PERMEABLE FAMILY

a more fluid and pliable form of the nuclear family which some sociologists consider to be an emerging standard in modern Western culture. It varies greatly from the stereotypical nuclear family in five primary ways: (i) the larger the variations in family structures generated by divorcing, remarrying, and accepting cohabitation and single-parent structures- the looser the sense of family boundaries, so that children of prior unions might be considered to be part of the family group for some reasons but not for other reasons- (iii) the decomposition of traditional gender parts played in the familial structure, generated by feminism and played largely in part by females who are working women- (iv) the decomposition of a sense of deference and hierarchy in the familial structure, so that kids and adolescents presume they will have more freedom and will be treated with more respect with regard to their positions and desires- and (v) the propensity for all family members to predict more autonomy, so that single activities, at time, are considered to be more important than mutual goals or shared traditions.