The basic unit of the social structure in every society is the family. It associated with such emotive issues as love, marriage, home and child bearing.
According to naclver and Page:
“Marriage is a durable association between husband and wife for procreation and upbringing of children and requires social approval”.
The characteristics of family are:
Family is an Universal: As stated earlier, the family is the most permanent and pervasive of all social institutions. All societies both large and small, primitive and civilized, ancient and modem, have institutionalized the process of procreation of the species and the rearing of the young. It is a permanent and universal institution and one of the constants of human life.
Biological Basis of the Family: The institution of the family is to be explained in terms of biological factor-the existence of two sexes and the sexual character of reproduction in the human species. It appears as s natural answer to the human sexual drive, a phenomenon solidly based in the biology of the human organism.
Limited size: Family is defined as a primary group. It may include parents and their unmarried children or parents and their children. The bonds that the together these limited number of members with limited common interests are the outcome of emotional factors such as love, mutual affection and solicitude. This emotional basis of the family makes it an ideally suitable primary social group in every society.
Common Residence and Nomenclature, satisfy basic needs: The family is one of the most durable of all social institutions. Each family has s residence, an address and a name, a family can mean two quite different things depending upon the vantage from which we view it.
Each family has common habitation for its living. Without a dwelling place, place the task of childbearing and rearing cannot be adequately met. however, family has a wider meaning than mere household since a family can be spread out geographically sometimes but yet emotionally, socially and legally be known as a family.
