Abstract
The term ‘family’ comes from the Latin word familia which means ‘household’. It could be defined as the group of people related by blood or marriage and sharing residence. A family began to denote the father, mother and children in the late 17th century. There are quite a number of definitions for the family. For instance, Stack, 1996 defined ‘family’ as the smallest,
organized, durable network of kin and non-kin who interact daily, providing domestic needs of
children and assuring their survival” while (McDaniel et al., 2005) defined family as any group of people related either biologically, emotionally, or legally. Historically, the family was described as married partners and their children. The family is a universal institution, it is generally acceptable all over the world. Biblically, God instituted a family when he brought eve to Adam in the garden of Eden (Genesis 1:26). All that the Lord made were in twos, thus, God realized the need for Adam too to have a companion in the garden of Eden (Gen 2: 18).
There are many types of family, but the major ones are: the nuclear and the extended families.
