Defining Family

We hear people talk about "family values", especially as the election year gets into full gear. We see advertisements from organizations like "Focus on the Family", and we hear extreme conservatives warn that the liberals are destroying the "family".
But, how do you define family?

From an academic perspective, we can start with one proposed by Fitzpatrick and Badzinski, "...small, kinship structured group whose primary function is the nurturing socialization of newborn children." (p.4) I personally like this definition. I was alone as an adult until I met my husband and together through marriage we became one union and when our union brought forth child, we were family. This family includes aunts, uncles, grandparents and any other relatives who take part in the lives of my children. I'm satisfied with this definition, but it is incomplete.

Winston Dictionary for Schools, 1967 offers seven possibilities:
1) a group of closely related people, as parents and their children
2) the children alone of such a group
3) a household; a group of persons under one roof
4) a body of persons descended from a common ancestor; tribe; clan
5) distinguished lineage; as they are people of good family
6) a group of things with some common characteristics as a mineral family
7) in biology, a classification of plants or animals larger than a genus, but smaller than an order; as the cat family

All of these are accurate, but still incomplete.

In our own language, we put restrictions on the term, as in when we speak of someone near and dear, but not related by blood or marriage and we say, "He is like family"
At the same time, we broaden the scope of the term when we use it to describe groups such as our "church family".

The text authors broaden the term even further and state, "As we talk about families, we will take a broad, inclusive view. Therefore, if the members consider themselves to be a family, and function as a family, we accept their self-definition." (Family Communication, p.8)

So, basically, from an academic perspective, there is no such thing as a definition of the word 'family'. It is a subjective term.

RELATED POSTS:
For info on the family that I chose to analyze for this class, see My Family
For my Communication Theory and event analysis, see Systems Theory & My Family