PARENTING ABILITIES & STYLES
Families come in many different forms. Back in the 1950’s/60’s most families compromised of a father, a mother and at least one child, this is known as a nuclear family structure. In the past few decades though divorce rates rose which has caused a rise in reconstituted families for example step families, parents now work longer hours which has seen more children being raised by extended family members eg: grandparents and new changes in law has seen same sex marriages become legal.
Within my placements many of the young people using the service have ended up in their situation due to family breakdowns. Many of the families live off benefits or on the poverty line and are battling with addictions to alcohol or drugs or are suffering from depression. This has a knock on affect to the young people I feel as they are therefore expected to grow up quicker in order to look after themselves or any other children that may be in the house. Also from what I have seen most of the young people do not seem to have any ambition or hopes for a better life and many get involved in the same kind of lifestyle that they have been used to all of their lives. This would agree with Bandura’s Social Learning Theory where people copy behaviours from their peers.
In regards to the above Labour and Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for same sex families to have the right to adopt. Years ago this would have been frowned upon, but because same sex couples are now more ‘accepted ‘ in society I believe if they have the best intentions for the child then why shouldn’t they be allowed to raise their own families. Functionalists would not agree with this the same as they do not agree with single parent families as they believe in the nuclear family for reproduction, primary socialisation and economic support.
I feel the young people that I work with have come from uninvolved parenting backgrounds. Many of them