BECE JHS
The family is the first group a child belongs to. It is where socialisation begins.
A nuclear family is made up of parents and their children, living as one household. An extended family reaches further: grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, often with duties to one another even when they do not share a house. Both forms exist in Ghana. The extended family has traditionally shared the cost of funerals, school fees and care of the elderly. The nuclear family is common where work takes parents to a town away from the wider kin.
The family gives children a name, food, shelter and the first lessons in how to behave. That teaching of values, language and roles is socialisation. Parents and elders are the first agents of it. The family also provides emotional support and, in many homes, economic support. When you are asked for functions, name the function and show it in a concrete act. "The family socialises the child by teaching language and respect" is a full point. "The family is important" is not.
Do not confuse nuclear with extended. A couple and their children is nuclear even if they love their cousins. The cousins belong to the extended family. Functions should be distinct: reproduction, socialisation, economic support, emotional support and care of the old are different points. Repeating "they help each other" in three lines earns one mark, not three.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
4 marks
(a) What is a nuclear family? (2 marks)
(b) What is an extended family? (2 marks)
(a) A nuclear family is a couple and their children.
(b) An extended family includes other relatives, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, as part of the family group.
4 marks
Explain two ways the family socialises a child. (4 marks)
The family teaches the child language, so the child can join the community. It also teaches values such as respect and honesty, by example and by correction.
2 marks
State two functions of the family apart from socialisation. (2 marks)
The family provides food and shelter, and it provides emotional support.
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise Social Studies freeA nuclear family is parents and their children. An extended family includes other relatives, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, and the duties that run between them.
It is the way a child learns the language, values and behaviour of the society. The family is the first agent of socialisation. School, friends, religious groups and the media come later. All BECE Social Studies past questions