Why the family makes a difference with respect to lifestyles

Relying upon a field investigation conducted on the Italian population (representative sample), this paper presents the summary of the empirical results with regard to its central theme, i.e., whether, in what sense, and to what degree the family is a social resource in respect to other forms of living together. The original question to be answered is: do families, in one way or another, make a difference? We want to apprehend whether living in a different family environment makes a difference in the lives of individuals and for the quality of the social fabric. If it does, what are the differences? The methodological rule that guides us is: The family is known by its fruits. Our main hypothesis is based on two points: first, we assume that there are significant correlations between the different socio-cultural family structures and the quality of people’s lives, their opinions, and human relations; second, we posit that these correlations indicate that the normally constituted family is a more valuable resource than the others for the social context. In short, suppose that building a family produces, in one way or another, different effects.