Families in Different Parts of the World - Term Paper Example

Running Head: FAMILY, CHILDREN AND CHANGE Family, Children and Change Introduction The concept of family is defined differently in different parts of the world and across different cultures. In some, a family consists of a father and mother and children, commonly referred to as the nuclear family. In others, family includes other individuals related by blood and operating as a unit, such as those which have grandparents, siblings of either husband or wife, even including their spouses and children. Still in others, a family may include non-relatives such as house helpers or servants. Over the past fifty years, these different concepts of family have also undergone changes not only in structures, but also in family member roles. These changes were brought about by changes in the societies in which these families function in. This paper takes a look at how families have and are changing in different parts of the world, and how the change in families has affected children. It also takes a look at different responses of society to these changes. How Families are Changing The American Heritage Dictionary presents a number of definitions of the term “family”. One is that a family is a fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children; or two or more people who share goals and values, have long-term commitments to one another, and reside usually in the same dwelling place; or all the members of a household under one roof (AHD, 2000a). Related to the term “family”, “household” is defined as a domestic unit consisting of the members of a family who live together along with non-relatives such as servants (AHD, 2000b). According to Jiang & O’Neill (2006), the average U.S. household size decreased by more than half since 1790, when there were 5.8 persons per household compared to only 2.67 in 2000. This decline was caused by several factors. Two-parent family households declined from 44% to 24% for the period 1960 to 2000. Single parent households increased from 1.5 million in 1950 to 9.5 million in 2000. Several reasons cited for this statistic are that couples having fewer children, the rise in the divorce rate, and the increase of births to women out of wedlock. Couples decide to have less children because of the rising cost of living and their time-consuming careers which would make rearing many children difficult. The rise in divorce rates have also split families into two contributing to the decrease in family or household size, similar to the case of single-mother families. Korean culture, like the Chinese culture, is rooted in Confucian tradition. In the rearing of children, Korean mothers used to be concerned with achieving social order and interpersonal harmony by emphasizing the restraint of personal desires or behavior control, stressing the rigid hierarchical order of human relationships based on age, gender, and inherited social status. Recently, however, general beliefs have changed because of higher educational attainment of Korean women, increased contact with Western culture, democratic ideology, and the materialistic and competitive nature of Korean industrial society. Young Koreans today freely express their opinions against the aged and Korean mothers now adopt Western individualistic values and put emphasis on academic achievement and social assertiveness rather than on traditional social behaviors such as sharing, helping, and self-restraint. Moreover, South Korea has transformed from an agrarian to an industrialized urban society within a single generation since the 1960s, with more people living in cities than in towns and villages. The country has adopted Western science, technology, Protestantism, and the ideology of democracy. All these have affected Korean children’s social development (Park & Cheah, 2005). In a study of early childhood care and education and family support policies and programs in seven Southeast Asian countries, a number of changes in families have been observed. The countries are aging with the percentage of those 60 years old or older markedly increasing. Fertility rates have declined giving rise to smaller families. Women used to get married at a young age of 16, which provided for long periods of child bearing. Today, women get married at age 22 or older, especially in urban areas. Household and family structures are changing. Whereas extended families used to be the norm in these Asian countries, the number of extended families is declining while that of nuclear families is rising. Communities and villages used to be composed of extended family networks, but these have now become fragmented due to natural disasters and population movements. Gender roles are also changing, with the growing proportion of women in the labor force. Thus, women have become increasingly unavailable to provide care for young children at home contributing to the decision to lessen the number of children for the family. There are unusually high percentages of households headed by women with the increase in single-parent families as well as widowed women due to war and civil strife (Kamerman, 2002). In a paper by Smith (1992) about the Chinese family in Taiwan, he reveals that the Taiwanese family has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The change was caused by two reasons. The first is as a result of the change in the political and social environment and the political influence of the West. This includes the introduction of the modern school system, mass communications particularly through television, and the flow of Americans and Europeans living and working in Taiwan. School children are exposed to Western ideas, literature and teaching methodologies. Taiwanese university professors have taken part of their