There are seven function of the family and all have different meanings they are:
A place in society: your role that you play in society for example a daughter a mother a sister etc.
Regulations of sex: is a cultural norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage with close relatives like parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings.
Socialisation and social control: process where a child learns to get alone with and behave similarly to other people, mainly learnt trough imitation
Reproduction: Without reproduction the continuation of society is at stake
Physical care: physically looking after someone, looking after their physical needs
Economic support: is giving your child or anyone money to go out also for school trips anything to do with finance
Emotional support: is comforting a person showing love towards someone provides reinforcements to the individual that they can trust you to listen to insecurities they may be feeling.
There are services taking over the family functions such as social services
There are two criticisms of the family which are what Marxists believe and what feminists believe. The Marxists believe that the family has many roles, which are beneficial to capitalist society. Marxists believe that the family has a strong influence on education and is considered the primary source of socialisation. This is beneficial because the middle class (bourgeoisie) because the family and education system will teach the norms and values. They believe