It tells of Jay Pritchett and his step family as well as his two children and their families. Jay is a father of two grown-up children Claire and Mitchell. Although he is over fifty, Jay married a young hot single mother Gloria from Colombia, living together with her son Manny. Manny, the son of Gloria and her ex-husband, is a precocious child in elementary school. Claire, Jay’s daughter, has been married to Phil Dunphy for more than 16 years. Their three children Heley, Alex and Luke are all in school. Luke and his uncle Manny are in the same class. Mitchell, Jay’s son, is now living together with his partner Cameron. They just adopted a daughter Lily from Vietnam.

The three families can be seen as a microcosm of the typical family structures in contemporary American. Claire and Phil’s family is an example of the nuclear family. Jay and Gloria’s family is a specimen of the stepfamily. Mitchell and Cameron’s family is a representative of the homosexual family.

1.2 Literature Review

The sitcom has been broadcast on television for no more than four years, so the previous study on the family structures in it is scare. Major newspapers had various reviews on it, but generally speaking they all held a favorable opinion. The sitcom is referred to as “the new season’s best comedy pilot” that “serves up laughs on multiple level--from understated one-liners to grand sight gags” by the New York Times(Bellafante, 2009). And Chicago Sun-Times said that “this fast-paced mockumentary perfectly captures the experience of parenthood”( Paige Wiser, 2009).

USA Today observed that “Times, however, have changed, and families have changed with them”, so “ABC gives us a 'Modern Family' we can relate to”(Bianco, 2009). PopMatters commented on Modern family that “with its deft writing and sharp performances, the show is a telling snapshot of how families live now” (Edwards, 2009). These comments proved that Modern Family have research significance on family structure in the U.S. today.文献综述

Besides reviews on Modern Family, there is a long tradition of studying American family structures. The history of American family can be traced back to the early colonial period. Family structures in the United States at that time are mainly composed of extended family. Extended family is a family of two or more adults from different generation. “A form of extended family structure was dominant in nineteenth century America” and the “preference for extended family structure disappeared in twentieth century”(Ruggles,1994: 104). In the twentieth century, the nuclear family was prevalent. After the 1960s, new family structures like stepfamilies and homosexual families appeared in large numbers. Previous studies classified the reason for the coexistence of a variety of family structures roughly as the following categories: the impact of political factors, economic factors, legal factors, and cultural factors. 

In politics, Liu Junhuai, Xing Rui and Sun Ningning all believe that the feminist movement and the gay rights movement in 1960s had a tremendous impact on family structures. Since then, more and more homosexual families began to emerge in large numbers. The feminist movement played an important role in late marriage, fewer children and rising porce rate, which directly had impact on the dominant position of the nuclear family.

In economics, Industrial Revolution began early in the 19th century and the Second Industrial Revolution was completed in the mid-20th century. In Liu’s opinion, during this period, the extended family couldn’t meet the needs of economic development and was gradually phased out. The nuclear family had also been influenced greatly.

In legislation, Chen Yiping, Liu Junhuai, Sun and Xing all mentioned that the no-fault porce policy was enacted in the state of California in 1970, which eased legal restrictions on porce. Since then, the bill had been enacted by many U.S. states. The porce rate soared since porce became easier than ever (Sun&Xing, 2011:377).