Challenges Faced by the Family Unit in Socializing Children

This article discusses the challenges faced by families in socializing their children in today's society. It explores the impact of modernization, changing family structures, and the neglect of upbringing and education standards. Topics include the increase of women in the workforce, the compromise of family life, and the rise of divorce, abuse, and juvenile crimes.

Task one
1. (a) Describe a child’s ecology as proposed by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System
Model.
Urie Bronfenbrenner a Russian-American developmental Psychologist developed the
model of Ecological System theory, whichinterpreted the development of the child with its
environment. This model tried to show how the inherent qualities of the child and his or her
respective environment influences the further development and growth of the child.
According to his model,the study of child’s development witnesses multiple environment
simultaneously ( Ryan, 2001). Therefore, the child finds himself or herself enmeshed in the
different ecosystems and each of these ecosystems invariably interacts and influences the
every aspect of the child’s life. In the Fig.1 the layers of Bronfenbrenner model is
diagrammatically represented.
1) Microsystem- this refers to the smallest system and it is the immediate environment in
which the child lives. Thus,microsystem can comprises of homes, family, neighbourhood or
community environment of the child.The development of the child is shaped by the
immediate environment he or she is in therefore the child is highly dependent and are mostly
affected in this environment.
2)Mesosystem- The Mesosystem is premised on the different conjunction of microsystem, it
comprises of systems of microsystem that involves the linkage between various micro
systems. For instance linkage between home and school, or between peer group and family.
3) Exosystem- The Exosystem contains two or more settings, out of which one may contain
the settings that will affect the child directly and the other will affect him or her indirectly.
For instances the workplace of the parent’s or the larger neighbourhood.

4) Macrosystem- this is the largest system and it refers to the distant collection of people and
places that can exercise influence in the development process of the child. In this section, the
cultural patterns and the values of the child’s dominant beliefs and idea are shaped in respect
to the economic and political development.
5) Chronosystem- This system adds the dimension of time along with the changing
perspective of time. It demonstrates both the change and thee constancy in the process of
child’s development. In this system, varieties of things like change in family structure or
change in the parent’s employment status are covered along with the changes that are taking
place in the economical and political sectors.
Fig. 1: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory
(Source: psychologynoteshq, 2013 )

(b) Explain how each component of the Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological influences a child’s
socialization process.
Socialization process is the process of internalization of the norms and the ideologies
of the society. Thus, it encompasses both the learning and the imbibing of the roles that
becomes the essential indicators of one’s social and cultural history. According to this model
described by Bronfenbrenner, there are five layers, which underlies the child’s development
process premised on both the biological and social development of the child (Obasi et al.,
2016). This model helps to understand the development process of the child along with the
context that he or she is emplaced in. In his analysis, Bronfenbrenner concludes that the child
in his coming years develops a complex nature and the chance of this complex nature comes
along with the complexity of the physical and cognitive structures of the child. The five
layers are as follows: Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and
Chronosystem. These systems affects the development of child in various levels.
The microsystem contains the closest environment to the child and includes all the
structures that are directly responsible for the development of the child. The microsystem
represents the pattern of activities, relations and the roles that are involved in the inter-
personal relationship of the child. For instance, the child’s parents have a strong influence on
the child but on the other side, the child can also influence the parent’s beliefs and behaviour
(Hornby et al., 2011). This bi-directional influence from the child and towards the child has a
powerful influence on the child. The child relation is dyadic at first then he learns to handle
several situation simultaneously. In this way micro system affects the child learning and the
initial recognition process.
The Mesosystem comprises of the linkage between two or more setting related to
development of the person. This system represents the system of microsystem because in this
layer connections are produced between the child microsystems. For instance, the connection

between the child’s teacher and the parents. In this system, the child can receive different
perspective of other people that may or may not coincide with the microsystem. In this way
Mesosystem opens up vistas of unknown facts that will influence the child’s process of
development.
The Exosystem represent the two or more connection where one is having direct
influence over the child and the other is indirectly influencing the child personality.For
example the child’s relationship between his or her parents in home and the parents relation
to their employment status. Though the child do not belong to the parent’s workplace, it still
has the sufficient influences that can affect the identity building of the child. Thus, the child
is recognised asparticipant as well as the member of wider society.
The Macrosystem consists of the over-arching pattern of micro, meso, and exo-
systems. It includes the social and cultural aspects that are existing in the broader context.
The belief system, the life styles or the life course options reflects the patterns of social
interchange that are embedded in each of these systems. In this system the behaviour and the
attitudinal trait get transferred from one generation to the other with the help of the cultural
institutions like family school and so on. This system penetrate all the system and contains
the cultural values and the traditions and laws and so on. This system also hold on the
educational values that mould the behaviour of the child in the initial socialization process.
The Chronosystem refers to the change that take place in respect to the temporal
dimension. This system describes the evolution, or the development of the external systems
in time. The changing pattern does have a direct influence in the socialization of the child but
in wider scope time it exercises influence over it.

