Changes in the Family in Traditional and Modern Societies

Human beings are born as natural beings like animals and grow into social beings through family, school, and social education. Human personality and its development are products of the social environment, and for almost everyone, the family is the first social environment in which an individual is socialized after birth. As a micro-social environment, the family occupies a very important position in the education and development of the individual, and the role of family education can never be replaced by any other educational institutions. At present, China's society is in the process of transition, changes in the size and structure of the family, so that the function of family education has changed to a certain extent and presents some new features.

Therefore, through the analysis of the changes and tendencies of the family during the period of social transition, it is very necessary to explore the changes and characteristics of the function of family education of one-child families and use them to guide the current practice of family education.

I. Changes and tendencies of Chinese families in the period of social transition

Looking back on thousands of years of Chinese history and tradition, Chinese society has long been based on agriculture and handicrafts as the mainstay of the economy, and therefore, the Chinese nation has traditionally favored large families with many children. However, since the late 1970s, the Chinese government has continuously recognized the serious obstacles that a large population base poses to the sustainable development of society, and has adopted the national family planning policy of "one child per couple". With the implementation of the national family planning policy, the structure of the family has been increasingly transformed from the joint family, the main family, to the nuclear family, and in the first decade of the 21st century, the second generation of one-child children will be commonplace, at least in urban families. In the first decade of the 21st century, the second generation of only children will be common in urban families at least. The Chinese family will have the only "4-2-1" structure in the history of mankind, i.e., four old people (grandparents) plus two middle-aged people (parents) and one young person (only child).

(a) The family size is reduced, the family structure tends to be homogenized, and the interpersonal relationship in the family tends to be simplified

Changes in the family size and structure will have a direct impact on the changes in interpersonal relationships in the family. Shaport, an American expert on family issues, pointed out that the complexity of interpersonal relationships in a family depends on the number of family members, and he quoted the formula "(N2-N)/2" to calculate the number of family relationships. The relative reduction in the number of family members has led to a shift from complexity to simplicity in family interpersonal relationships and the gradual disappearance of the kind of complex interpersonal relationships (such as brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws) found in the traditional large families. The simplicity of interpersonal relationships among family members of only-children prevents family members from appreciating the complex networked interpersonal relationships in joint families and main families, and also prevents them from experiencing a more comprehensive social experience of family life.

(2) The reduction in the number of family members and the specialization of role-playing tend to generalize the role disorders in the family

Despite the great changes in the size and structure of the family, the modern family, as a typical primary group of society, still exists in the role relations of interconnection, interdependence and mutual complementarity among its members. But with the relative decrease in the number of family members, some of the social roles played by family members (e.g., siblings) have gradually disappeared. In the modern family of "4-2-1" structure, the social roles of husband and wife, grandparents and grandchildren, parents and children will become the main social roles in the family, and family members will have a clearer understanding of their respective roles in the family and their behavioral norms and patterns. However, in the process of social transformation, the pace of life continues to accelerate and lifestyles continue to change, people's expectations, understanding and practice of the various roles in family life will be different at different levels, and members of the family life will have contradictions, obstacles and even failures in their roles. In recent years, the rising divorce rate and the increase in the number of single-parent families have also highlighted the increase in family problems caused by the prevalence of role disorders.

(C) frequent exchanges among members, the type of interaction tends to be diversified, the cohesion in the family has increased significantly

With the acceleration of social differentiation, the production function in the traditional family has been transferred to specialized social organizations, the mechanization and modernization of modern family life is increasing, so that members of the family in the family's leisure time has increased significantly. In this special social interaction scenario of the family environment, as the number of family members relatively decreases, the interaction among members becomes closer, the interdependence among members grows, and the types and modes of interaction among members become more diversified. The ability of the family to satisfy the needs of individuals in terms of care, warmth, sense of security, sense of belonging and other emotional aspects becomes more prominent. The forms of interaction such as competition and conflict that may occur between siblings in joint families and main families will gradually be transferred to subgroups, and the increasingly democratic atmosphere in the family will transform the forms of coercive, submissive and compliant interactions between parents and children into competition and cooperation, with parent-child interactions gradually taking a dominant role in the interaction of family members. Interpersonal interactions and social exchanges in family relationships follow the law of needs of each according to his or her ability and needs, as well as the intense competitive pressures and threats from the modern society have led to a significant increase in the cohesion of the family.

(4) The rapid spread of mass media and the deepening of the generation gap have increased the pressure on family members to regulate and control social influences

In traditional societies, social changes were not obvious, and the vertical transmission of culture did not lead to significant differences in the values of family members across generations. In modern society, with the increasing development of mass media, the popularity of television, telephone and the influx of computers into the family, the mass media have more and more ways to enter the family sphere, the cycle is getting shorter and shorter, and the influence on people in the process of socialization is becoming more and more important, which is manifested in the diversity of forms, richness of content and a wide range of audiences. The role of mass media in guiding people's values and suggesting people's behavioral activities has not only led to the phenomenon of generational differences in families between generations, but also to various differences in values among family members of the same generation. And in the period of social transition, the time interval of this psychological difference phenomenon has been significantly shortened. Especially in one-child families, children have no contemporaries, which further exacerbates the depth and width of the generation gap. The simultaneous coexistence of multiple values among family members also has a certain impact on the enhancement of family cohesion and the formation of **** the same family goals, in the process of receiving a variety of information, members consciously regulate and control the effective information so as to achieve family harmony and unity of the pressure is also increasing.

