Although the institution of the family is being scrutinized and predictions are made that it is about to pass into oblivion, the family has demonstrated itself throughout history to be a virtually indestructible institution. Family structure, roles, and responsibilities have always been influenced by technology and the resulting social changes. But technological advances alone do not determine family structure and function. Family systems are a force in themselves and are very resistant to outside pressure.
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When the family changed from a production unit to consumption unit, it also lost some degree of authority to regulate its members` behavior. The emphasis is now on democratic sharing, togetherness, the child`s potential as an individual, and the fun aspects of parenthood. Enjoyment and relaxation in every human relationship are considered important. Technology is seen as the reason for this view, and the way to attain the happy state, but the person who believes too strongly in what technology can accomplish may have unrealistic expectations about living and thus undergo considerable stress in marriage and childrearing.
Yet the family is still considered responsible for the child`s growth and development and behavioral outcomes, and indeed the family is a cornerstone for thechild`s competency development. Because the family is strongly influenced by its surrounding environment as well as by the child itself, the family should not bear full blame for what the child is or becomes. Few parents deliberately set out to rear a disturbed, handicapped, or delinquent offspring, although many such failures occur.
Yet the family is still considered responsible for the child`s growth and development and behavioral outcomes, and indeed the family is a cornerstone for thechild`s competency development. Because the family is strongly influenced by its surrounding environment as well as by the child itself, the family should not bear full blame for what the child is or becomes. Few parents deliberately set out to rear a disturbed, handicapped, or delinquent offspring, although many such failures occur.
The family is expected to perform the following tasks:
1. Provide for physical safety and economic needs of its members and obtain enough goods, services, and resources to survive.
2. Help members to develop emotionally and intellectually as well as a personal and family identity.
3. Provide social togetherness simultaneously with division of labor or patterning of sexual roles.
4. Reproduce and socialize the child(ren). Inculcating values and appropriate behavior, providing adult role models, and fostering a positive self-concept and self-esteem in the child(ren).
5. Help the members cope with the demands of and become integrated into society and the organizations in which they must function.
6. Utilize social organizations for its special needs.
7. Create satisfactions and a mentally healthy environment for the family`s well-being.
8. Maintain authority and decision making, with an acknowledged head of the family representing society to family members and the family unit to society.
9. Release family members into larger society-school, church, organizations, work, politics.
The family`s ability to meet its tasks depends on the maturity of the adult members, the support given by the social system-educational, work, social, welfare, and leisure institutions. The family that is most successful as a unit is aware of and can use the options of services available and develop linkages with nonfamily organizations.
References :
Chinn, Peggy, Child Health Maintenance, St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company, 1974.
Ackerman, Nathan, Psychodynamics of Family Life. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1958.
Brandwein, Ruth, Carol Brown, and Elizabeth Fox, “Women and Children Last: The Racial Situation of Divorced Mothers and Their Families”, Journal of Marriage and the Family, August 1974.
Duvall, Evelyn, Family Development (4th ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1971.
Sussman, Marvin, “Family Systems in the 1970s: Analysis, Policies, and Programs”, in Family Health Care, eds. Debra Hymovich and Martha Barnard. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973.
Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
