The dynamics of the family in the world today - harmony and conflicts

Abstract

In recent decades the family has seen constant changes in its structure and functions, giving rise to the indistinct family. There are many ways in which marriage and the family are represented and experienced by the different generations and socio-economic groups, with great adaptability vis-à-vis the norms and greater variety regarding the forms. The present study was carried out in the region of Porto, in an area which includes almost the whole of that district and part of the district of Aveiro. It does not try to quantify certain variables that are currently used as indicators of their stability and of how they are structured. It seeks rather to analyse values, norms and representative forms relating to the family, taking into account its present impact and attempting to foresee its development in the near future. In social representations personal fulfilment demands today several, tolerant models. But it is also true that, while re-forming itself, the family seems to be one of the most resistant structures to the general change in society.