Family Functions Flashcards
Physical
The family should provide for the basic physical needs of its members, including shelter, food, warmth and clothing, ensuring that family members grow and develop in a healthy environment.
• The family is required to provide a safe environment for its vulnerable members, e.g. children, elderly people and people with a disability.
• The family unit has an important role in procreation, ensuring the survival of the human race. It also allows for the regulation of sexual behaviour, i.e. having one partner.
How state supports physical
The state social welfare system provides Child Benefit to help parents to meet their children’s needs.
• The HSE employs public health nurses to carry out developmental examinations on all children under the age of three, ensuring that children are growing and developing as they should.
• The HSE runs the Community Mothers Programme, which trains experienced mothers from the local community to visit first-time mothers, mainly in disadvantaged areas, to provide necessary support and parenting skills.
• If a family cannot provide for their children’s basic physical needs, or provide a safe environment, a social worker from the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) may place the children in foster care.
Emotional function
The family should provide a loving, caring and secure home for their children. All children should be able to express their emotions, feelings, fears or desires and know that they are being listened to. This allows children to develop a healthy self-esteem, enabling them to grow in confidence, form healthy relationships later in life and fit into society in the future.
How state supports emotional
The HE runs parenting courses, e.g. Parent Plus Programmes, to help parents develop positive parenting skills and support their children so that they grow up happy and emotionally secure.
Economic function
• The family should economically support children until they reach the age where they are self-sufficient. i.e. 18 years or 23 years if in full-time education.
• In order for the family to fulfil its economic function, usually one or both parents work to earn an
_income
How state supports income
If a family is unable to meet its economic function, financial support is available from the state social welfare system, e.g. Working Family Payment and Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance
Social function
• The family should provide an environment where children can learn acceptable social behaviours to fit into society; this is known as socialisation. This can be done by parents displaying society’s norms, values and customs, e.g. having manners and respecting others. Children then observe and imitate their parents’ behaviour from an early age.
• The family must act as an agent of social control. Through effective discipline by parents, children learn what is right and wrong. This helps them learn appropriate behaviour and become moral individuals.
How the state supports social
• Pre-schools and state-funded primary and secondary schools continue the process of socialisation through the hidden curriculum (knowledge conveyed to students without ever being explicitly taught).
For example, children learn how to respect others and follow rules. This helps produce socialised people prepared for the world of work.
• If children do not display acceptable social behaviours and if they break the law, the state will intervene through the judicial system. Children may be placed in detention centres if the crime committed is of a very serious nature
Educational
• The family should act as the child’s primary educator for the first five years of their lives until they begin school. During this time, family norms, values and customs should be passed on.
•Games, books and jigsaws provide a stimulating environment that helps children develop intellectually. Children should be praised, encouraged and challenged in order to help them reach their full potential.
• Once children start school, parents should play a supportive role by supervising homework, monitoring progress and showing an interest in their schoolwork.
How the state supports educational
• The state provides the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (ECCE), which offers free pre-school education to children from the age of two years and eight months until they start primary school.
• The state provides free full-time primary and post-primary
• Did You Know?
education to all children. It also provides access to supports for children with special educational needs, including special classes, resource teachers and special needs assistants, or access to special schools, e.g. for children who are visually or hearing impaired.
