DEBATES ABOUT WHETHER THE EXPERIENCE OF FAMILY LIFE IS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE

FOR FAMILY MEMBERS

CONSENSUS THEORIES

 Companionship- in order to do well out there in the world, it is

extremely important that an individual feels accepted and integrated.
The feeling of belonging should be originally felt within one’s family. In
other words, a person should feel loved and accepted, being aware of
their role and place within the family.
 Security (emotional, physical, sexual, psychological and economic) –
support is vital for success in life. And a family is the place where support
can be most sincerely felt. Therefore, a healthy family offers
encouragement to each member so they can try to realize their dreams.
A family is also a place for a person to do things with more self-
confidence and achieve better results, which would be much more
difficult to get without adequate support.
 Raising children- The family is essential for this process to occur. They
provide the first level of education and socialization, as it instils essential
and long-lasting values, which are later transferred to one’s descendants.

Whilst Parsons (1959), argues that contemporary families play an

important stabilizing role for both the individual and the society at large,
postmodernists focus on individual psychological stability. This poses a
question on our identity (who we are and how we understand our
position in society).

People have gained more choices on their everyday life because of

cultural globalization. However, this limits their choices since they are
uncertain about their identity (who they are and they manner in which
they are supposed to behave). The old notion of class, gender, age and
social identities no longer guide the notions of appropriate behavior,
making the sense of identity more unstable.

BENEFITS OF THE FAMILY TO THE COMMUNITY

 Children are given clear behavioral and moral guidance.
 Sense of moral commitment to others that from the basis of social
responsibility.
  Adult partners, play roles based on domestic labor and care for others,
shared economic provision (showing both personal sacrifice and
commitment to other family members). Becker (1991) describes this as
psychic income; the psychological pleasures gained from a relationship
involving a sense of personal commitment, love and affection.

CONFLICT

According to conflict theorists, the family works towards the

continuation of social inequality by maintaining and reinforcing the
status quo. The conflict perspective views the family as a vehicle to
maintain patriarchy and social inequality in society. Hence, the family is
viewed as:
o Psychologically harmful
o Socially oppressive and exploitative of women – this view is put
forward mainly by Marxist feminists who draw attention to the
exploitation and oppression of women within the family. Women
often take on the exploitative roles as unpaid servants to their
spouses and children. This is worsened when they perform double
shift (work inside and outside the home).
o Having a dark side – domestic violence and child abuse.

DOMESTIC VOILENCE
WHO (2002) figures estimate that about 70% of female murder
victims are killed by their male partners and that around 25% of all
women worldwide experience sexual violence by an intimate partner
on their lifetime, although there are wide variations across different
countries.
COUNTRY PREVALENCE (%)
Finland 25
Hungary 10
Japan 6
Lithuania 18
Netherlands 28
Sweden 19
Switzerland 12
Peru 47
Thailand 30
Zimbabwe 25
USA 8

Source key: Kelly and Regan (2003)

CHILD ABUSE
Child abuse has a strong correlation to domestic violence. This is
because most men who are abusive toward their partners often
extend that violence towards children in their care.

AGE AND FAMILY LIFE

The social construction of childhood, and changes that in the role and
social position of children in the family.
Archard (2004), argues that every human society has developed a
concept of childhood, but different societies differ in their definition
of childhood. If childhood is biological, every society would see it the
same way.

In other words, childhood is merely a developmental or biological

stage that we all go through on our path to adulthood. This concludes
that childhood is a social construction; something created by society,
rather than a natural stage of physical and mental development.

Sociologists argue that what people mean by childhood and the

position children occupy is not fixed but differs between different
times, places and cultures.

According to social historian Philippe Aries (1962), children

experience an invention or social construction. Aries claimed that, in
pre-industrial society, the type of childhood that exists in modern
societies did not exist. He argues that as soon as children were not
physically dependent on their parents (i.e. around the age of 7 years)
they were treated no differently to adults.

Children in medieval societies were treated as miniature adults who

took part in the same work and play activities as grown-ups. The
reason why children were treated the same way as adults was
because of the concept of age in medieval societies and its different
interpretation from what is recognized today. In may pre-industrial
societies, people generally did not know their date of birth or their
exact age. The registration of birth which is a legal obligation today
simply did not exist.
In pre-industrial societies, children lived and worked alongside their
parents or for royals or aristocrats or people who were engaged to be
married. This gradually changed during in industrial society through
the physical and cultural separation between children and adults

The development of education in the UK changed the narrative and

since children were no longer supposed to work on farms with their
parents but instead spend more time with their peers in school.

In modern industrial society, children are seen as:

 Objects of concern requiring adult protection
 Independent owners of right
 Lacking awareness of right and wrong (moral consciousness)
 Aware of and responsible for their actions