The mastering of the course “Family Research and Consultation” conducted to students of social education at Vilnius pedagogical university was checked by assigning them the creative task of reflecting on what family definition best conveys the essence of this social community. The pedagogical experiment has proved that a course on family studies influences students’ matrimonial attitudes, their theoretical reflection, a study of scholarly texts from diverse sources, as well as their interpretative skills. Students accept education scientists’ family definitions rather critically, and in making an interdisciplinary analysis, tend to give priority to family definitions presented by sociologists, especially to family definitions in A. Musteikis’ “Lithuanians’ Encyclopedia”.