Family Jargon
family
A primary group whose members assume certain obligations for each
other and generally share common residences. The National Association of
Social Workers (NASW) Commission on Families (Promoting Family Supports
Statement, 1990) defines a family as two or more people who consider
themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and
responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and
child socialization, income support, long-term care (LTC), and other
caregiving are among the functions of family life.
blended family 1. A family that is formed when separate families are united by marriage or other circumstance; a stepfamily. 2. Various kinship or nonkinship groups whose members reside together and assume traditional family roles.
reconstituted family
A family unit comprising a legally married
husband and wife, one or both of whom have children from a previous marriage
or relationship who live with them.
stepfamily
A primary kinship group whose members are
joined as a result of second or subsequent marriages. Such a family may
include a stepfather (the husband of one’s mother); a stepmother (the wife
of one’s father); a stepchild (the offspring of one’s spouse by a previous
marriage or relationship); and stepbrothers and stepsisters (the children of
one’s stepparent). Owing to the increased divorce and remarriage rates,
stepfamilies constitute a major type of family constellation.
extended family
A kinship group comprising relatives of a
nuclear family, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts, and second cousins.
nuclear family
The kinship group consisting of a father,
a mother, and their children.
broken home
A family in which at least one parent is absent
because of divorce, death, or desertion. Social workers now generally prefer
the term single-parent family.
closed family
A family structure whose members maintain highly interdependent
relationships, providing little opportunity for relationships with
non–family members.
compadrazgo
In Spanish-speaking cultures, those people who
are tied to a family not through a kinship network, but through historical
ties. They are considered companion parents who help with the raising of the
family’s children. See also padrino and hijos de crianza.
disengaged family
A family whose individual members and subsystems have overly rigid
boundaries that result in restricted interaction and psychological isolation
from one another. Some disengaged families may also have diffuse boundaries.
enmeshed family
A concept used in the structural family therapy orientation to
designate an unhealthy family relationship pattern in which the role
boundaries between various family members are so vague or diffuse that there
is little opportunity for independent functioning. This condition is
contrasted with the disengaged family, in which the role boundaries of the
various members are so rigid and inflexible that members withdraw from the
relationship.
family of orientation A family structure defined by an individual's standpoint. It is a family structure from which one emerges from infancy to social independency.
family of procreation A family structure defined by an individual's standpoint. It is a family structure from which one has role expectations to provide primary instrumental and expressive needs to others.