Due to the changing profiles and functions of families, many problems have arisen and societies, corporations as well as governments need to adjust or react to these challenges accordingly. It is noteworthy that many of these impacts not only affect the developed or Western countries with more educated populations, but also the developing and more conservative ones which are increasingly experiencing modernization and liberalization in various aspects.
In the lecture on Women And The Family, we have seen some educational, political, and socio-economic factors accruing to the collapse of family institutions. I shall further explore some other factors leading to problems that threaten the modern family.
Science & Technology
Science and technology have helped in reducing time and effort spent on household chores. This, together with the availability of domestic help, may help free women from the kitchen or house duties, but also reduces the need for women to spend more time at home with the family. The tremendous advancements in transport and communication technology make it easier to keep in touch with family members without actually being physically present. Such improvements may seem convenient, but may result in decrease in family face-to-face communications. People are just a phone call, fax, e-mail, or text message away. Even if physical presence is required or desired, people are just a plane, train, or car-ride away. The advent of and proliferation of central heating, television and personal computers have resulted in a decrease in family interaction. Previously, there was opportunity to share each other’s day during family meals and games. Now, adults’ and children’s attention alike are increasingly focused on the Google Box and computer screen.
Religion
While religion upholds the importance of the traditional family, attitudes towards sex and marriage no longer follow religious teachings in modern’s modern society. The religious institution is losing its role as a source of moral guidance, for example, its stand on pre-marital sex, cohabitation and gay relationships or marriages. The advance in science and technology has also helped erode people’s belief in god or gods and to believe in man’s power to solve and explain all things. A form of human arrogance is perpetuated.
Morals
The modern world has more temptations than before. Standards of morality have declined. For example, prostitution is commonplace and married people are no longer off-limits. During the Cultural Revolution, love and sex were denounced as bourgeois decadence in China. Now, according to Pan Suiming, a sexologist at People’s University who conducted a nationwide survey on Chinese sexual behaviour, it is found that half of the urban males in their thirties say they have had more than sexual partner. There is also little support from traditional family support structures. The rise of the nuclear family and the fall of the extended family has resulted in the loss of an important influence on children- the grandparents. This in turn causes a loss of inter-generational links and values, creating a generation gap. The ritual of the family meal and other opportunities for interaction has also declined. Such decline has serious repercussions. By spending time with their children, parents build the bonds that are necessary for the transmission of human capital (Coleman, 1998). Children are better off in terms of academic and emotional well-being from time spent with parents, and from parenting characterized by warmth, as well as rule setting. (Barber & Erickson, 2001) Finally, a life-course perspective would suggest that family routines and rituals experienced in childhood help set the course for how one will organize their own family life in adulthood (Elder, 1999).
Mass Media
The mass media often portray lifestyles as attractive and desirable, such as the idea of cohabitation, separation, etc. Even premarital sex and non –marital relationships are often depicted as the norms for adults. This conflicts with and undermines traditional values, which is related to the liberal beliefs and personalities of the people in the media industry. The easy availability of information via the mass media to everyone, including children, erodes the family’s role in educating the children. The decrease in respect to the elders results, as adults no longer have an exclusive hold on knowledge or wisdom. In other words, the mass media socializes us by telling us what is acceptable or not in the society. The mass media is interdependent with reality as they influence each other.
As seen, there are many different factors that lead to the collapse of the family institution and it is a structural problem that we should not ignore. The structure of the economy owns our positions in it. Most of the time, families are swept along by the winds of change, which they have no choice but to abide to for survival in the exceedingly capitalistic world that we live in today.