graduate education in the United States. The second reason for the change in the Taiwanese family is economical. Instead of the traditional agrarian life in mainland China, Taiwan has become an industrialized society due to the unavailability of arable land. Westernization, industrialization, urbanization, democratization, and consumerism have caused the redefinition of the Taiwanese family. Instead of extended families which were prevalent in mainland China, the Taiwanese families have become nuclear families with young couples preferring to avoid conflicts in larger families, preferring single-family dwellings, and due to the high cost and architectural design of urban accommodation. Taiwan family dwellings virtually eliminate the possibility of extended families as well as promote smaller families. Another reason for the nuclear rather than the extended family structure in Taiwan, as cited by Smith, is that older generation Taiwanese prefer to enjoy the fruits of their labor rather than turnover their wealth to the younger generation as was traditional in mainland China. More recently, there is also the issue of families created through same sex unions. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, in a study of same sex marriages (2008), there is no conclusive study on how children raised in families headed by same-sex parents fare in comparison with children who live in families led by opposite-sex couples. Effects on Children The decrease in family size would suggest that children would be better cared for by their parents, unlike when one pair of parents had to rear a bigger number of children. However, the decrease in family size has come about not because of parents’ choice in order to improve their capability to rear children, but rather in response to environmental pressures as mentioned in the previous section. As such, although there are fewer children to rear, there seem to be also lesser time for parents to perform their rearing activities. The practical benefit of a two-parent family over a single-parent one would be the shared responsibility and task for bringing up children. The rise in single-parent families, thus suggest that children reared by single parents face some disadvantage over those brought up in two-parent families. Moreover, with the family still recognized as the basic social unit of society, single-parent families tend to erode the “family” concept and may promote negative attitudes of children toward the family concept, which would be detrimental to society. As introduced in the previous section, societal changes which have affected Korean families, such as the increased educational attainment of women and increased contact with Western culture, have influenced the rearing of Korean children. Korean mothers now practice Western ideas of child socialization (Park & Cheah, 2005). Instead of rearing children to exhibit behavioral self-restraint, Korean mothers now tend to have positive attitudes towards uninhibited child behavior. The more that Western individualistic values are adopted by Korean mothers, the more do they put emphasis on academic achievement and social assertiveness rather than on traditionally valued social behaviors such as sharing, helping, and self-restrained behaviors. The effect on Korean children is the importance placed on academic achievement with emphasis on competition among peers rather than cooperative social behaviors. Many developing countries in Southeast Asia have fragmented families due to overseas employment by family members, usually parents seeking better financial rewards for the benefit of their families. Instead of parents caring for their children, rearing is delegated to other relatives. As such, children would grow up without direct supervision and care from their parents resulting in the erosion of the family concept. In cases where mothers are the ones who take on overseas work, the natural maternal benefits derived from being cared for by a mother are lost on the children. Whereas traditionally, sons are preferred to daughters in Chinese families, the modernization of Taiwan has not only equalized the stature of males and females, there is even a marked preference for daughters. Daughters are seen to be more caring and more diligent in filial obligations. Economic changes, legal rights, employment opportunities and Western ideas have resulted in enhancing the status of women in modern Taiwan. Educational opportunity has opened up to boys and girls to attend school at the same rate. With the increase in women’s participation in various professions, the responsibilities of full-time employment and caring for young children has given rise to private day-care centers which have become very popular in modern Taiwan. Smith’s study suggests that social, economic and educational opportunities for Taiwanese women have not in all cases led to family stability, marital contentment and positive childrearing (Smith, 1992). Although services of day-care centers have become popular in modern Taiwan, it can be surmised that to a certain degree, some positive values are lost when there is limited bonding time for the mother and child. In ReligiousTolerance.org’s article (2008) about same sex marriages, it includes that a 1996 evaluation of the Circuit Court of Hawaii showed that gay and lesbian couples are as fit as parents and as loving as opposite sex couples. A 2003 evaluation of same-sex parenting by a Massachusetts court showed similar results. Risk Implications on Early Childhood Development According to Professor Anthony Giddens (1999a), risk refers to hazards which are assessed in relation to future possibilities. When one is future-oriented, one looks at the risks that may be anticipated after defining a possible future outcome. In terms