FAMILY ; A PROMISE OF HAPPY CHILDHOOD

- K.L.Praharshitha

Family has always been the structural and the functional unit of the societies thoughout the
history of human civilization, across the globe. It as an entity in which the constituent members
have moral obligations towards each other and towards the entire entity as well; The interests
attributed to the family as a whole are quite often attributed to its members individually. Hence, a
healthy family having all its socio-economic interests protected refers to the well protected
interests and needs of the individuals therein and vice-versa. This relationship therefore
emphasizes the necessity to study the implications of family structures and family processes on
the bihavioural attitudes of the constituent individuals . The paper has its scope limited to the
study of such implications on the children in the modern family scenarios.

Human rights documents, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, frame societal
concern for children in terms of “the best interests of the child”, which should be “a primary
consideration”1. Families are often regarded as a necessary structure for the protection of
children. Child as an essential segment of human society.. As family institution caters to the
process of child development through continuous processes of Habitualisation (any action that is
repeated frequently by the child imitating his parents becomes cast into a pattern)   and
Indoctrination ( the process of inculcating in a person, the knowledge derived from the culture
or life experiences of the previous generations ), it can be considered as the supreme support
system where child development is concerned. The paper focuses on the prime role of family in
the comprehensive child development.

Various studies concluded that in the child growth processes , behaviour, attitudes ,values and
moral beliefs of the parents and the immediate relatives who to some extent are responsible for
the supervision of the children influence the interpersonal behaviour and conduct of children to
a great extent.2 Family bonds which are a result of ‘tigetherness’ give the child a sense of being
anchored to ones ancestral roots as well as the traditions, culture and beliefs. Thus he turns out
to be a person with his own logic and judgement. The thought prcess and judging guidelines
come from the family culture initself. This continuous learning process from one’s own family
1
United Nations 1989, Art 3
2
Horton, P. and Hunt, C. (1980), “ Sociology “, McGraw-Hill, New York.
has always been an intrinsic part of human life since ages, it has its own biological and
sociological merits. In the modern scenario, relationship of the adults in the family in general
and the parents in specific with the children is rusted, huge gap has paved its way both
culturally and socially leading to different thinking patterns. Depriving children of a nurturing
family atmosphere causes drastic damage to their intelligence quotient and their emotional well-
being as well. Also, their physical stature is affected to some extent. Due to lack of care and
attention there is relatively higher risk of stunted growth in children. Substantially lower IQs and
higher prssibility of behavioural and psychological problems are other implications of the same.
Moreover, the child probably imbibe’s the similar “self-oriented” approach of the parents with
low cultural grooming . the worst case scenario is when such situations leave the child greatly
vulnerable to the mixed mischief culture of technology, drugs and alcohol.

Therefore various child evelopment problems are the implications of the complex conditions of
the Family system in which they dwell 3. The conditions which generally effect the child in the
family are primarily identified as follows :

 Emotional bonds and the behavioural patterns of couple; this includes both parent-
parent and the parent-child relationships.
 Impressionable conditions like abuse, conflict, indifference and ignorance between
the members of the family or towards the children.
 Unbalenced approach towards the scientific methods of child care and rearing.
 Indifference towards the education of children.; one has to keep in mind that the
education of a child include the domestic learning process as well.

Child growth in the Intact Families

The majority of children in the intact families have never experienced family turbulance and live
with both biological parents. This family structure has hene been appreciated to have several
merits as far as the children are concerned. Firstly, children have great emotional bonding with
both the biological parents who have the same between them as well. Therefore there is greater
parental involvemen and higher frequency of healthy interactions.

3
Falzon,D. (2007), “The role of the mother on the child’s emotional development“.
Intact families, however, may not be free of parental conflict always , and the physical presence
of parents does not ensure emotional presence. In other words, more time together does not
necessarily mean high-quality time together which is a further important factor for child welfare.
Living in a domestic establishment with marital conflict results in the higher risk of poor
interpersonal skills and social competencein children , as stated before. This risk if relatable ti
that of the children of divorced or separated families.

Divorced or separated families

Unlike this, Children from divorced and separated families have relatively experience familial
disruption during their childhood. Divorce is a stressful process for all children, regardless of age
or community; quite often children are not completely prepared for broken family condition.
adapting to the same proves to be a complex process in such conditions. The problems faced by
the children in such cases primarily include deep sense of vulnerability and insecurity. This
results in a grief reaction due to the loss of the complete family conditions which lack the non-
custodial parent. Therefore disruption of the family leads to the feelings of powerlessness.
Another seious implication of such cases is that customary support systems like maternal and
paternal grandparents are more likely to get diluted. Also Previous studies fairly reveal the long
term educational disadvantages for children of divorce families.

The general patterns that the studies have identified show that after almost 10 years of divorce,
almost 50% have minor problems, 25% struggle with significant long term problems and 25% of
the children are doing reasonably well .4

However, researchers explain that by eliminating ongoing hostility, eliminating ineffective

discipline, preventing the loss of contact with a parent and by avoding pressuring the child to
side with one of the parents , parents can to a large extent eliminate the above discussed long
term problems faced by the child. Unfortunately the above sensitive approach is being adopted in
very few cases. . such situation leaves the child traumatised due to the denial of the second
parent’s love, which leads to risky health conditions and troubled relationships.

4
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network ( 1998 ), “ Early child care and self-control, compliance, and problem
behavior”, Child development, Vol. 69.
The Hague Convention ,the covenant, which came into force in 1983 and also Article 19 of
the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) protects children from such unilateral
removal by a parent and is meant to establish procedures to ensure and secure the child’s
right to access both the parents . India is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, although
98 countries, including Pakistan and Sri Lanka are. The Indian legal system should enable
the provisions eliminating the inaccessibility to such insensible approaches of parental
abductions or complete loss of non custodial parent.

By considering the utmost importance of children in the society, this paper explains the
prominence of family in the processes of child protection and development . In particular, the
complicated implications of the separated or modern families on child rearing is discussed in
detail .