Are The Roles of The Family Becoming Extinct?

The family performs two broad classifications of functions namely primary and secondary functions. The primary functions performed are reproduction, maintenance, status ascription and socialization. Though these have remained largely the same in procedural terms, there have been some noteworthy changes.

Reproduction through copulation is now a preference instead of a given with regards to replenishing the society with humans. The health sciences have made developments in artificial conception methods. A dominant one is the method of “in-vitro fertilization” which involves the fertilization of a woman’s egg with a healthy male sperm primarily in a test tube. When the fertilization occurs, the zygote is transferred to the woman’s womb where after it matures to full term.

The maintenance function concerns itself with the raising of the young. It includes feeding, healthcare, clothing, shelter among others. This is done by the guardians of the children who usually come in the form of the parents or immediate family members. Of late, the practice of broadening the children’s horizon by permitting them to leave home and engage in knowledge enhancing activities provided by modern institutions like camping, boarding schools, etc. which sometimes extend for long periods of time. These institutions then take charge of the children’s maintenance needs and make the parents pay for the services instead financially.

As a result of spending more time outside the family home during their formative years, they acquire their socialization needs from these institutions. Basic everyday norms and regulations upheld in the society are inculcated to them here. Medical science and schools have taken over these functions of the family.

The secondary functions of the family are in the same vein with society except that it is performed on a miniature and intensified form. These functions are grouped into political, religious, economic, marital, and educational and healthcare which is designed towards the achieving of societal needs in an orderly fashion.

Society performs its political function through the maintenance of law and order and so does the family. It was primarily the family head’s duty to keep all children in line with the rules and regulations applicable to their location as well as ensure their disciplinary upbringing. In contemporary times however, this duty has become the joint responsibility both family seniors and institutions like churches and schools. Apart from teaching the children to discipline themselves, the school goes the extra mile by enforcing sanction with means like rewards and punishment as evident in speech and prize giving days, corporal punishments, and many more. The teachers act as law enforcers in these institutions, hence shielding a significant amount of the responsibility.