Global communications such as the internet, e-mail, and satellite linkups are facilitating these relationships over space and time. Trask observed that while in the past, locale mattered, today social relationships are maintained over great distances with ease. Should he still be counted as a member of the original family? Does this person (and his wife) share the same risks to their immediate health as the other family members back in the shared household? Would this individual and his dependants in the new surroundings have access to the same kind of health care options as the other family members living in the country of birth? And would the offspring of this person born in the foreign country experience the same sociocultural and environmental exposures, as (s)he would have come into contact with growing up in the country of origin? Just to give an example, a family in a developing country has a son living in the USA, happily married there with a wife, and he sends across some money to the other family members back home occasionally and visits the country once in many years. This definition may be too broad to serve the purpose of identification of a family unit for the purpose of assessment as a factor in variables such as health. The UNESCO report stated that a family is a kinship unit and that even when its members do not share a common household, the unit may exist as a social reality. Although the literature often focuses on family living arrangements, family membership includes obligations across and between generations, no matter where family members are living. This type of definition fails to identify units that function as families in an economic, social or emotional sense but do not usually reside in the same household. Using the definition as “all people living in one household” may be erroneous, as on one hand it may include people who do not share kinship, and on other hand may exclude those kin members who are temporarily away. The word household has often been used as a replacement for family. Census definitions of family have varied from country to country and also from census to census within country. It also forms the basic unit for family medicine. It is also a unit of study in the medical sciences especially in understanding the epidemiology and the natural history of diseases. The family is a basic unit of study in many social science disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, social psychiatry, and social work. While the family itself is a matter of study, equally important for research is its role as a factor influencing and affecting the development, behavior, and well-being of the individual. The family as an integrated and functional unit of society has for a considerable period of time captured the attention and imagination of researchers. ![]() The unique scenarios of particular cultures can be taken into account by defining region or culture-specific subtypes of the overall types of family structure. ![]() The proposed scheme should prove to be of use across various countries and cultures, for broadly classifying the family structure. A few exceptional case scenarios have been envisaged and their classification as per the new scheme is discussed, in a bid to clarify the classification scheme further. A classification scheme for the various types of family has also been put forward. A redefinition of a “family” has been proposed and various nuances of the definition are also discussed in detail. ![]() Because of this and the changing realities of the current times, there is a felt need for redefining the family and the common family structure types, for the purpose of study of the family as a factor in health and other variables of interest. Definitions of family have varied from country to country, and also within country. ![]() The family is a basic unit of study in many medical and social science disciplines.
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