Social Constructionism

Social Constructionism as it pertains to family posits that family is a product of the social world, not nature. According to this perspective, there is nothing innate about childhood or parenting or family ties, rather these are socially constructed phenomena – created and changed by cultures over time.

The theory emphasizes that socially constructed phenomena may not be real in terms of being an innate part of a society or of individuals' bodies and selves, but they are real in their effects on people's lives and life chances.

So social constructionists argue that socially constructed phenomena – like childhood, parenthood, family – have real consequences for people’s practices, identities, interactions, and opportunities.

For SC, we cannot understand family roles and family itself outside of the ways a society in a particular time period socially constructs "the family".