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The term nuclear family developed in the western world to distinguish the family group consisting of parents (usually a father and mother) and their children, from what is known as an extended family. Nuclear families can be any size, as long as the family can support itself and there are only parents and children (or the family is an extended family.) According to Merriam-Webster the term dates back to 1947 and is therefore relatively new, although nuclear family structures themselves date back thousands of years.Grief, Avner (2005). "Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and Implications of Western Corporatism"Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (2006). "Types of marriages in the Bible, and today" The term "nuclear" was used because of its original Latin meaning, "kernal" or "nut".Harper, Douglas (2001). "Online Etymology Dictionary" Generally, the trend to shift from extended to nuclear family structures has been supported by the spread of western values. Today roughly one quarter of households in the United States, for example, are described as consisting of nuclear families, making them the third most common household arrangement in that nation.Williams, Brian; Stacey C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships. Boston, MA: Pearson. ISBN 0-205-36674-0.
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In its most common usage, the term "nuclear family" refers to a household consisting of a father, a mother and their children (siblings).Merriam-Webster Online. ../ "Definition of nuclear family" George Murdock also describes the term in this way:
Some also use the term to describe single-parent households and families in which the parents are an unmarried couple.
Around the world, the structure of family norms are different. Ideas of what constitute a family changes based on culture, mobility, wealth, and tradition. In many cultures, the need to be self-supporting is hard to meet, particularly where rents/property values are very high, and the foundation of a new household can be an obstacle to nuclear family formation instead of extended family forms (or people remaining single while living longer with their parents).
In India, legislation promoting the nuclear family has been decried as eroding the traditional Hindu joint family.
Family arrangements in the US have become more diverse with no particular households arrangement being prevalent enough to be identified as the average.Williams, Brian; Stacey C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-36674-0.
Current information from United States Census Bureau shows that 70% of children in the US live in traditional two-parent families, with 60% living with their biological parents, and that "the figures suggest that the tumultuous shifts in family structure since the late 1960s have leveled off since 1990.".Roberts, Sam. "Most Children Still Live in Two-Parent Homes, Census Bureau Reports", February 25, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
Some sociologists studying families and their formation, attempting to detail the changes in families, say some causes of the observed numerical decline of the nuclear family may be:
In the United States traditional nuclear families now appear to constitute a minority of households with rising prevalence of other family arrangement such as blended families, binuclear families (separated spouses marrying new spouses with children), and single-parent families. Today nuclear families with the original biological parents constitute roughly 24.1% of households, compared to 40.3% in 1970.Williams, Brian; Stacey C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-36674-0. Roughly 75%(or percent) of all children in the United States will spend at least some time in a single-parent household.
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