Family Structure: The Binuclear Family

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Family structure in reality, there are variety of family structures, including single-prent families, stepfamilies, grandparents raising grandchildren and same –sex headed families. Yet many families today struggle with how to function in a society based on a traditional model of married couples with biological children. One common family structure that exists today due to divorce is the binuclear family (Ahrons , 1994). Because of the prevalence of divorce, he binuclear family is considered by some to be normative; however, few models exist for how divorced parent can successfully continue their parenting roles when the family no longer fits the traditional model. This is especially problematic for nonresidential parents those who do not live with their children following divorce.

The divorced family has been extensively researched, though the primary focus has been on single-mother headed families and those with absent fathers. Past research often examined the decline in involvement of the nonresidential parent, usually the father.

Parenting defined
Parenting is the primary domain of families. Families have existed for thousands of years as the fundamental social unit yet families evolve to meet changing conditions in a given place and time, the contemporary family is a dynamic system; its pattern is changing at a rapid rate within the context of social crisis that mark the latter portion of the twentieth century.

Parenting is an important predictor of children’s