of the changing concept and nature of families, which are now being acknowledged, there is a natural anticipation of risks that may have to be minimized, with regard to the effects of such changes on children, especially the very young. As an example, Giddens cites marriage and family as some of the institutions which have radically changed. It used to be that couples contract marriage and form families in a traditional sense wherein practices that follow afterward are generally defined with outcomes generally predictable as well. As long as roles are played according to tradition, positive outcomes would more or less be assured. With the changing make-up of marriage which have transformed into relationships between individuals rather than a male and female couple’s public declaration of a union, the outcome for families formed after such a union or lack thereof, poses risks to children. Questions that arise include how it would be proper to raise children when instead of a couple, there is only a single parent; or how children would be properly raised when parents are absent. Another risk cited by Giddens is that brought about by effects of globalization with its characteristic attributes of far reaching media and the proliferation of consumer goods resulting in widening world inequalities and the worsening lot of the impoverished. Nations, families, work, tradition, and nature are all not the same anymore as in the past (Giddens, 1999b). As previously discussed, what used to be Chinese functioning within an agricultural nation are not so anymore with respect to the Taiwanese Chinese who live in an industrialized nation. In an agrarian society, the tradition was for the family to be an economic unit with all members of the family, including children, expected to contribute to the proper function of a family engaged in agriculture. Within an industrialized setup, as evidenced by the socialization process for the Taiwanese children, parents pass on a different set of values rather than the traditional agrarian ones. Children used to be reared to prepare them for the responsibilities of taking over agrarian properties. These are no longer evident in modern Taiwan, rather, parents hold on to their hard-earned properties and allow the children to make their own name in the world. Additionally, Giddens discourses on the nature of the family in that families today are not based on marriages anymore but rather relationships founded on emotional communication or intimacy. As such, the issue of having children has become more of a deliberate decision rather than a traditional and natural one. Giddens suggests that the relationships that form families today have become democratic units based on communication, which understands different points of view. The emotional democracy in relationships means the acceptance of obligations, with legal obligations to provide for children (Giddens, 1999c). The changes in the concept and nature of families thus pose risks for children and their upbringing. The nature of families has changed and continues to change with changes in societies around the world. With the changing rationale for how families are constituted, how family members function in their roles and how children are raised, individuals adapt and transform themselves to function in appropriate ways as what situations call for. As Giddens points out, the risks and negative effects on children and their early development can only be mitigated through democratic means – open communication, with respect and understanding of different points of view, and acceptance of obligations. Responses of Government and Other Organizations Kamerman’s study (2002) reveals that in the seven Southeast Asian countries studied, there is growing awareness of the role of women in improving the situation of children. Government policies on gender equality have provided increased access to education for women such that women are able to enter business and access credit, thus helping to alleviate extreme poverty. All the countries studied stress the central role of the family in the socialization process of children. In Thailand in 2001, a policy statement was issued stating that promoting family strength is a primary function of government with goals of establishing community centers for health care and family planning, support of pre-primary schools, protection of children against abuse, and promotion of women’s rights, roles and gender equity. In 1994, in Malaysia, The National Plan of Action for Child Survival, Protection and Development was drawn up to serve as guide for the formulation of policies, strategies and programs for children up to the year 2000. In Indonesia, the development of children has been integrated into the overall program for the improvement of the country’s human resources, and includes family planning services; a safe motherhood program; policies to improve nutrition, health, education and legal protection of children; and policies to increase the role of the family and the community in the care of children. The Philippine constitution provides for child and family policies which include the primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of children; recognition of the family as the basic social institution; the roles of children, youth and women in nation building; and education as a priority. