Following on from increasing media coverage of the erosion of traditional family values and the structure of the family, Henley Centre HeadlightVision carried out a study entitled 'Planning for Consumer Change – The Family Segmentation'. They asked 2,000 people the question: "Who do you consider as your immediate family?" From the results, they identified six different family models and were able to anticipate how families might be structured in years to come.
Nuclear Families
This is the traditional set-up, in which there is a mum and a dad and the children. It is the most universally accepted, even aimed-for, model of what a family should be, with 33 per cent of responses defining family in this way.
Family Trees
The second biggest category was the grouping that embraced relations sideways and upwards as well as the closest parent-child relations. In other words, rather like a family tree it included cousins and aunts, nephews and nieces and grandparents. Twenty-four per cent felt this was what 'immediate family' meant to them.
Beanpole Family
This accounted for 23 per cent of responses and was a variation on the above two, but simply embracing the linear line of children, parents and grandparents rather than any other more distant relatives.
'Friends'
Just like the long-running US series of the same name, this is the grouping of similar-aged, similar-minded mates who lodge together, eat together, love together and grow up together. They are who you choose to live with rather than who you are meant to live with by virtue of sibling connection, thus many of those polled thought these 'families' to be more meaningful and represented the true values of families better. Ten per cent felt this defined family best.
Amicable Exes
These are the rather unorthodox family units where men and women – either out of choice or financial necessity – do not move away from their spouses when the marriage or relationship folds. The phenomenon can lead to surprising household mixes, with exes and their new partners all living under one roof or next door to one another. The household might also include an extended mix of children from the different partners. Five per cent of respondents defined family in this way.
Steps
This refers to the modern phenomenon of step-relatives, that is, step-children, step-fathers and step-mothers. Perhaps not surprisingly, only 3 per cent of respondents felt that step-relatives qualified as their immediate family, despite the fact that they might well live under the same roof. Blood is, as ever, thicker than water.
Other Trends
The study also detected other key trends. It found that many respondents also considered their family to include not just their closest human relations but also their pets, often reserving their deepest affection for cats and dogs. They felt that their animals were as significant in the family mix as, say, their brother or their mum, and more significant than uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and even grandparents.
'Best friend' also scored top of the list of non-blood relatives who were considered 'family', followed by in-laws, neighbours, girlfriends/boyfriends and even, perhaps alarmingly, close work colleagues.
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