2. (a) Describe the aims of socialization you have learned from this course.
The following are the aims of socialization process:
a)Development of the self-concept:During the process of socialization, a person comes to
know about his or her identity. In theway the person develops understanding of his self and
learns to shape up his self-concept. In this phase, the person also learns to build his self-
regulation and self-esteem. The understanding of the child develops through the outward
interaction with the world. Charles Horton Cooley one of the pioneer of micro sociology
described the process through which the child interacts with the others. He addresses the core
self as “I” and external self as “Me” and stated that they are in continuous negotiation to
develop the self-concept regarding the individual.
b) It will enable self-regulation: Another aim of socialization is to be able to self-regulate
oneself. In the process of socialization, the person learns to gain the autonomy over himself
or herself by adjusting to the needs and urges. This process of punishment and rewards helps
the children to adjust and adapt to the external environment. The child also develops the
facial expressions and learns the ways of non-verbal communication from the adults. The
process of learning serves as the initial foundation by which the child will communicate in
the future world.
c) It will empower achievement: In the process of socialization, the child also builds the
understanding of the desired achievements. He or she comes to know about the morally
correct behaviour and realises the important of the adults because of the essential roles it
plays in moral environment. The people, which are crucial to the socialization process of the
child not only teaches the morally correct roles but they also makes them confront with
certain challenges. This is because at the end of the process the child becomes more capable
and knowledge at the end of the learning process.

d)Teach appropriate social roles: In the process of socialization, it is very important to
teach the child the significance of the right form of behaviour. In this phase, the moral values
and the ethical conduct are formulated and this serves as the basis for the future reference.
The particular function that a person delivers in every community is created in the process of
socialization. He or she learns the importance of performing roles and imbibes the roles-
specific norms and codes of behaviours. With these roles, the person displays the expected
behaviours of him. Parents serves as initial educators and as the early sources of information.
They shape up the initial mind-set of the child. Thus, the person build his identity from the
prescribed roles and function they servein the community.
e) Implement development Skills: The socialization process equip the children with a
number of skills premised on the social, emotional and cognitive section of the child-growing
environment. In the frontier of the social skills the persons learns to become a good orator
and develops the art of speaking. He or she learns to manage the emotional turbulence like
anger r frustrations. Children also learns to develop the specific skills like that of
mathematics or science and develops the self-regulators skills.
2) Personal experience of the aims of socialization process and the aims in respect to
that.
As far as my memory goes,I was not adept in the manner or etiquetteof the dining
table. More than often, I was strongly reprimanded for my bad table manners. However, I
slowly learned the subtle way things goes around and I realised the importance of being
aligned with the prescribed behaviour. With their constant scolding and the punishment that
followed, I thought of myself as a stubborn and adamant person. This is because my
significant others shaped my thinking as a person who is not aligning herself to the prescribed
social role. Slowly with time,I was able to comprehend the things that was happening all
round as well as could voice my own opinion. For everything that was happening I was able

to put forward my own version suggestions and opinions. In this way, I could understand the
importance of table manner but I could also frame my own personality. I started to self-
regulate myself and started becoming self-aware, particularly of my own actions. The more I
could sense the importance of responsibilitythe more I was aligning to the prescribed social
role. Once I started becoming self-aware, I recovered myself from the constant disapproval
that I was dealing with myself and with my family members. I felt as if I have achieved the
most needed thing and expected that everything will fall in place. My parents were all very
supportive about my crowning achievement and I could even feel the positive attitude that
was burgeoning all around me. This kind of supportive environment helped me to empower
myself with aspiration that help to build my character. I became a diligent student in my
school, the best behaved in and around my family. It also help me to get praise-worthy
comments from my friends. In this way, I was able to hone up my social skills and my
cognitive skills. However even when there is certain slippage of irrational behaviour for
instance sudden burst of anger or disobeying in a deliberate fashion I was aware of the
possible consequences that it can results. Thus, the dos and the don’ts thatwere inscribed in
the initial days become the yardstick on which my personality was framed. As a female, the
roles and the manners that were taught to me became the part of my identity. The clothes that
I wear or the sense of likings and dislikes I hold serves to essential part of my performed
identity. Not only my parents taught these skills to me about also from the peer group and
essentially from the larger media. The knowledge that I gathered in my early childhood
helped me to understand the importance of the norms, rules and mores, which had a
significant impact over my identity formation.

