Question:
Discuss about the Cumulative Measure of Family Structure.
There are various factors that can influence human life and experiences. Moreover, in our life, there are definitely some memorable events that create a strong impact on our attitudes and behaviour. These episodes shape our lives in a different mould. In our individual lives, our community, family, religion, creed and culture have strong influence and they play an important role to reshape our beliefs and we cannot eliminate them from making our societal beliefs. As stated by Bradley and Kibera (2006), in personality development management and also in mal-development of the child are simply occurred due to the belated appreciation that a child grows up in family and family should input positive outlook in raising that child into an integrated person. Moreover, adult identity is formed with the origin of family and children who have brought up without two biological parents are taken themselves as an adult than the ones who brought up with two biological parents. However, in this study, my autobiographical narrative is analysed from the very beginning. I will discuss the early stages of my life and how my society, family, and background have shaped my understanding and attitude. Throughout my personal and educational life, I have realised that every individual has a different story and it is not easy to relate to others. We meet new people with the passage of time, and many of these have a long-lasting impact on our lives. I think, my family plays a most significant role in my life. In the very first stage, I was solely responsible to my parents and they were responsible for providing my care and knowledge about different perspectives of life. In early childhood stage, the child needs supervision of parents and cooperation from family (Amatea, Smith-Adcock & Villares, 2006). This is the period when the brain grows remarkably and it is the foundation of learning and development. Since the time of early childhood, social, physical and emotional as well as intellectual development management takes place that shapes the life of a child. In light of this, environment plays an important factor of developing personality traits; still, genetic factors can influence the personality development of an individual. Family teaches an individual how to react in a situation and develop the personality. This essay presents an autobiographical narrative where I am going to discuss my life, my family background, education, different events and experiences of my life, and how my life has been shaped by these elements and factors.
I am Gurpreet Kaur and I belong to a middle-class family. I have been raised in a very decent environment. My birthplace is Nairobi, Kenya. My father and grandfather worked in Kenya on a work permit. We were called Kenyan Asians as our ancestral root is in India. There lived many Indian subcontinent people who mostly resided near Nairobi or Mombasa. Indian migration to Kenya began in the year 1895 due to the creation of East Africa Protectorate. My family moved to Kenya in the year and my grandfather did the military works in Kenya. Kenya got independence in the year 1963 and the relationship between Africa and Asians became volatile. Asian people tried to grab the citizenship. My grandfather worked there in railways and my father worked there in the factory. We saw gradual improvement in legal status, we become self-reliant and cautiously. The Indian community in the Kenya created a close relationship and endogamous community (Davids et al., 2016). As my birthplace is in Kenya and a few years of my childhood spent there. I grew up with various ethnic groups’ children in Kenya and my parents taught me to keep my authenticity and be friends to all. However, Asians were only 2% of Kenyan people, our family wanted to make a business over there and we had agricultural assets also over there. My father did not manage to be successful in business and in 1996; we came back to our hometown, Punjab, India for good. I am a Sikh by religion, but do not belong to the orthodox category. As we are Sikh, in Sikhism, it is clearly stated that family is the basic structure of any essential social unit. The family is the atom unit that collectively forms the society in Sikhism (Nesbitt, 2016). Family culture is the core institution that was promoted since the beginning of Sikh religion of Guru Nanak. Hence, since the childhood, I was grown up with family culture and I was told that family unit through procreation ensures the existence and continuation of healthy societies. The family plays an important role of economic and educational functions. Moreover, while growing up I learn successful economical, biological and spiritual future can be ensured through human societies. Currently, I am working in New Zealand on a study visa and sorting with a work visa to support me and my family. I am convent educated and I pursued my degree of Master of Arts (English). On the 3rd April 2016, I got married to Ramanjit Singh Layal. It was a love marriage and my family accepted it. My husband owns a Photography Studio in Apra, Punjab by the name ‘Jagat Studio, Apra’. However, he is with me in New Zealand to support me. My life was influenced by the complexities, challenges, and support gained by my family depending on the various circumstances and stages of life.
