Definition of family “... a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption; constituting a single household; interacting and communicating with each other in their respective social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and sister, and creating and maintaining a common culture. ” (Burgess and Locke, 1953, p.7-8) “... A basic unit of kinship composed of two or more members who are united by ties of blood, marriage or adoption, and who live together constituting a single household. ” (Wong, 1975) 1

Definition of family “ The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the usually co- habiting adults. ” (George Peter Murdock, 1949) “... a social group made up of members related to one another by blood or marital ties and usually constituting a household. ” (Lee, 1991, p.42) 2

Concepts of the family Karpel and Strauss summerizes different concepts of the family: (1) the functional family - defined by shared household, shared activities, shared responsibility for daily life and child rearing; (2) the legal family - defined by legal structure, altered by divorce and adoptive placement of children; (3) the family as seen by its members - defined by the perceptions of its members; and seen as “ in ” the family by family members; (4) the family of long-term commitments - defined by long-term expectations of loyalty and commitment; trust, reliability, and fairness are basic expectation; (5) the biological family - defined by blood relationships; parent-child relationship. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these definitions? 3