Nuclear family - kakukazoku (English spelling) nuclear family

A family consisting of a married couple and their unmarried children. This term was coined by the American anthropologist Murdoch. Although it is commonly known as the "nuclearization of the family," Murdoch himself drew attention in the academic world by advocating the "universality of the nuclear family" from a completely different angle. Regarding the latter, he compared and examined 250 human societies and argued that not only does the nuclear family exist as such, but that polygamous families and extended families in which parents and children live together are also aggregates of nuclear families as molecules, and that in this sense the nuclear family is a component of a universal family that transcends regions and time. Today, the existence of a variety of family forms has demonstrated that this assertion is invalid. There is also the danger that by treating a particular family form as universal, other forms will be considered deviant.

Apart from this, the social phenomenon of nuclear families, which was mentioned earlier, has become a social issue today. With the increase in unmarried people living alone due to late marriage and non-marriage, the increase in elderly people living alone, and the increase in households consisting of elderly couples only, as well as the increase in single-father and single-mother households due to an increase in divorces, and the increase in dual-income couples and childless couples, the nuclear family has become so diverse that it is no longer the standard family. For this reason, matters that were once the responsibility of the family, such as child-rearing and elderly care, have become important welfare issues for society and the community today.

[Mitsuyoshi Masuda and Hisaya Nonoyama]

"Social Structure" by G.P. Murdoch, translated by Kanji Naito (1978, Shinsensha)" ▽ "From the Nuclear Family to the Single Family" by Masato Takumi (1997, Maruzen)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

夫婦と未婚の子だけからなる家族。アメリカの人類学者マードックの用語から生まれた。日常的には「核家族化」などの用法で知られているが、マードック自身はまったく別の角度から「核家族普遍説」を唱えて学界の注目をひいた。まず後者についてであるが、彼は、250の人間社会を比較検討し、核家族がそれ自体として存在することはもちろん、一夫多妻などの複婚家族、親夫婦・子夫婦同居などの拡大家族も、いわば分子としての核家族の集合体であり、その意味で核家族が、地域、時代を超えた普遍的な家族の構成要素であると主張した。今日では、こうした主張が妥当しないことが多様な家族形態の存在から実証されてきている。特定の家族形態を普遍的とすることで、その他の形態を逸脱とみなしてしまう危険性もある。

　これとは別に、先に述べた社会現象としての核家族化が今日の社会問題となっている。晩婚化や非婚化による未婚単身生活者の増大や高齢者のひとり暮らし、あるいは高齢の夫婦のみの世帯の増大、さらに離婚の増大などによる父子家庭や母子家庭の増大、加えて共働き夫婦や無子夫婦の増大など、今日では核家族形態の家族が標準的家族といえないほど多様化してきている。それだけに子育てや高齢者介護など、かつては家族の責任で果たされてきた事柄が、今日では社会や地域の重要な福祉問題になっている。

［増田光吉・野々山久也］

『G・P・マードック著、内藤莞爾監訳『社会構造』（1978・新泉社）』▽『匠雅音著『核家族から単家族へ』（1997・丸善）』

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