In general sense, the family can be perceived as biological relationships in natural expression and this concept makes the family structure as nuclear. The nuclear family concept has its support from various institutions like law, church and government. In case of Australia, 71% of the family is nuclear families. In most of the time, it is seen that families are responsive in any social changes like birth, death, divorce, wars, political changes and migration (Drewery & Claireborne, 2010). The variations and changes have been influenced by different factors and elements. The changes are more prominent in Western countries as compared to the Eastern countries. Now, I live in New Zealand for education purposes and New Zealand families have cultural influences in Maori whanau families that believe in mainly collective society, whereas Pakeha families believe in mainly western structure families. There are mainly six types of family that can be seen, nuclear family, single parent family, extended family, childless family, grandparent family and stepfamily (Sharma, 2013). In recent time, family and demographic profiles have seen dramatic changes. The concept of cohabitation, divorce, lone parent families and mothers in the workplace has changed the family concept. Children mainly have eclectic views about their families and children believe in love, support adoration, legal status and biological ties abut families (Dupuis, 2010). In recent times, children are being educated in very little age and education is now compulsory. The concept of family is now clear to them and they become more knowledgeable. As stated by Gunn et al., (2014), childhood is now seen as an emotional asset for the children and children are involved in the decision-making of the family. Children now have legal rights in family and family takes responsibility for children’s development. The role and influence of the family vary according to the culture and societies. A family is defined as an integral and functional unit of the communities and societies, which has a strong impact on the development, wellbeing, and behaviour of the individuals. In case of development of the child, the family has an important role as a child mostly depends on parents. Family protects the children and provide their basic needs as a family is the first teacher to the children. Family makes sure that children must learn the basic when they enter early school. Families give additional support with resources to the children (Guo, 2010). A family is characterised as a vital and practical unit of the groups and social orders, which strongly affects the improvement, prosperity, and conduct of the people. While human science does not offer any prescient hypothesis about the structures the family will take, it highlights the part of social standards in deciding classes of individuals reasonable for framing families with. For sociologists and women’s activist sociologists specifically, sexual orientation alludes to socially developed practices that are learnt, while sex alludes to the natural individual and their physical attributes. All things considered, sexual orientation separation is a social marvel in view of procured practices, as opposed to the after effect of intrinsic contrasts amongst men and women (Harcourt, 2015).
The changes in the family mainly occur for the technological advancement, cultural advancement management. Societal changes and accept an adaptation of cultures. The changes of demography, occupational structure, fertility issues and family planning provide changes in concept and structure of family in recent time. According to Jelic and Kamenov (2015), the concept of family was different and culture was given high priority when raising the children. The concept of joint and extended family living together was very common, especially in Eastern countries. However, with the passage of time, the idea of family has evolved and it has influenced and adapted by families universally. In recent time, managing children within the family, most of the family persons believe in partnership with professionals. It provides benefits both, the family and the children. The family gets the benefits of confidence in giving the child experience and it can increase parenting experience. It gives greater information about different perspectives of children. Children can gain sensitive, consistent and individualised experiences. Families can feel confident about parenting. Moreover, the societies have evolved as a result of industrialisation and modernisation. The changes are evident and it has influenced the children in their early stages to a great extent (May, 2013). The complexities and issues faced by the family often lead to negatively influencing the behaviour and minds of the children in early childhood.
In any case, standards of the family structure have changed after some time, with various creators contending that financial matters and human studies never again satisfactorily clarify the assortment of family shapes. As suggested by McKenzie (2006), familial ties between people of a similar sex that might be sensual yet are not grounded in science or multiplication don’t fit any clean division of connection into relations of blood and marriage. In the mid-nineteenth century, my grandparents got married in the rural village area. At that time, the rituals and customs were very strict and the literacy rate was low. It was quite obvious in India as India at that time was under British rule. The communities were experiencing a change as a result of enhancing literacy rate. However, only a few people were ready to accept the change in society. Among these was my grandfather who accepted the challenges and learnt different skills and gained experienced in it. As a part of the change, my grandfather decided to move to Kenya for work so that he could earn better and could support his wife and children. My grandfather taught my father and aunt well and made them educated. The change in our social culture made our family distinct and our family is now open-minded. My family is not orthodox like other Sikh people. We welcome the changes and it has been possible for continuous evolution of societal changes. The change in the society resulted in bringing changes in his lifestyle and personality, which also influenced his children. My grandfather got to know new rituals and customs and he accepted that changes and my father got accustomed with the concept of rituals and customs. In our house, multiple generations live peacefully and in the same household. On that time of my grandfather, the husband was bread earner and wife did the household works. My family followed the structure and my grandmother and my mother did the only household works. However, my family saw economic growth and got accustomed to a new societal culture where women can do employment.
