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INTRODUCTIONThe family as a universal fundamental social institution has received a lot of attention by family researchers due to the changes occurring within it and the consequences it has for its members and the wider society at large (Boateng, 1996; Goode, 1963; Goody, 1989; Lesthaeghe, 1995; McLanahan & Percheski; 2008; Oppong, 1977; Popenoe, 1988; Nukunya, 2003). Three major types of families are recognized in Ghana - the extended (traditional), nuclear and polygynous families (Oware-Gyekye, Arthur & Dankwa, 1996).The extended traditional family in Ghana is a residential group consisting of close kin organized around either patrilineal or matrilineal relatives or lines. A typical extended family set-up, for example is a man, his wife, their offspring and their married sons and their wives as well as other kin, or a woman, her husband, their children and their married daughters with their children in addition to other kin (Nukunya, 2003). In this traditional family type a person has wide-ranging mutual duties, obligations and responsibilities to relatives beyond his or her immediate conjugal family (Nukunya, 2003). The 2010 population and housing census of Ghana indicate that 11.9% of households are extended (Ghana Statistical Service [GSS], 2012). These households according to the census data are composed of grand children (8.2%), parent in-laws (1%), son and daughter in-laws (0.6%) and other relatives (7.3%) in addition to spouses and their off-spring (GSS, 2012).Three key forms of nuclear families can be identified in Ghana - a connubial couple and their off-spring biological and/or adopted - the twoparent family; a lone parent (male or female) and their children - the lone parent family; and a male and more than one female related through marriage and their off-spring or each female and her children comprising a part of that family unit - the polygynous family (Mensah-Bonsu, 1996). The 2010 population and housing census indicate that about one-quarter of total households (24.5%) in Ghana constitute two-parent nuclear households. The 2010 census data further reveals that two-parent nuclear households are more widespread in rural (27.3%) than urban (22.2%) areas (GSS, 2013). Singleparent nuclear households in Ghana comprise 12.9% of the total number of households (GSS, 2013). A third category of nuclear household refers to the wives of one man in a polygynous union who may have separate households, rather than live in different segments of a single compound (Abu, 1983; Appiah, 1990; Goody, 1989) thereby forming different polygynous nuclear households or units.A polygynous family, as partially explained above, comprises a man, his wives and children living in the same household or different households. While the 2010 population and housing census of Ghana does not provide data on polygynous households, the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey does provide information on polygynous unions in Ghana. It demonstrates that 18% of currently married women are in polygynous unions with more women (15.2%) having one co-wife as compared to 3% who have two or more co- wives (GSS, Ghana Health Service [GHS] and ICF 2009). The health survey report further notes that the prevalence of polygyny in Ghana has declined from 23% to 18% between 1998 and 2008 (GSS, GHS and ICF, 2009).The words household and family are usually used as substitutes for each other in everyday language; nonetheless, they have different meanings. A family is commonly defined as any group of individuals who are united by ties of ancestry, marriage or adoption (Assimeng, 2006; Calhoun, Light & Keller, 1997), while a household refers to a person or a group of persons, related or unrelated who reside together in the same house or compound, share the same house keeping arrangements and are catered for as one entity (GSS, 2007). Thus, families who share the same housekeeping arrangements may be considered as a household, however, they may not be automatically related through blood or marriage or adoption and may include individuals like friends, domestic assistants, lodgers, and other kin like parents' siblings, nephews, uncles, and aunties among others. …
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