the theoretical foundations associated with families. It was only when I researched about it; I
found that most of my experiences and explanations could be understood through the lens of
various theories defining the family structure especially in the field of nursing. Neuman’s System
Theory is one such theory that explains the family system. The theory states that family is
constituted when each member expresses self and that influences the entire family (Haefner,
2014). This is true in my case and in most cases because the way we express ourselves make
people think that we come from a certain family with certain characteristics. Roy’s Adaptation
Theory states that when something wrong or unusual happens in a family and the members find
it difficult to cope with, they adapt. This aligns with my experience of family when I saw
problems in my family that my parents could not cope with so they adapted to the situation
(Naga & Al-Atiyyat, 2014). However, not all families are able to do this and this requires the
intervening of the nurses to minimize the ineffective responses. Apart from these nursing
theories, the social sciences theories also helped me to understand about family. According to the
Structural-Functional theory, family is a social system where members of the family carry out
different responsibilities (Parsons, 2017). These responsibilities are carried out for the family as
well as the society. The various functions of the family as per the theory are being affective,
socialization, reproductive, economic and health care. This theory has helped explain my
experience of a family because I have found my family to perform all the aforementioned
functions effectively. The Developmental theory has further helped me elaborate my experience

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of a family and the way it has changed over the years. The theory states that “families evolve
through predictable developmental stages, and experience growth”. As I have witnessed, my
family too evolved from an extended family to a nuclear family. I say this because my paternal
grandparents used to live with us for some years until we had to move out of the town due to my
parents’ job requirements. Hence, these theoretical foundations have helped my understanding of
a family.
As discussed in the above sections, we could perceive more clearly about the concept of
family and the changing trends in the Canadian context. The family structure, as revealed, has
changed to include wider and more diverse forms of families. The statistics that I have used are
testimony to the changing trends especially in the Canadian context. They demonstrated that the
impact of socio-economic and cultural changes is highly visible in the families of Canada. I
found globalization to be a significant reason for this because it allowed increased cultural
exchanges and integration and Canada being one of the most welcoming countries for
immigrants, the influence are more here.

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Bibliography:
Culturalatlas.sbs.com.au. (2019). Canadian Culture - Family. Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/canadian-culture/canadian-culture-family
Esping‐Andersen, G., & Billari, F. C. (2015). Re‐theorizing family demographics. Population
and development review, 41(1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00024.x
Haefner, J. (2014). An application of Bowen family systems theory. Issues in mental health
nursing, 35(11), 835-841. https://doi.org/10.3109/01612840.2014.921257
Justice.gc.ca. (2019). Family Structure in Canada - JustFacts. Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/fl-lf/divorce/jf-pf/fsc-sfc.html
Kupavskii, A., & Zakharov, D. (2018). Regular bipartite graphs and intersecting families.
Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, 155, 180-189.
Liu, J., & Kerr, D. (2003). Family Change and Economic Well‐being in Canada: The Case of
Recent Immigrant Families with Children. doi/abs/10.1111/1468-
2435.00254International Migration, 41(4), 113-140.
Naga, B. S., & Al-Atiyyat, N. M. (2014). The Relationship between Pain Experience and Roy
Adaption Model: Application of Theoretical Framework. Middle East Journal of Nursing,
101(1149), 1-6. 10.5742/MEN.2014.92471
Ohrc.on.ca. (2019). The changing face of Canadian families. Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/human-rights-and-family-ontario/changing-face-canadian-
families

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Parsons, T. (2017). The present status of “structural-functional” theory in sociology. In The idea
of social structure (pp. 67-84). Routledge.
Parsons, T. (2017). The present status of “structural-functional” theory in sociology. In The idea
of social structure (pp. 67-84). Routledge.
Rasmi, S., Daly, T. M., & Chuang, S. S. (2014). Intergenerational conflict management in
immigrant Arab Canadian families. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45(7), 1124-
1144. doi/abs/10.1177/0022022114532358
Sear, R. (2016). Beyond the nuclear family: an evolutionary perspective on parenting. Current
Opinion in Psychology, 7, 98-103.
Www12.statcan.gc.ca. (2019). Portrait of Families and Living Arrangements in Canada.
Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-312-x/98-312-x2011001-
eng.cfm

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Appendices:
Appendix A
Appendix B

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Appendix C