Second, the shape and characteristics of the family education function of the one-child family in the period of social transition

China has always attached great importance to family education, and to play the educational function of the family has become a long national cultural tradition. However, with the transition from the traditional planned economic system to the market economic system and the deepening of reform and opening up, the family lifestyle has undergone fundamental changes, especially with the advent of the knowledge-based economy, knowledge and intelligence has become a symbol of capital, and the enthusiasm for family education has increased, the traditional family education has been challenged and impacted to varying degrees, and the family's educational function has also shown some new The educational function of the family has also taken on some new forms and characteristics, mainly in the following aspects:

(a) The role of the family in teaching basic life skills has been weakened

Initial socialization is the socialization that takes place in the early stages of life. In terms of time, initial socialization accounts for a relatively small proportion of the entire socialization process, but it is the foundation of the entire socialization. In childhood, the individual's ability to adapt to the environment is very poor, and without the ability to obtain food and clothing, he needs to be cared for by the family in many ways, but as the child grows up, the family has to teach him the basic life skills of food, clothing, housing and transportation. In a modern society where science and technology are changing rapidly, people's lives are much richer and their basic life skills are more complex and varied, so the position of the family in the teaching of these basic life skills becomes more and more important and irreplaceable. Unfortunately, this function of family education is generally weakened in one-child families. The ultimate goal of family education is to help children become independent from their parents and successfully build their own lives, but in one-child families, parents (including grandparents) excessively pamper their children and spoil them, and do everything for them. However, parents (including grandparents) in one-child families are overly pampered and spoil their children and do everything for them. Unbeknownst to them, parents deprive their children of the opportunity to learn and practice basic life skills, which ultimately results in a lack of the most basic life skills, and the children's ability to live independently and adapt to survival is very poor. Initial socialization process is the child to develop good behavioral habits of the crucial period, parents' meticulous care and overreach, not only creates the child willful, lazy, self-centered character, and will delay the development of children's hands, the formation of luxury and wasteful style. Family education should adhere to rationality, otherwise the child will be in the parents' best motives to develop the worst habits.

(2) The teaching role of the family in the formation of social norms and moral sentiments has been alienated

The educated person, as a social person, must have certain social values and abide by certain behavioral norms and moral codes if he wants to gain a foothold in society. The family is the social environment in which a person first learns to adapt, and as a primary group, the family educated person has the first social interaction with his parents, grandparents and peers, and the behavioral norms of family life are also the social norms that the individual first comes into contact with. In one-child families, parents' words and deeds become the only reference system for the educated, and children take their parents' needs, attitudes, personalities, wills, values and emotions as the object of their identity, and gradually internalize and form their own set of behaviors and moral beliefs through learning and imitation. Parents, as the leaders of family education, have the earliest and most intuitive influence on children through their own personality qualities, mannerisms, and the way they treat others. Jiang Zhenghua, a famous expert in psychology and education, once put forward such an equation: "5+2=0", which he explained in this way: five days of school education, plus two days of family education, due to the resistance and contradictions in education, the actual effect of education produces a hedge, so that the child is at a loss, and the final effect of education is "0". In addition to the differences in educational requirements, educational methods and educational evaluation standards, the parents' words and actions or the parents' subconscious social misconduct have led to the alienation of the positive role played by the family in teaching social norms and forming moral sentiments.

(3) The guiding role of the family in the formation of life goals and personal ideals has been strengthened

Due to the increase in the number of families with only one child, the traditional Chinese parents' mentality of "hoping that their son will become a dragon" and "hoping that their daughter will become a phoenix" has been further strengthened, and they generally emphasize the importance of their children's life goals, and the importance of their children's life goals. The positive effect of family education is that it can guide the educated to gradually adapt to real life and gradually understand the meaning of real life, and pay attention to the development of their various legitimate interests and hobbies. As their children grow older, it helps them to establish ambitious ideals and aspirations; parents use all their life experience to influence and educate their children, cultivate their enterprising spirit, and at the same time pour great expectations into them, thus enabling them to make valuable choices on the road of life. The problem is that if the reinforcement of this educational function is too extreme, the actual effect will be the opposite. This kind of family problems caused by the negative function of family education is also extremely common in the society.

(4) The role of the family in the development of the individual's social role has been diluted

The family plays a very unique role in the development of the child's social role. The family provides the necessary social context for individuals to play their first social roles, and the individual's expectation, realization and practice of their first social roles are gradually accomplished in the family. The family itself is a set of roles, and the relationship between the educated person and the family members also forms a set of roles. The individual becomes a subject who takes on multiple roles for the first time in the family, and this also forms the enlightenment experience of playing complex and diversified roles in the society in the future. In one-child families, due to the disappearance of complex interpersonal relationships, the role experience gained by the individual in the family is greatly reduced compared to that in joint and principal families, and even the cultivation of male and female gender role behaviors is affected. On the other hand, as society continues to progress, the family's role in determining the occupational roles and class roles of its members is weakened, and the shift from pre-dispositional roles to self-initiated roles has also led to a significant dilution of the family's role in the process of developing social roles in the educated.

The family is the cell of the society, although the size of the family is smaller than the school, and even smaller than the society, but the function of family education is far more than its size. At present, in terms of the structure of the family and the composition of the members in our country, the one-child family attaches great importance to the education of their children is unprecedented, and the enthusiasm of the investment in family education is at the forefront of the world, but in the specific process of family education, the new form and characteristics of the one-child family education has led to the family education into a new misunderstanding, and formed a certain negative impact on the effect of family education, which should cause the whole society to pay great attention to. The whole society should pay great attention to this. At present, in the process of reforming the education system, teaching content and teaching methods in China, family education must be fully supported and cooperated with in order to gradually get out of the misconceptions of family education, and to lay a good foundation for promoting the modernization process of the whole country and nation.