| A | B |
| Households | one person living alone or a group of people who have the same address |
| Marriage | a legally recognised tie between a husband and a wife |
| Nuclear family | a two generation family consisting of parents and their dependent children |
| Extended family | any family larger than a nuclear family |
| Divorce | the legal termination of marriage, leaving the couple free to remarry |
| Serial monogamy | a person has more than one marriage partner in their lifetime |
| Cohabitation | living together as partners without being married |
| Reconstituted families | a family in which one or both partners has been married or cohabited before, could include step children |
| Lone parent families | a mother or father living without a partner and their dependent children |
| Beanpole families | a tall narrow extended family often containing four or five generations |
| Singlehood | remaining single |
| Boomerang families | a family in which non-dependent children return home to live with their families |
| Conjugal roles | the roles of husbands and wives or couples who are living together as partners |
| Symmetrical families | a family in which conjugal roles are similar but not identical |
| Domestic abuse | threatening behaviour, violence committed by a family member against another |
| Dark side of the family | domestic abuse, violence |
| Feminism | challenge for equal rights for women |
| New Right | argues for traditional family values and make up |
| Househusband | a man with the main responsibility for domestic tasks and childcare |
| Housewife | an unpaid role which made wives financially dependent on their husbands |
| Secular society | a society that is not ruled by religious beliefs |