Task two
Question one
a) Challenges faced by the family unit today in socializing our children.
In Malaysia, family is considered as the basic unit of society. A Malaysian man
always values the members of their family in a dearest way.A family in Malaysian context
refers to the unit were the patriarch of the household handles all the family matters and the
mothers are usually involved in the traditional household chores. However, with the advent of
modernisation, the traditional or the conventional feature of family is changing and nuclear
family is becoming more prominent. Development model premised both on the national and
the state level are expected to bring about positive economic and political change. However,
with the ongoing developmental projects many opportunitiesare being provided where every
family member can exercise freedom of their will. In this way the traditional structure of
family is going under a rapid change. Increase of women in the job sector has led them to the
compromise in the family life. Meeting everyday plan in a planned order is becoming more
difficult to achieve. This kind of changes occurring in daily basis is taking a heavy toll in the
life of the parents as well the children. The style of upbringing along with the education
standards is getting neglected. Therefore case of divorce, abuse and juvenile crimes are
happening in high level. The basis function of the family in Malaysian context is as follows:
 This is the place where affective emotions such as love, care and so on are nurtured
within the specific range of family members.
 It also serves as an economical unit because it caters to production, consumption and
distribution of goods and services.
 Family is the crucial unit for the socialization of the child. It also refers to the group
of people who are affiliated by consanguinity, affinity and/or co-residence.

 It is also the place through which the social control of any form is exercised.
 It is the unit that includes the individual members as well as the unit as a whole. It
must also be noted that it is the place where change is incorporated because family is
the primary agency primary socialization. The values which are preached during this
phase become the foundation basis for the child.
With the change in time and along the modernisation process the traditional frame
work of family is undergoing a transformation. According to the Malaysian
Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM), 32 % of first five years of marriages
end with divorce and 27.7 % of these marriage run for six to ten years, this piece of
information is based on the 2007 data records (Dora et al., 2011). Based on the data of
2009, 135136 marriages were registered while 27,116 divorce cases were recorded.
Not only has the status of marriage and family deteriorated but there has been an
increasing case of violence. As per the statistic of 2007 from Royal Malaysia Police
(PDRM) there have been 3756 cases of violence towards women, which even rose to
3769 in year 2008 (Dora et al., 2011). Women Development Department (JPW) has
also provided with the list of cases where women has not only been subjected to
domestic violence but also physical abuse. Most interestingly most of the case of
violence and abuse involves the close familial bond of the victim, especially victim’s
husband. There have been registered cases of 1010 child abuse as per the report
published in April of 2010 that covered physical abuse, baby dumping and so on.
Statistics show that the child abuse are mostly done by the parents themselves (808
cases), by their own siblings (23 cases), by the boyfriend of the mother (270 cases),
by neighbours (26 cases), by relatives (322) cases, by known people (231 cases) and
by strangers (110 cases). And most surprisingly these cases continue to increase and
the latest statistics of the juvenile crime cases show that there are 1.5 criminals among

every 1000 students. In addition to this entire problem baby dumping on gender-based
criteria needs the immediate attention. The increment to these cases has been due to
the transformation in the family structure, changes in the mind-set of the people along
with the growing technological sophistication.
b) Changes in your family functions from the days you were teenagers until now
I am the only daughter of my family and both my parents are working. Early in my
childhood days I remembered that my father was the breadwinner of the family and my
mother used to do the household chore. However when I was turning out to be seven years of
age I learned that my mother had done a course on librarianship and she also inspires to be
the a practicing librarians. However due to the regular household chores and the added
responsibilities that muddled her day to day lifestyles, she was not able to pursue her dream.
After few years when things got little settled my mother got her dream job and thus both of
my parents started working. Since both of them were working none of them got enough time
to spend with me. It was not like they did not share any of my thoughts or any information
related to my performance but as I feel it we all were ruled by the tyranny of time. Things
were going fine in their usual process but a notch of sudden emptiness started to creep in
along the fear of failure in life. I being an open-minded person always tried to communicate
my feelings to my parents about my academics, about my friends or my feelings towards
certain people but I always preferred that things would take the smooth turn. I always
preferred communication to be effortless and relationships to sustain naturally.
Family as the primary agency of socialization should also be the place of emotional
and mental support. Even though I was being provided with all the necessary things for my
survival somewhere deep inside there was lightening of emotional bond that I used to share
before. Due to the precedence of the over-competitive nature of my parents got very
concerned with my academic performance. Thus creating a negative environment all over

