The book looks at this transitory and transient family form – significant because its growing share among family households in Serbia, and because of the functions and behavioral models it nurtures. Special attention is devoted to “vertically extended families” that result from long-term historical trends influencing the survival of familial forms of social life, from zadruga to mixed household as a form of family mechanism. This family mechanism is structurally conditioned and bears the marks of incomplete changes that the Serbian society has been undergoing on its way from the socialist order to blocked and delayed postsocialist transformation. This type of family can be found in all segments of society, hinders modernizing development and affects social instability in the long run.