What is the sociological definition of a family?

You cannot group all families under one sociological definition

Question: What is the sociological definition of a family?
Position‹5 of 6›: It depends on the type of family and approach
Argument‹2 of 3›: You cannot group all families under one sociological definition

Families appear in many guises and forms. No single sociological definition can effectively include all families, while excluding close friendship groups.

The argument

This argument holds that the sociological definition of a family cannot be settled in the abstract, because the units the word covers do not share enough in common to be captured by a single description. The case is made by setting out the dimensions along which families actually differ. The first is material. Low-income families function differently from high-income families: the resources available shape who works, who provides care, how many people share a household and what obligations fall on each member. A description accurate for one income bracket will misdescribe the arrangements of another. The second is composition. A 'traditional' family with one parent of each gender has different characteristics from single-sex families, from adoptive families, from foster families and from estranged families. These are not variations in style but differences in how the relationships are constituted and sustained — by biology, by legal placement, by deliberate commitment, or by the partial withdrawal that estrangement involves. The third is the pattern of dependency. Families without children but with older dependents function differently from families with young children, which in turn function differently from families with older children. The direction in which care flows, and the stage of life of those receiving it, change what the household is organised around. Because these dimensions vary independently, the resulting diversity of 'family' units cannot be reduced to one formula without either excluding units that plainly are families or becoming so general as to describe nothing. A definition must therefore be indexed to the kind of family under study and to the sociological approach being taken. On that reasoning it is not possible to group all families under one sociological definition, and the answer depends on the type of family and the approach.

Context

There are many sociological constructs for a family. Therefore, it is impossible to group all units together under one definition.

Premises

[P1]Families differ fundamentally by circumstance—low-income versus high-income households, and two-parent versus single-sex, adoptive, foster or estranged families all function differently. [P2] Families also vary by dependents, with childless households caring for elders differing from those raising young or older children, so no single description fits them all. [C] Because family structures are too diverse to capture in one framework, the sociological definition depends on the type of family and approach.

Counter-arguments

A cross-cultural approach with a wide enough sample can, and has, defined the family unit. Families across the world share certain traits. They live under a shared roof. They have some level of economic dependency and integration, and the reproduce in some capacity (either biologically or through adoption/fostering). These criteria are applicable to family units across the world, whatever guise or form they take.

Rejecting the premises

[P1]With a wide enough sample, a pattern emerges which allows for the deduction of a sociological definition of a family.