The Affiliated Family: A Continued Analysis.

The concept of an affiliative kin structure, introduced by the authors at the 1971 Groves Conference, is further developed to include its necessary attributes of propinquity, commitment, and flexibility. Consideration of these variables permits a conceptualization of the American family as other than "isolated nuclear" or "extended kin network. " The affective and instrumental dimensions of an affiliative family form are discussed. Ethnographic data based on a currently evolvingaffiliative family arrangement are presented to demonstrate some of the issues involved. It is suggested that this family form lends itself to modem industrial life by permitting a wide variety of family arrangements suitable to personal situations.