My father taught me well as my kindergarten schooling started in Aga Khan Nursery School, Nairobi, Kenya. My father and grandfather worked hard and tried to make the family happy in economically and psychologically. As pointed out by Mece (2015), family resilience perspective states that interaction between school and home can give the opportunity to make strong capacity to come around adversity. The first concept of resilience perspective is that persistent economic and stressful crisis, social and physical challenges impact the successful bringing up the children for the family. School can help the family to become more resourceful as a family-school measure can be a preventive measure for children. My grandfather was head of the family and we were a joint family at that time. Joint family teaches me that children must get equal love, guidance, care and education and the children from a joint family never miss anything. The childhood of child from a joint family is full of experiences and resources, they can share their childhood with an aunt, uncle, grandparents, siblings and cousins (O’Brien & Salonen, 2011). In my case, I also had similar opportunity to spend my childhood in a joint family that reshaped my childhood. The event of moving to another country specifically influenced me in young age as I was enrolled in my school and for me, I took time to readjust in a new environment with new people. However, the people of India were very welcoming and their culture and traditions positively influenced my life. Our family is like a traditional joint family who is living with generations and live in the same household and use the same kitchen. Our family generally uses a common purse and it is contributed to all.
Cultural aspects, traditions, beliefs can significantly affect the lives of a family and the family members have responsibilities to manage the cultural aspects. In religion and culture, family members teach the children and the decision-making capabilities of a child are made within the family. Family members teach the child to identify the crisis and find resources to solve them. As stated by Patel and Agbenyega (2013), in the growing up period, children assume the right and wrong in their own, however, it is the duty of the family to reflect the family values, culture and tradition. As a Sikh, we visit Gurdwara every day for our morning prayers and start our day like this. Worship is an integral element of my family and we believe family values are the only thing that can help to lead peace and prosperity. The celebration is loud and colourful and the cultural music ‘Dhol and Bhangra’ are preferred. Growing up in the same society, I have realised that the culture has evolved and changed. It has not faded away and neither is it dying. Our culture promotes values like helping others, respecting others, being honest, treating everyone equally, and being kind to oneself and others. I have lived my life learning the same values from my parents and grandparents who supported all my choices and beliefs. As our family is Sikh and my family believes in monogamy. My family believes in righteousness and discipline in life. As suggested by Pryor (2010), culture can be defined as expressive and dynamic shared values and behaviours and family shapes the perspectives of a child about religion, culture, righteousness and approaches to obstacles. My parents and family always teach me to live in the loving environment and they raise and educate me with higher values and principles. When I was got married, my father told me that marriage is a bond of mutual dependence and true partnership in marriage can unite spirit and of mind.
Family life cycle theory describes that there are five stages of life, independence, marriage, parenting, launching adulthood and retirement (Rigg & Pryor, 2007). In my family, everyone is bounded by love or blood and my experiences through family aspects affected who I am now. My family and in-laws have played a crucial role in my life as they have helped me in taking relevant decisions in my life. I am convent educated and did my Master in Arts (English). I have always liked teaching so I used to give tuitions to young kids and continued it after my wedding as well. It had a strong impact on my personality and behaviour that encouraged me to learn more about early childhood education. My parents and family did not stop me doing anything and supported me in doing anything. As stated by Rokx (2016), indulgent parenting style is about to support children and allow the children to have power, these parents do not set boundaries. My parents were like indulge parents and they never forced me to do anything. In my cultural values, I have been taught to help and respect others. Moreover, the community in India, where we lived was not open-minded; however, my family was not orthodox due to shifting the culture. As a part of the community, the factors have an impact on our personal, educational, and professional lives. Community people do not like to educate the girl child for higher education; my family taught me in a convent school and allowed me to study for a higher degree. It is important for people to stay connected with the communities so that they can learn about the existing and emerging opportunities and threats and bring changes in their lives accordingly. My family believes in family economy and this concept believes that family as an economic unit. Our joint family culture helps to create the concept of the family economic concept as most of the economic activities take place in the family. However, Indians are getting modern and technological changes impact on the relation of the people. Now, people can stay in touch in spite of being in distance. Living my life in Kenya, India, and New Zealand, I have realised that technology has influenced everyone everywhere. Technology has been helping me to stay connected with my family. Our life events and experiences are bounded by the legal and environmental aspects. Being a part of the society, it is necessary to understand and follow the legal responsibilities and regulations so that our actions are according to it (Rosenfield, 2015).
Nurturing, warm, and responsive parent-child relationships and parental participation in child-centred activities relate to positive learning outcomes in early childhood. It has been observed that my course of life has been going through many changes. During the time of Kenya, multicultural upbringing was predominant. In Kenya, my concept of family was a greater aspect and my childhood education taught me this. In India, being Sikhs we adopted the Western culture but did not forget our roots and culture. Parenting is the family involvement process that includes the attitudes, values, and practices of parents in raising young children. Our culture has taught us to respect others and act kindly and responsibly. In New Zealand, my learning evolves the culture and traditions and along with accepting the western norms and values.
Reference List
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