by Cathy Deep

Created on: January 08, 2007   Last Updated: November 21, 2010

Family is the basic constituent of a society. Most of us are what we are and who we are today because of what our family has given us and made us to be . A family gives a person his identity, shapes his personality, contributing to making him a perfect individual, and in turn an ideal citizen.

The members of a family are united by marriage or blood relationship .The fundamental feature of a family is the union between its members. This feature is the same in the concept of family in the East and the West.

In earlier times, families were big, being joint families. However, joint families are almost extinct now and have given way to nuclear families. Today's nuclear family does not stick to many features signified by our traditional concept of family. Nevertheless, in the modern world where life is getting increasingly competitive, complicating, and demanding day by day, nuclear families work out well.

The perception of family as a sacred, unbreakable social institution has been prevailing for centuries. However, from the past century onwards, this idea is seen to be a little bit shattered, increasingly due to the high divorce rates. The model of family has lost its value, meaning, and significance.

 A family is born out of a marriage. Therefore, when a marriage breaks up, the bonds that keep together its members die out. When two married people decide to separate, it takes its toll on the divine institution of the family, which dies abruptly. In all such cases, children suffer the worst results of it.

 A family can influence a person largely. It can shape up one's personality, bringing out the good and bad in him. It depends upon the individual character of a family. Nothing on the earth can compensate the support, love, and affection that our families give to us. No wonder that most people with criminal backgrounds and behavioral problems come from disturbed family milieus.

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