Unsure what a scholarly journal article looks like? This Interactive tutorial identifies sections that should appear in a scholarly journal article.
The databases listed below will lead you to journal articles on the sociology of the family.
A good starting point: Social Sciences Full Text.
Image: Mother, son. Jason Regan. CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.
Almost all of the library's databases will allow you to limit to academic/scholarly, or peer-reviewed journals. Limiting to academic/scholarly, however, is imperfect: You'll also retrieve professional journals. Some professors consider these scholarly; others don't.
Ask your professor to clarify this.
How can you tell what it is you found? You'll need to look for clues. None of these clues may be consistently applied--taken together, however, they can get you close.
Still unsure? Check Ulrich's Periodicals Directory for the definitive word on whether your source is scholarly or general.
Image source: Syker Fotograf. GNU GPL. Wikimedia Commons.