What are the functions of families? In studying the family, Functional Theorists have identified some common and nearly universal family functions. That means almost all families in all countries around the world have at least some of these functions in common.
Economic Support
By far, economic support is the most common function of today's families. When your parents let you raid their pantry, do your laundry at their house, or replenish your checking account, that's economic support. For another young adult, say in New Guinea, if she captures a wild animal and cooks it on an open fire and shares it with others, that's also economic support in a different cultural context. Some families cooperate in business-like relationships. In Quebec, Montreal there is an established pattern of Italian immigrants who help family and friends emigrate from Italy to Canada. They subsidize each other's travel costs, help each other find employment once in Canada, and even privately fund some mortgages for one another. Each participant is expected to support others in the same manner.
Emotional Support
Emotional relationships are also very common, but you must understand there is a tremendous amount of cultural diversity in how intimacy is experienced in various families around the world. Intimacy is the social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical trust that is mutually shared between family members. Family members share confidences, advice, trust, secrets, and ongoing mutual concern. Many family scientists believe that intimacy in family relationships functions as a strong buffer to the ongoing stresses experienced by family members outside of the home.
Socialization
Children are born humanoid and have the potential to be what we label as human, the ability to communicate, work cooperatively, and socialize each other. They will realize this potential if older family members or friends take the time to protect and nurture them into their cultural and societal roles. Today the family is the core of primary socialization. But many other societal institutions contribute to the process including schools, religion, workplace, and media. The family is where we learn the rules of our unique society.
From the first moments of life, children begin a process of socialization wherein parents, family, and friends transmit the culture of the mainstream society and the family to the newborn. They assist in the child's development of his or her own social construction of reality, which is what people define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences with others. An average U.S. child's social construction of reality includes knowledge that he or she belongs, can depend on others to meet his needs, and has privileges and obligations that accompany membership in his family and community. In a typical set of social circumstances, children grow up through predictable life stages: infancy, preschool, school years, young adulthood, adulthood, middle adulthood, and finally later-life adulthood. Most will leave home as young adults, find a spouse or life partner in their mid-to-late 20s and work at a job for pay. To expect that of the average U.S. child is normal. But how about those who don't fit into these predictable patterns? Might their reality be shaped differently? Is their reality any less "real" than the populations we discussed earlier? Our social constructions of reality may overlap or have vast similarities, but no two people will have identical social realities because no two people will have identical life experiences.
Also when discussing the average U.S. child, it's safe to say that the most important socialization takes place early in life and in identifiable levels. Primary socialization typically begins at birth and moves forward until the beginning of the school years. Primary socialization includes all the ways the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and meeting the expectations of society. Most primary socialization is facilitated by family, friends, day care, and to a certain degree various forms of media. Children watch about three hours per day of TV (by the time the average child attends kindergarten he has watched about 5,000 hours of TV). They also play video games, surf the Internet, play with friends, and read.
Around age four to five pre-school and kindergarten are presented as expectations for children. Once they begin their schooling, they begin a different level of socialization. Secondary socialization occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to school and come under the influence of non-family members. This level runs concurrently with primary socialization. Children realize at school that they are judged for their performance now and are no longer accepted unconditionally. In fact, to obtain approval from teachers and school employees, a tremendous amount of conformity is required-this is in contrast to having been accepted at home for being "mommy's little man or woman."
As students, children have to learn to belong and cooperate in large groups. They learn a new culture that extends beyond their narrow family culture and that has complexities and challenges that require effort on their part. This creates stressors for the children. By the time of graduation from high school the average U.S. child has attended 15,000 hours of school away from home. They've also probably watched 15,000 hours of TV and spent 5-10,000 playing (video games, friends, Internet, text messaging, etc.).
Friends, classmates, and peers become increasingly important in the lives of children in their secondary educational stage of socialization. Most zero to five year olds yearn for affection and approval from their parents and family members. By the time of pre-teen years, the desire for family diminishes and the yearning now becomes for friends and peers. Parents often lament the loss of influence over their children once the teen years arrive. Studies show that parents preserve at least some of their influence over their children by influencing their children's peers. Parents who host parties, excursions, and gettogethers find that their relationship with their children's friends keeps them better connected to their children. They learn that they can persuade their children at times through the peers.
The third level of socialization includes college, work, marriage and significant relationships, and a variety of adult roles and adventures. Adult socialization occurs as we assume adult roles such as wife/husband/employee/etc. We adapt to new roles which meet our needs and wants throughout the adult life course. Freshmen in college, new recruits in the military, volunteers for Peace Corps, employees, missionaries, travelers, and others find themselves following the same game plan that lead to their success during their primary and secondary socialization years. This success help them to find out what's expected and strive to reach those expectations during their adult socializations.
Sexuality and Reproductive Control
The family has traditionally asserted control of sexuality and reproduction. A few centuries ago the father and mother even selected the spouses for many of their children (they still do in many countries). American parents want their adult children to select their own spouses. Older family members tend to encourage pregnancy and childbirth only in marriage or a long-term relationship. Unwed mothers are mothers who are not legally married at the time of the child's birth. Being unwed brings up concerns of economic, emotional, social, and other forms of support for the mother and child that may or may not be present from the father. When an unwed mother delivers the baby, it is often the older female family members who end up providing the functions of support for that child rather than the birth father. Table 3 shows unwed mother births in the U.S. in 2000 and 2006. Most of the over four million live births in 2006 were to married mothers. But about \(1 / 10\) of teen mothers and over \(1 / 3\) of all mothers were unwed. \({ }^4\) From 2000 to 2006 teen births declined slightly while unwed births to older (non-teen) women increased. This trend of increasing unwed birth rates suggests that more and more families have less control by sanctioning childbirth within marriage.
Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Percentage of All Births that were to Unwed Teens and Mothers of All Ages Years 2000 and 20065
| Year |
Births to Unwed Teens |
Births to All Unwed Mothers |
| 2000 |
11.8% |
33.2% |
| 2006 |
10.4% |
35.8% |
Status
With your friends, have you noticed that one or two tend to be informally in charge of the details? You might be the one who calls everyone and makes reservations or buys the tickets for the others. If so, you would have the informal status of "group organizer." Status is a socially defined position. There are three types of status considerations. Ascribed status is present at birth and is said to be unchangeable (race, sex, or class). Achieved status is attained through one's choices and efforts (college student, movie star, teacher, or athlete). Master Status is a status which stands out above our other statuses and which distracts others from seeing who we really are (to you, your father's master status is dad).
You were born into your racial, cultural-ethnic, religious and economic statuses. That shaped to some degree the way you grew up and were socialized. In modern societies achieved status is more important than ascribed status for most members of society. Although the degree of achievement one attains often depends heavily on the level of support families provide. While a status is the social position within a group, role is how we enact that status. For example, you as a student (status) need to attend class, study for exams, write papers, do homework, etc. Each status has many roles associated with it and each person has many statuses. You are probably a child, maybe a sibling, perhaps a spouse or parent, and likely an employee as well as a student. You have many roles to fulfill in your varied statuses.
Another consideration about groups and our roles in them is the fact that one single role can place a rather heavy burden on a person. Role strain is the burden one feels due to the varied roles within any given status and role conflict is when the roles in one status come into conflict with the roles in another status. For example, your role of studying for a midterm (status of student), your role of getting to work on time (status of employee), and your role of socializing (status of single person) conflict because you had planned to study for that midterm on Saturday afternoon, but then your boss calls and asks you to come in to work, and just as you're getting into your Hotdog-On-A-Stick uniform your friend stops by to ask you to go to the beach.
