Dependence within extended families

Negative effects of the extended family include: lack of family planning and the use of the family as a means of social security, which involves child labour; obligations to support members of the family in need - this may include many people and the burden may fall on one breadwinner; family inheritance, which in certain communities divides land equally between sons and thus reduces the economic viability of holdings. The extended family in its social context may not be recognized by the law. New urban families face severe adjustment problems as they move into a more nuclear family situation, but the extended family may also be transplanted into the urban setting with increased family tensions from overcrowding, and the threat to the traditional authoritarian hierarchy from wider social affiliations.