The Family as a Social Institution in Australian Society

Introduction
Social sciences incorporate with many concepts that
are fundamental to the grasping of the subject
matter. One such crucial idea in the field of social
sciences is that of the family. The family is
generally termed as a significant social institution in
the Australian society as well as other parts of the
globe (Ogormegbunem, 2014). It is regarded as a
locus of much of one’s social activity. The family is
a social unit created by marriage or adoption and
can be grouped as either extended or nuclear. A
nuclear family consists of father, mother, and
children while the extended family consists of the
nuclear family and other relatives. The main
contention of this paper is to complete research on
the family as a social institution in the Australian
society.
The framework of the Family
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Families in Australia come in many sizes and
shapes. Furthermore, the size and shape of one's
family change over their life course (Germov &
Poole, 2015). One can even define their own family
differently from diverse vantage points. From one
perspective, Australian families might consist of the
members of the immediate family living in one
household or from another aspect; the family might
consist of family members scattered across several
different houses and generations.
Couple families are the common family frameworks
in Australia (Crouch, McNair, & Waters, 2016). In
this framework, children live all or most of their
childhood in this structure. Most of these families
include a couple. Additionally, in these families, a
number of them have dependent or nondependent
children while others do not contain any child at all.
The significant majority of parents in this setup are
married.
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Another type of family framework in Australia is
the lone family structure (Fucik, 2016). This
framework can also be called a single parent family.
Here, one parent, either the father or mother raises
one or more children on his or her own. This family
framework has taken a more substantial proportion
of the Australian family social institution
frameworks.
Family Profiles in Australia
Family
Type
Couple Families
5, 676,500
Single Parent Family
948,800
Population
Percentag
e
With
dependants
Without
dependant
s
Almost
two in
three had
dependants
living with
them
Led by
singles
mothers
44% 56% 65% 83%
3