There anything between single parents to adopted

Thereare many different definitions of family, these include blood, marriage, andfriendship relationships.

Although this is ever changing in recent age, onething still runs true, family is the main financial and social support for thechildren in it. What children are born into will teach them what is right fromwrong. Now this raises the question, does the family structure really matter tothe lives of children, and if so, what effects does it have on these children? Anuclear family is defined as a basic social unit of a couple and theirdependent children. For decades the nuclear family unit was made up of a femalemother, a male father, and their biological children, but over the last fewdecades it has evolved into anything between single parents to adopted stepparents and many other options.

Because of the growing acceptance of the “ outof normal” ways of living, the family structure is ever evolving. For example, often found within the extended family network are fictive kin relationshipsthat are important to both the incorporating family and the individual who isincorporated. Fictive kin can be defined as those individuals not related byblood or marriage but who regard each other as kin (2014). As the familystructure continues to change the technical definitions as well as termsinvolved will be different for years to come.

As achild grown up in a house watching the martial relationship of their parents itis only natural it would have an effect on how they treat their marriage whenthey grow up. With increased recognition of the significant effects of bothmarital status in adulthood and family structure in childhood, it should benoted that parental martial disruption in childhood influences thatindividual’s own family structure and/or marital quality in adulthood (Kang, 2016). Not much empirical research exists on the topic of marriage exampled inchildhood and how it translates to the child’s adulthood because it is such ahard subject to follow and prove as it is so time consuming. Theproportion of children living with both parents, following the decline between1970 and 1990, has fallen more slowly over the most recent two decades, dropping from 69 percent in 2000 to 64 percent in 2012. By 2015, the proportionhad actually increased, to 65 percent (2015). This is extremely important becauseparents are responsible for the development of their children. Now, it has beenshown that children coming from a two parent home life, whether it bebiological, adopted, or step parents, do much better on a list of things. Amongsituations where children do worse is when they come from a divorced household.

Children who come from a single parent home either do better or worse dependingon the situation, and the same goes for children raised by grandparents. However, research shows that these situations only account in part for thenegative effects on children. There are differences for the race of the family, the location, as well as many other aspects. Oneaspect of family structure affecting children that is lesser known is thephysical health effects. Family structure may affect children’s BMI and risk ofbecoming overweight/obese at an early age through a number of economic andsocial processes (Schmeer, 2012). This is for reasons that can be easilyexplained, a family household with two parents has a higher total annual incomeand therefore easier access to healthy meals and activities. This can alleasily be the reversed situation if there is only one parent. There is also thestress aspect of a child’s upbringing.

With two stably married parents there islikely to be less stress financially as well as more readily available supportemotionally that can again be reversed if there is one parent. Overall, changein family structure is also potentially important for children’s BMI and riskof obesity. Family structure transitions may increase stress, reduce resources, or cause chaos in the household (at least temporarily), reducing healthyeating/exercise, sleep routines, and emotional support for children, withimplications for their BMI and weight gain (Schmeer, 2012). Furtherresearch on this topic could be a better detailed and defined researchfollowing children from childhood into adulthood from all walks of life. Theseare very long studies that take a longer time to put together and publish sothis is why not much research exists.

Also, research on family structure andchildren of the same sex couples is very scarce. This is because until morerecently, same sex couples having children was extremely and still somewhat istaboo. The literature on these questions is large, complex and growing so fastthat it is no longer possible even to keep up each year (Mackay, 2017). This createda problem when for a research paper like this. Essentially research to becompleted is just more of family research and more research in depth ofdifferent types of family structure. Overall, it is better for children to be born into two parent households but by how muchis what varies.

From research gathered it is not one hundred percent definitivehow much family structure affects the children involved, it is shown there is someeffect.