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conducted a thematic review of early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy participated in by 20 countries - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They came up with 8 key elements for ECEC policy. These are a systemic and integrated approach to policy development and implementation which calls for a clear policy vision for children, from birth to eight, and for coordinated policy frameworks at centralized and decentralized levels; a strong and equal partnership with the education system; a universal approach to access ensuring that all children have equal opportunity to attend quality ECEC; substantial public investment in services and the infrastructure; a participatory approach to quality improvement engaging ECEC staff, parents and children; appropriate training and working conditions for staff in all forms of provision is central to quality in ECEC; systematic attention to monitoring and data collection; and a stable framework and long-term agenda for research and evaluation (Bennett, 2007). The reviews conducted by this United Nations agency are in response to the global concern for early childhood development in the face of global societal changes. Bennett (2004) proposed a curricular framework for ECEC which includes a statement of the principles and values that should guide early childhood centers adhering to the principles of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, including respect for parents as the first educators of the child; a summary of program standards that parents may expect in the early childhood center such as child/staff ratios, educator qualifications, indoor and outdoor learning environments; and an orientation concerning content and outputs such as the broad goals that centers will pursue, the attitudes, dispositions, skills and knowledge that children at different ages can be expected to attain across different developmental areas. Na & Moon (2003) reported on Republic of Korea’s reform of its ECEC system. In 1997, the Reform Plan for Early Childhood Education was prepared by the Presidential Commission on Educational Reform that focused on ways to include early childhood education in institutionalized public education systems. This included the establishment of the preschool system for children from 3 to 5; the establishment of systems to enhance the quality of preschools; and expansion of support for preschool by government and self-governing local organizations. A Special Committee on Early Childhood Education Reform was formed consisting of national public officials of the Ministries of Education, of Health and Welfare, and of Finance and Economy as well as representatives of early childhood education and of childcare. The outcomes of the reform plan are increased concern for early childhood education and care by the government, the National Assembly, parents’ groups and women’s organizations, and increased interest by the media. Conclusion Indeed, families have changed in the past fifty years, and continue to change. The effects of changing family structures, concepts and practices on children have both been positive and negative. These effects on children have given rise to increased awareness and interest in early childhood education and care in different parts of the world. To ensure that the best results are achieved for the sake of the children, the best approach would be the concerted and cooperative efforts of government, child welfare agencies, educational institutions and parents in studying the effects of changes in the family concept, and the formulation and implementation of policies and programs to minimize the negative effects on children References American Heritage Dictionary. (2000a). Family. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/family. American Heritage Dictionary. (2000b). Family. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/family. Bennett, J. (2007). Results from the OECD thematic review of early childhood education and care policy 1998 – 2006. UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood, November – December 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.unesco.org/education/earlychildhood/brief. Bennett, J. (2004). Curriculum in early childhood education and care. UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood, September 2004. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.unesco.org/education/ecf/briefs. Giddens, A. (1999a). Risk. BBC Reith Lectures 1999. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/week2/week2.htm. Giddens, A. (1999b). Globalisation. BBC Reith Lectures 1999. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/week1/week1.htm. Giddens, A. (1999c). Family. BBC Reith Lectures 1999. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/week4/week4.htm. Jiang, L. & O’Neill, B.C. (2006). Impacts of demographic events on US household change. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/IR-06-030.pdf. Kamerman, S.B. (2002). Early childhood care and education and other family policies and programs in southeast Asia. UNESCO Paris, Early Childhood and Family Education Unit. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.education.unesco.org/educpro/ecf/index.htm. Na, J. & Moon, M. (2003). Integrating policies and systems for early childhood education and care: The case of the Republic of Korea. UNESCO Early Childhood and Family Policy Series n°7, June 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.education.unesco.org/educprog/ecf/index.htm. Park, S. & Cheah, C.S.L. (2005). Korean mothers’ proactive socialisation beliefs regarding preschoolers’ social skills. International Journal of Behavioral Development 2005. Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://jbd.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/1/24. ReligiousTolerance.org. (2008). Same-sex marriage (SSM): How do children fare in families led by same-sex parents? Retrieved 6 January 2009, from http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_mar13.htm. Smith, D.C. (1992). The Chinese family in transition: Implications for education and society in modern Taiwan. Asia Culture Quarterly, Fall 1992. Read More