Importance Of Family Essay

Register to read the introduction… Marriage and family formation are seen as important life transitions in this respect. Marriage embeds individuals within a network of extended family and friends, and child bearing and home ownership are associated with greater levels of neighbourhood attachment and involvement (Glezer 1997: 9). In addition, families are seen as the key site for the transmission of behavioural norms (Winter 2000). For example, if children experience good quality connections with community and civil society through their families, this may lead to an increased propensity for those children to become engaged and active citizens in adulthood. More generally, where children are exposed to cooperative behaviour early in life they are more likely to become cooperative adults (Mark 2002). However, family life is often idealised in this respect. As Cox (1995: 28-29) says, “it is assumed [rather than demonstrated] that families will provide models of good relationships and civic virtues”. It is also widely believed that family relationships are essential for the development of basic trust (King 2002). As quoted in Mistzal (1996: 157): “It is an everyday and valued conception in our society that the family is the primordial source and location of trust. The expression, “If you can not trust your family, then whom can you trust?” has a large value and ideological appeal for us” (Barber 1983: 26). To summarise the decline thesis, the breakdown of family life is thought to lead to the breakdown of community life, as strong families are seen as the foundation of strongcommunities. If marriage and child-bearing are a conduit to community engagement and attachment, and intimate relationships an important source of trust and security, then it follows that falling marriage and fertility rates, and increased rates of divorce and …show more content…
While this paper has focused on “family” ties, networks of friends, neighbours and/or workmates may also be conduits to broader forms of community engagement, trust and reciprocity. If the move away from traditional patterns of partnering, marriage and family formation is associated with the elevation in importance of informal ties outside the family (Pahl 2000; Budgeon and Roseneil 2002; Monti et al 2002), it is possible that some of these non-family relationships substitute for, or take on the function of, family relationships as theorised at the beginning of this paper – providing trust and support and a basis for building broader community ties and trust. The changing nature and function of these relationships, and the extent to which they provide links to broader forms of community engagement, may be a fruitful source of future