Familia Spongia: The Adaptive Function

Adaptation has been overlooked as a vital function of the family in industrial society. The traditional functions of the family have not been lost, but have changed content and form. The family serves as a mediator by translating change in the larger society into the on-going child and adult socialization process. Its ready adaptability is in part a consequence of its lack of an institutional orgdnization through which to resist change. The adaptive function may be viewed as having functional or dysfunctional consequences.