Sociology american family life now vs family life in 1950s Essay

Sociology american family life now vs family life in 1950s - Essay Example In the process of going through the comparison analysis, an overview with regards to the prevailing social norms on family and family roles, gender roles, and family function will be provided. Based on the gathered information with regards to the factors that contributes to the breakdown of the American family structure, some of the highly recommended solutions will be provided to address the sociological problem in the United States. Family is one of the three major institutions of the society aside from work and welfare. (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004: 2) In line with this, a family is considered as the basic unit of a society. For this reason, it is important for each individual to fully understand how the modern family structure is functioning. Since a family is composed of a group of people with a common intimate and complex connection with one another, family members are normally involved in activities and social practices like socializing the young, regulating procreation and sexual activity, and the provision of physical, psychological and emotional support to family members. However, there are quite a lot of factors that triggered the significant changes in the function of a modern family particularly in terms of gender and family roles. Over the years, the strong family ties of the modern American family are slowly being broken down. Changes in the social norms on family structure and family roles, gender roles, and family function are being affected by the challenges most Americans are facing with regards to political and socio-economic changes. In line with this, the weakening of the family structure most Americans are experiencing right now is causing serious sociological problem. Influenced by several sociologists including Talcott Parsons, Wilbert Moore, Kingsley Davis, and Emile Burkheim among others (Farley, 2000: 72), the functionalist theory of sociology consider the norm of a family as one that is composed