History & Society
nuclear family
anthropology
Also known as: elementary family, two-parent family
nuclear family
Category:
History & Society
- Also called:
- elementary family
- Related Topics:
- family
- extended family
- conjugal family
nuclear family, in sociology and anthropology, a group of people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults and their socially recognized children. Typically, but not always, the adults in a nuclear family are married. Although such couples are most often a man and a woman, the definition of the nuclear family has expanded with the advent of same-sex marriage. Children in a nuclear family may be the couple’s biological or adopted offspring. Thus defined, the nuclear family was once widely held to be the most basic and universal form of social ...(100 of 379 words)