How A Family Is Defined In Australian Context

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A family is typically defined as “any of our immediate social groups within which we feel a strong sense of friendship, bonding or belonging.” In the Australian context, this is essentially true. A family in the Australian context is more than just “Mum, Dad and the two kids,” but is the people you are or feel closely related to. As well as this, a family must be made up of more than one person. In the Australian context families normally live together, so for the rest of this folio I will be assuming the definition of an Australian family as:

Two or more people living in the same house who are related by blood, marriage, (including de factos), adoption, step or fostering.

FAMILY STRUCTURES

Today, family structures are changing. Pre 1970s, most Australian families consisted of mum, dad and the kids (Type A), with 50% of families conforming to this structure in 1976. However, this type of family structure is changing, nowadays there are more single parent families (Type B), couples without dependant children (Type C), or other families which have related adults living together (for example brother and sister) where no couple or parent-child relationship exists (Type D). The statistics of these family structures have been changing over the past years

CHANGES IN WORK AND LEISURE PATTERNS

Definite changes in work patterns have been occurring over the past years. The number of Australians in paid employment is rising, for example from 1966 to 1998 the number of Australians in paid employment increased by 77%, from 4.8 million to 8.5 million. Employment rates for women are moving closer to rates for men, with an increase in the female employment rate across all age groups except the very young and the very old (and conc...

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In decades past one of the main family goals was to “own their house, have a Hills Hoist and drive a Holden.” Nowadays, family goals and aspirations are changing dramatically. Families now want to travel more, take more holidays, getting better education for children and many more. These changing goals certainly do have an impact on the foods families now purchase and the money spent on these purchases. Because many of these goals require a large sum of music, families now are cutting back on the money they are spending on food purchases – in fact, in the recent economic downturn; families now see takeaways as a splurge – an unnecessary expense.

HOW HAVE THESE CHANGES AFFECTED AUSTRALIAN FAMILIES?

These changes have all affected Australian families in different ways. I believe that attitudes to food, work, leisure, health and fitness have all changed.

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