Cultural and Sociological Impacts: Family in the 50 Years

Cultural Changes

During the latter part of the twentieth century, the labor market experienced significant changes in both design and participation. Changing technology made employees more available to their organizations and expectations of connectivity changes dramatically. The reality of work 50 years ago was much more finite with breadwinner clocking in when they arrived and clocking out in the evening to go home to their families. Now, not only have the expectations of that schedule changed, but the breadwinner of the family has changed as well, impacting the structure of the family and the children within it. Although traditional male breadwinner/female homemaker arrangements were the standard for years, now the majority of households have two breadwinners with over 63% of households with children under the age of 15 having both adults in the family working full-time (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). If this arrangement functioned well within the family unit, it wouldn’t be such a concerning issue. However, with 70% of adults aged 18-65 feeling as if they do not have enough time to spend with their families and 40% would like to spend less time at the office, this illustrates a significant shift which must be examined for its impact on families (Skinner & Chapman, 2013).

Children

The impact of these changes when it comes to children is often related to policy surrounding paid and unpaid leaves for parents, such as maternity and paternity leave (Malatzky, 2013). The development of social and psychological function comes at a very young age and the ability to spend time bonding with caregivers is a critical part of growth during the early childhood years.

Young People

One of the major conflicts with the increased need for work hours to extend beyond the office is the flexibility of scheduling. Despite being accessible off the clock, many employees are not permitted to have flexibility in their schedule to attend things with their children or spend time away from the office in exchange for working extended hours. Kelly et al. (2014) notes that this has the greatest impact on youth within the family who may be stepping outside the household to explore new activities.

A number of studies have linked overall family health to an imbalance of work-life activities, noting that both physical and psychological impacts can be found (Amstad, Meier, Fasel, Elfering & Semmer, 2011). In addition, the level of stress placed on a breadwinner to both provide for the family and for the employer has been documented to impact performance and enjoyment in both environments (Sullivan, Yeo, Roman, Bell & Sosa, 2013). The efforts of employers to mitigate this stress have seen limited success in most cases, with the majority of the influence coming from the individual themselves (Zheng, Kashi, Fan, Molineux & Ee, 2015).

Sociological Changes

The changes to the nuclear family concept over the course of the last half a century have been significant in both role and participation. The father-mother-child environment has changed in terms of working and caregiver responsibilities as well as in structure. Common now are joint families, with networks of step-parents, siblings, and extended family as well as the potential of a single parent household, or a same-sex parented family. All of these shift away from the traditional and have impacted families in unique ways.

Children

The most significant factor in a child’s family life is stability and consistency. The changes to the nuclear family, in terms of the increased divorce rate and ease of transition between family types is one of the most influential. In previous times, the chance of divorce, separations, or introduction of new parental units into the family was much less common, leaving the children in a more stable environment.

Young People

The changing dynamic of the family has the greatest impact on young people in terms of psycho-social development and the ability to accept and cope with situations. Okpechi (2008) notes that despite the traditional belief that joint family environments would promote advanced coping skills, in reality, the nuclear family structure supports more consistent growth in this area.

Families

Overall the diversity of the family structure is a positive to society, but it can make things difficult as well. Due to the fact that all families must interact together within the community may make it difficult to establish security and familiarity depending on acceptance. Things such as school and sporting events may be difficult as a family if the formation or roles within the family are socially unacceptable in the region.

Perspective

An individual’s experience with life events and family background has an impact on their ability to empathize and relate to the families with which they work. It is important for practitioners to understand these impacts and embrace them in order to maximize their efficacy as a professional.

Experience

Utilizing previous personal experiences in ones work can be beneficial with both insight and ability to relate to individuals. In the author’s experience with the changes in family dynamics, two working parents was the norm and it was never questioned that it would be any different. Looking back, the author feels as if the difficulty of managing this schedule was impactful on the family in terms of time spent together, however, notes that it wasn’t as evident at the time. This could be an important factor to consider with families currently experiencing this situation. Life seems normal, even when people are too busy to enjoy themselves or their family. This shift towards acceptance seems to be counterproductive long-term in the author’s experience.

Strengths

Due to the author’s experience with a joint family and dual-working parent household, the ability to relate and empathize when working with these types of families will be high. It is also noted that the author has experienced both single-parent and extended parent households which gives additional insight into the concept of a blended family and the adjustments which are necessary in this environment.

Development

Increased experience in childrearing is the most important factor which needs to be developed when dealing with families. Understanding the minute details of parenthood first had and the balance which is necessary to maintain a healthy structure is really something which can only be learned through experience. In addition, the author’s experience is within a small, single-child environment. Additional experience mentoring sibling groups may provide insight into the interactions and dependences amongst siblings in different family structures.

References

Amstad, F., Meier, L., Fasel, U., Elfering, A., & Semmer, N. (2011). A meta-analysis of work–family conflict and various outcomes with a special emphasis on cross-domain versus matching-domain relations. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(2), 151-169. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022170

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). Australian Social Trends, September, Cat. No. 4102.0, ABS

Kelly, E., Moen, P., Oakes, J., Fan, W., Okechukwu, C., & Davis, K. et al. (2014). Changing work and work-family conflict. American Sociological Review, 79(3), 485-516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0003122414531435

Malatzky, C. (2013). Don't shut up: Australia's first paid parental leave scheme and beyond. Australian Feminist Studies, 28(76), 195-211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2013.789580

Okpechi, P. (2008). The Impact of family structure on psychosocial adjustment of adolescents. Journal of Research in National Development, 5(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jorind.v5i1.42367

Skinner, N., & Chapman, J. (2013). Work-life balance and family friendly policies. Evidence Base, 2013(4), 1-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.21307/eb-2013-002

Sullivan, M., Yeo, H., Roman, S., Bell, R., & Sosa, J. (2013). Striving for work-life balance. Annals of Surgery, 257(3), 571-576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/sla.0b013e318269d05c

Zheng, C., Kashi, K., Fan, D., Molineux, J., & Ee, M. (2015). Impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on Australian employee well-being. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(5), 501-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1020447