This essay will identify how modern day society is changing with regards to family structure in particular marriage, cohabitation, step families and lone parenting explaining how this may or may not impact on parenting practices in turn influencing the outcome of children and the formation of their identities. It will also discuss the Governments role in aiding families and protecting children with regard to current policies and procedures. Also the current perception of childhood and the increasing role media play in portraying child delinquency. Almost every minute of every hour of every day of the year, a baby is born in Britain (Thomas, B and Dorling, D 2007). For young children the initial awareness of behaviour and morals are learned from the home they are born into, children watch, learn and can imitate the conduct of others. Adult’s perceptions of good behaviour will be heavily influenced by their own cultural, religious, social and moral beliefs (Dowling 2005). However the main role of any parent is to contribute to the social development of their child this is supported through teaching social rules and expectations for behaviour. (McCartney & Phillips 2008) Modernity is related to the rise of capitalism, a society that encourages change and diversity. (Haralambos et al 2004) The 1960’s and 1970’s was a turning point throughout Western Europe and the perception of societal standards altered, attitudes towards family structures with regards to childbearing, marriage cohabitation and divorce changed.(Hunt 2009) Within today’s society there are many variations of family units, there are lone parents, blended families, mixed race families, unmarried co-habiting parents, married parents and same sex parents. Many diff... ... middle of paper ... ...://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/PO/releases/2004/june/stepfamilies Haralambos, M Holborn,M Heald,R.(2004) Haralambos and Holborn: Sociology Themes and Perspectives Hunt, S A. (2009) Family Trends: British Families since the 1950’s, Suffolk: The Lavenham Press Ltd Hill, M Tisdall, K.(1997) Children and Society, Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd Lee, N. (2001) Childhood and Society: Growing up in an Age of Uncertainty, Buckingham: Open University Press McCartney, K. Phillips, D (2008) Early Childhood Development, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Stones, C. (1994) Focus on Families: Family Centres in Action, Hampshire: The MacMillan Press Thomas ,B Dorling,D (2007) Identity in Britain: A Cradle to Grave Atlas, Bristol: The Policy Press Wyness ,M. (2006) Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the sociology of Childhood, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan
...Many Kinds of Family Structures in Our Communities." . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014. .
As we have learned through Skolnick’s book, as well as Rubin’s research, the make up of the family is influenced by many factors. The economy, culture, education, ethnicity/race, and tradition all help to create the modern family. The last few decades have heavily influenced the family structure, and while some try to preserve the past, others embrace the future. Through it all, we find you can have both.
Maybin, J. &Woodhead, M. (2003). Childhoods in context. Southern Gate, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Views on childhood have and still continue to change (Waller, 2009). The contemporary view that children are empty vessels (Skinner, 1974) is being disregarded as children are no longer perceived as passive recipients in an adult world (O’Kane, 2008...
Childhood is the period of being a child which is from birth up until when the child reaches puberty (adolescence). A myriad people perceive childhood as being fun and joyful but many would disagree and would now begin to consider it as being problematic. This essay will be impartial and promiscuous by discussing supporting arguments that childhood is and is not considered as being in crisis. Part of this essay will be looking at different authors or journalists who believe childhood is in crisis due to many factors such as; children not spending time outdoors, them being allowed to used electronics too much etc. While other authors and journalists will be looking at the opposite side as to children only being innocent or that parents are to blame and the media due to confusion over whether childhood is in crisis.
Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider themselves a family. The roots of these modern families may stem from ethnic origins, sexual orientations, or even seen as a rebellion of sorts from traditional ways. Children may live in homes of single parents, which is an exceedingly more common phenomenon as the divorce rate well publicized at around fifty percent. They may also live with homosexual parents either as a biological child of one partner or adopted by both. Also, the traditional married couple may choose to adopt locally or internationally, potentially blending ethnic backgrounds into one household. Whatever the background of the new nuclear family the challenges and experiences follow similar patterns.
Garbarino, J. (1992). Children and families in the social environment, New York, NY: Walter De Gruyter Inc.
Why the family is considered the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are those changes? Describe the differences in marriage and family life that are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choice. Do you feel the trend toward diverse families is positive or negative? If the trend changed toward traditional (pre-World War II) families, how would that affect women’s rights?
World War ǁ was a global military event, the most colossal conflict in history lasting from 1939-1945, it involved most of the worlds nations including Great Britain. WWII had far-reaching implications for most of the world. The following essay will demonstrate the changes the UK family has undergone since World War ǁ, the following essay will also throw light upon the changes in family types, economic activities of women , power distribution, laws and sexuality with respect to disciplines of sociology, economics, history and politics.
The sociological definition of the family is “a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society” (Schaeffer, 2009, p. 288). While the nuclear family (a man, a woman, and their children) was once the primary definition of family, now it refers to many familial configurations. Single-parent families, blended families, same-sex couples, traditional nuclear families and single-parents who have adopted are just a few of the configurations that society in general now views as a family. A healthy family will provide a place of unconditional love, acceptance and support.
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
James, Jenks and Prout (1998) argue that childhood is characterised by sets of cultural values whereby the ‘…western childhood has become a period of social dependency, asexuality, and the obligation to be happy, with children having the right to protection and training but not to social or personal autonomy’ (James, Jenks and Prouts 1998 pg. 62). Here, childhood is described in sets of distinguished features and these features imply that the concept childhood may vary from place, culture and time. Therefore suggesting that there is no fixed or universal experience of childhood, for example, childhood in the medieval UK will be extremely different to the childhood in modern UK and therefore it varies over time, place and culture. Since the definition and state of childhood may vary depending on our cultural and historical background, some sociologist claim that childhood is not just biological, but must have been socially constructed for a specific society needs at a particular time. In this essay, I will attempt to explore ways in which childhood is said to be socially constructed by looking at historical childhood and how it has led to construction of modern childhood in the modern society. I will also explore the agency of children as competent social actors able to construct their social world.
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
Palmer, S. (2006). Toxic Childhood: how the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it . London: Orion Books Ltd.
It has been said, children from two-parent families are better off. The setting is also a factor to take into consideration. The increase in single- parent homes has had an extensive and negative effect on children’s development. 50% of marriages end in divorce. We have young people with young minds having children, they can hardly take care of themselves at the age of 21, yet they have decided to bring four children into this world to be raised by one parent. In some communities, majority of the children are being raised by a single parent. Statistics have shown that children raised in a healthy single parent home have more problems emotionally, psychologically, in school, and with the law than those raised in healthy two-parent homes. No matter how good a single parent is, that a single parent can NEVER do for the child how two present, committed, parent partners share and work together; communicate together and solve problems together as equals.