----Family generally had the same conntation for both parties of students. It is generally regarded as a loving, caring environment. Interestingly, American students also listed friends as part of family. However, American students tend to view family more as a supportive structure, while the french more oftenly listed it as a place of security. Perhaps Americans learn to be more independent at a earlier stage?

----American and French students agree that family is an institution based on love , that offers warmth , support , help , protection at any time . They associate the word family with the same words : house , father , mother , siblings , grandparents etc. It is extremely interesting that some French students include pets as the members of the family . Also , I do not think that French students consider their older family members as friends as many Americans do . There is much more tradition and authority in one French family as well as respect towards older members of the family . French family is usually very stable , while american ones may not be , as we can see from mentioning word divorce in one of the responses of American students .I am just interested : Are French families becoming less stable in these modern times and is Sunday the usual day when family gathers and does something together ? ----

----American and French students agree that family is an institution based on love , that offers warmth , support , help , protection at any time . They associate the word family with the same words : house , father , mother , siblings , grandparents etc. It is extremely interesting that some French students include pets as the members of the family . Also , I do not think that French students consider their older family members as friends as many Americans do . There is much more tradition and authority in one French family as well as respect towards older members of the family . French family is usually very stable , while american ones may not be , as we can see from mentioning word divorce in one of the responses of American students .I am just interested : Are French families becoming less stable in these modern times and is Sunday the usual day when family gathers and do something together ? ----Rados R

----given the awareness in america of its short term marriages, high abortion rate, domestic violence, etc., i expected us (american students) to list more negative words associated with family. what do the french think about these "characteristics" of america involving the concept of family?

----In reading the list of words associated with the word family, I noticed that most of the french students wrote words like supportive, loving, etc., whereas most of the americain students wrote words such as the members of the family. This leads me to believe that the french family is a very important part of life. It seems to me that most americain teenagers want to be as indepedent of their family as possible. I was wondering if the same was true for french students also.