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The Family Of A Family

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Introduction
A family is a group of two or more people that are related by blood, marriage (registered), adoption, step or fostering, and who usually live together in the same household. This includes newly-weds without children, gay partners, couples with dependants, single mums or dads with children, siblings living together, and many other variations (What is a family, 2013). A family consists of many variables that work together to form a system. The main functions of a family are to ensure that children are satisfactorily socialised into norms and values, to provide economics support for other family members, to satisfy the emotional love and security in a family and to provide a sense of place and position in the society.

Families underwent significant shifts in structure over the 20th century. During the time of federation, families often had extended relatives living together. In the years following WW2 nuclear families (A family unit that includes two married parents of opposite genders and their biological or adopted children living in the same residence (Melissa Mayntz, 2012) became most common although this is still the case, diversity in various kinds of family increased during the later parts of the century. During 2001, more than 14.8 million Australians lived with at least one other family member, between 1986 and 2001 the number of families increased by 19%. While families comprising of couples with children remain the most prevalent type of family in

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