where competitive spirits are highly encouraged. The socialization process that was more a
direct and personal has become more indirect and achievement oriented. Earlier family used
to play very important role in the upbringing of the child but family plays a redundant role in
providing education. This is because of the growth of the secondary and specialised
institution. The unit of family which was the main source of economic functions along with
the consumption has now only reduced to a place of consumption. The members in the family
are also becoming more secular therefore less practice of faith more display of achieved role
than ascribed roles.
Question two
a) Explanation of the dominant practice following styles of parenting
(a) Authoritarian Parenting: Authoritative or Authoritarian parenting refers to the parenting
styles that is characterised by low responsiveness and high demands (Hwang et al., 2017). If I
have to apply Authoritative-parenting styles over my kids, I would only apply them in the
periphery of preschool level. This is because kids in their early childhood level need guidance
and are very dependent on their parents. This kind of parenting style focuses on the
obedience, discipline of the child. In this form of parenting, the achievements are ignored
while only the failure are focused. If is have to imply this kind of parenting I would apply it
only for a period such as a measure of punishment. The form of parenting can occur in the
extreme situation when reasoning or repeated word of conduct has been ignored. However I
would also take sufficient measures so that the child does not feel cornered or derived f love
and affection. In the preschool period the mental build-up of the child remains sensitive to the
external conditions. Therefore he or she must be handled in a delicate fashion. This kind of
parenting style can also be applied to any age group who are defying the correct conduct of
life. Under this kind of socialization the child learns by the rewards and punishment but

elongated form of authoritarian parenting can make them go emotionally and physically
distant form their caregivers. Thus, a constant form of communication needs to unlashed.
b) Authoritative Parenting: In this form of parenting, there is a presence of amicable
communication between parents and their children. This form of parenting is a healthier form
of parenting because there is less risk of the child to grow distant from his or her caregivers
(Mowen et al., 2018).). Both the child and the parents can exercise free will and a disciplined
form of conformity without intruding to each other’s individuality. In this case, both of them
learns from their previous experience and there is presence of mutual consensus that aids the
relationship to stay for a longer run. If I have to use this kind of parenting style I would do it
apply on the children regardless of their age because in this way I would come close their
feelings and also understand their emotional turbulence. Therefore this kind of parenting is
not only suggested for disciplining measures but also in the regular course of life.
(b) Permissive Parenting: This kind of parenting is also known as “indulgent parenting” or
“lenient parenting” (Kakinami et al., 2015). Under this format, the parents are highly
responsive towards their children’s need and nurture their talent personally. I would prefer
this kind of parent in the regular form of life because it is very important for the child to grow
and learn about the consequences that can be both detrimental and beneficial. Again this kind
of parenting is free style parenting which can encourage an emotionally stable, highly
responsive and less demanding relationship. Being responsible parents, I would prefer a
development of a friendly atmosphere between my child and me because the relationship of
parents and child should not always follow strict norms. Free flow of emotional and cognitive
sense should also be allowed because that is most desirable of child to become independent.
(c) Neglective Parenting: Neglectful parenting styles are also known as Uninvolved
Parenting style, where the child does not get the basic needs to sustain life (Chou et al.,

2017). In this form of parenting, there is least involvement of the parents with the child. Only
the basic form of facilities are garnered by the parents but no room for opportunity is given to
the child. Thus, the child grows without any direction and are most likely to get estranged. I
would have never applied this form of parenting because I want to be more responsible to the
future outcome of my children. This kind of parenting involves emotional detachment and
allows the child to grow in isolation that can have detrimental impact over the development
of the child. At extreme cases, it can also affect the psychological build-up of identity. Thus
at any form these kind of parenting should be avoided for the best possibilities of the child
and the parents as well.

References
Chou, C., & Lee, Y. H. (2017). The moderating effects of internet parenting styles on the
relationship between Internet parenting behavior, Internet expectancy, and Internet addiction
tendency. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 26(3-4), 137-146.
Dora, M. T., & Halim, N. B. (2011). Issues and factors of problematic families in
Malaysia. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(4).
Hornby, G., & Lafaele, R. (2011). Barriers to parental involvement in education: An
explanatory model. Educational review, 63(1), 37-52.
Kakinami, L., Barnett, T. A., Séguin, L., & Paradis, G. (2015). Parenting style and
obesity risk in children. Preventive medicine, 75, 18-22.
Mowen, T. J., & Schroeder, R. D. (2018). Maternal parenting style and delinquency by
race and the moderating effect of structural disadvantage. Youth & Society, 50(2),
139-159.
Obasi, S. N., & Hill, T. (2016). By design: Using comics to teach ecological systems
theory. Family Science Reviews, 20, 87-97.
Parental mediation regarding children's smartphone use: role of protection motivation and
parenting style. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(6), 362-368.
Ryan, D. P. J. (2001). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Retrieved January, 9,
2012.