Familial Caretaking: A Middle-Range Definition of Family in the Context of Social Policy.

Develops theme of rethinking family as social form by positing overall approach that suggests development of various specific definitions of "family," each suitable for empirical or theoretical exploration of set of family issues. Development of one example, familial caretaking, definition of family for use in context of social policy, is provided to illustrate potential effectiveness of this approach. (Author/NB)