Military Families as Both Public and Private Family Types
This paper examines how military families simultaneously represent both public and private family types as defined by sociologist Andrew Cherlin. Drawing on Cherlin's framework alongside research on military family life, the paper identifies key characteristics of each family type and applies them to the unique circumstances of military households. Public family traits — including the care of dependents, production of externalities, and benefits accruing to society at large — are traced through military family support structures and their contributions to national security. Private family traits — including intimacy, emotional support, and evolving kinship boundaries — are explored through the lens of deployment, separation, and diverse household structures common among military families.
- Introduction: Military families differ from civilians yet fit Cherlin's framework
- Public and Private Families Defined: Cherlin's definitions of public and private family types
- Military Families as Public Families: Externalities and social benefits of military family support
- Military Families as Private Families: Intimacy, kinship, and emotional bonds in military homes
- Conclusion: Military families embody both public and private family traits
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper establishes a clear theoretical framework early — Cherlin's public/private distinction — and consistently applies it throughout, giving the analysis coherence and direction.
- It balances multiple scholarly sources, using Cherlin for conceptual definitions and Castro, Adler, and Britt alongside Martin, Rosen, and Sparacino for empirical grounding in military family research.
- Specific statistics (e.g., 43.2% of married military members have children; 11% dual-military couples) lend credibility and precision to what could otherwise be purely abstract claims.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective application of a sociological typology to a specific population. Rather than simply summarizing Cherlin's categories, the author tests each characteristic — externalities, intimacy, boundary ambiguity, kinship — against the documented realities of military family life, producing a point-by-point analytical argument that moves from theory to evidence.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with context on military family distinctiveness, then introduces Cherlin's two-category framework. The body is divided into two parallel analytical sections — one for public family traits, one for private — each built around Cherlin's defining characteristics. A concluding paragraph synthesizes both arguments and introduces the free rider problem as a unifying observation. This parallel structure makes the argument easy to follow and reinforces the central thesis.
Introduction
The security of the United States depends on all-volunteer forces that must balance their family life with their commitment to secure and protect the nation. Military families act as a crucial support system for service members, influencing their readiness, performance, and ability to carry out a mission (Castro, Adler, & Britt, 2006). Military families, however, differ significantly from the majority of families in the general population. For instance, a large percentage of military families are two-parent families, which are often younger and include a higher proportion of minority members. The nature of military family life and service is also unique because there are numerous periods of family separation when members are deployed for military operations or training (Martin, Rosen, & Sparacino, 2000). More specifically, the factors that set military families apart from other families include the size and nature of the military, the expectation of volunteer service, and members' exposure to danger.
Despite these numerous differences and the diverse classifications of the family today, Cherlin (2012) groups the American family into two broad categories: the private family and the public family. While deployment and separation are defining features of military family life, military families still exhibit the core characteristics of both private and public families as defined by Cherlin. The primary aim of this paper is to analyze public and private families in detail and identify the key characteristics that demonstrate how military families represent both types.
References
Castro, C. A., Adler, A. B., & Britt, T. W. (2006). Military life: The military family. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Cherlin, A. (2012). Public and private families: An introduction (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
The National Center on Family Homelessness. (2010). Understanding the experience of military families and their returning war fighters. Military Literature and Resource Review. Retrieved from http://www.familyhomelessness.org/media/72.pdf
Martin, J. A., Rosen, L. N., & Sparacino, L. R. (Eds.). (2000). The military family: A practice guide for human service providers. Greenwood Publishing Group.
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