Article – October 21 Magazine
What does the changing face of the family look like?
We had 78 responses to our survey [81.1 Females & and 18.9 Males] hailing from the Bahamas, Canada, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, UK and the US. We asked respondents to describe their experience and understanding of what a family is. #Youth Share is trying to ascertain what is the root cause of the emotional pain, psychological trauma, and dysfunction that is being experienced by Youth. The youth are often generally described as rebellious, could it be that the family is failing to meet their needs?
These were our findings:
Q1. From your experience define family?
Summary of the answers – The basic unit of the family is a man and woman in the covenant of marriage under God, with shared biblical beliefs and values, who set out to achieve the will and purposes of God together for their lives and others who join their unit later by natural increase or choice. This group of people live and work together for their common good and to achieve their collective dreams and aspirations. Family isn’t based on blood ties only but on adoption, marriage, and the choice to protect and nurture loved ones.
Q2. Is starting your own family a goal?
Answers – 81.9% Yes ,12.9 % Maybe, 5.6% No.
Q3. Were you brought up by both parents living together in a loving relationship?
Answer- 61.6 No, 38.4% Yes
Q4. Were you brought up in a single-parent household? Mother/father/Other…
Answer – 47.9% No, 38% Yes, Mother insert pie chart There were other single household arrangements including- brought up by mother and stepfather, grandparents, Grandmother, Auntie and uncle, and extended family but mothers are predominantly the head of single parent house holds.
Q5 Do you consider your family dysfunctional or broken?
Answer – 54.2% No, and 45.8% Yes. Interestingly it seems that the family arrangements don’t seem to necessarily reflect the emotional security expressed or experienced in the home. This correlates to the responses to Q1. that families come with different faces.
Q 6. As a child, did you experience love within your family?
Answer – This was a very encouraging 84.9% Yes, to 15.1% No. This reinforces the belief that family can serve its emotionally stabilizing function of creating a sense of belonging even if it is structured in varying ways.
Q7. During your childhood were you faced with any type of rejection that forced you to go looking for love outside of your family?
Answer – 64.4% No, 35.6% Yes. This result shows that there is still room for improvement in giving emotional stability and confidence to children even if material and structural provisions are in place they can still want to leave home prematurely.
Quality time, consistent expressions of love, a harmonious environment with clear values and standards are what seems to be needed to improve these results.
Some Outstanding Further Comments to questions 6 and 7.
The greatest family unit is one that involves God in everything they do, a family that prays together, stays together. Most if not all ills in society stem from broken and dysfunctional families, therefore to solve the issues in society we need to attack them in the family structure.
Oftentimes parents did the best they did with the tools they had so some attention needs to be placed on parent training.
This was what contributed to me getting pregnant as a teen. My mom wasn’t the easiest person to talk to. She’s always shutting me down or too busy for me.
Never knew my birth parents, though my adopted family showed me love and acceptance I still felt unqualified and incomplete.
My Mom was too busy trying to make ends meet to spend time with us and therefore at that time I felt rejected
I was not seen as a part of the family due to my skin color and as such, I started seeking approval and appreciation outside the family.
My parents were always fighting and it was quite frustrating which drove me to look for love elsewhere.