According to You May Ask Yourself (Conley, 2013, p. 457), extended family is the “kin networks that extend outside or beyond the nuclear family”. In the case of Hidden America: Children of the Mountains (2009), extended family is a type of family in where relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins) as well as parents and their children live in the same house. Most of the families seen in the film were extended families in which the head of the house was the mother of the family. In these cases, a father figure is usually absent. Most families in the poorer regions of Appalachia were either in ruins, or extremely dysfunctional. In Characteristics of Dysfunctional Families (1978), Schiamberg points out that dysfunctional families often
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Some of these purposes include economic cooperation, division of labor, care, reproduction, supervision, affection, and emotional support. Its main function, however, is socialization. Without proper socialization, a child may not feel attached to certain people. A socialized family may, in turn, provide nurturing and protection for one another. This is essential to a family’s survival. The families seen in the film did not fall within the social norms of today’s society. They were very unattached to each other, and were mainly motivated by survival. Shawn’s family went as far as sending their children out to illegally mine coal off of the side of the highway in order to have fire. This is not something a “normal” family would teach their children, but it is something that was necessary to their survival. Other acts of deviance, such as drug dealing, made these poor families more dysfunctional. Nearly every family shown in the film had one or more members that either purchased or sold drugs. It is interesting how this did not teach the younger members of these families to do drugs as well. It is said in the film that drugs are a “cop-out” when someone’s life becomes too difficult to deal with, however, the daughters of the women who were hooked on drugs stayed somewhat positive. One girl made her mother promise every night that she would not leave to do drugs, and another said that she had hope that her mother would stop one
Some of these purposes include economic cooperation, division of labor, care, reproduction, supervision, affection, and emotional support. Its main function, however, is socialization. Without proper socialization, a child may not feel attached to certain people. A socialized family may, in turn, provide nurturing and protection for one another. This is essential to a family’s survival. The families seen in the film did not fall within the social norms of today’s society. They were very unattached to each other, and were mainly motivated by survival. Shawn’s family went as far as sending their children out to illegally mine coal off of the side of the highway in order to have fire. This is not something a “normal” family would teach their children, but it is something that was necessary to their survival. Other acts of deviance, such as drug dealing, made these poor families more dysfunctional. Nearly every family shown in the film had one or more members that either purchased or sold drugs. It is interesting how this did not teach the younger members of these families to do drugs as well. It is said in the film that drugs are a “cop-out” when someone’s life becomes too difficult to deal with, however, the daughters of the women who were hooked on drugs stayed somewhat positive. One girl made her mother promise every night that she would not leave to do drugs, and another said that she had hope that her mother would stop one