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Functionalists view the family as a nuclear family structure, that is children and their parents (UKEssays, 2016). According to structural functionalism, the family is the major unit for sexual reproduction and in which socialization takes place. Parents and siblings help socialize children from the time they are born (Barkan, 2012).The family is also major source of practical and emotional support as it provides its members with basic needs and other essentials, and it also provides them love, comfort, and offer support in times of emotional distress (Barkan, 2012). Children are born into their parent’s social class, race and ethnicity and religion hence the family provides the members of the family with social identity. Major changes in the family structure and processes threaten the society and family’s stability (Barkan, 2012). In early years men were breadwinners while women were caretakers of the family, this was the best arrangement for children, as it provided for a family’s economic and child-rearing needs (Barkan, 2012). Any shift in this arrangement would harm children, the family as a social institution and even society itself. For example if a married couple divorce/the other spouse die, it leaves a single parent family and this can have an impact on children