I have been studying the case study of the McPhail family, a family of large numbers who have traditionally followed their ancestors footsteps and lived within the travelling community. Within in this piece I shall examine the different aspects of family structure and the effect that it has on the family as a group and individually.
Family Structure
For every member of a family socialisation is a key part of famliy structure as it shapes each individual into the person they are going to become and the role they will have within society and the family household. People learn from birth a number of different things from their parents and older siblings, everything from simple manners to the core skills they will develop for fututre work etc.they learn norms, values, roles and status and this is how they can obtain a role within a family structure.The structure of the McPhail family is that of an extented family, rather than a nuclear family which would consist of a man, woman and their biological children we can see that there is a 'network' of family members within the household. Other structures that we have discovered are the lone parent family which would involve a single parent who is completely reliable towards any children they may have there has been a significant rise in this particular family structure " Lone parents with dependent children rose from 1.7 million at the turn of the centuary to 2 million in 2012". Another family structure is a same sex family which would consist of parents of the same sex with children which have come from adoption or in some circumstances from previous hetrosexual realtionships. So looking at the statistics you could argue that there really isn't a "normal" family structure within the uk anymore, in todays society alot more is being accepeted so therefor it is opening oppertunities for a greater variety of
