Running head: THE ROLE OF FAMILY IN NURTURING CHILDREN

Extended family as the most beneficial household type for children

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................3

2.0 Supporting argument............................................................................................................3

3.0 Counter argument.................................................................................................................7

4.0 Conclusion............................................................................................................................8

References..................................................................................................................................9
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1.0 Introduction

Population Reference Bureau (1999) defines a family as a group of individuals who are

related by birth, adoption and marriage. Therefore, family is the core societal unit for

transmitting ethical values that are crucial in nurturing children into responsible adults who

are self-reliant and ethical. Enrique et al. (2007) considers family as the being the smallest

societal unit but a very crucial machinery in human development. As the smallest societal

unit, a family is divided into either nuclear or extended. Nuclear family is defined as the

central family unit comprising of the mother, father and their children. On the other hand,

extended family cuts past the boundaries of nuclear family to include uncles, aunts, cousins

and grandparents among other relatives. This paper examines the premise that extended

family is the most beneficial household type for children and adolescents.

2.0 Supporting argument

Social support:

Extended family offers social support to children and adolescents more than a nuclear family

does. In my view, this is because the child is able to interact with the parents, siblings, uncles,

aunts and grandparents benefitting from wide ranging social interaction. According to Jaeger

(2012), the extended family offers enhanced educational support and promoting educational

achievements for children. The extended family plays crucial role in educational success of

not only for adolescents and children but also for the whole family. In a longitudinal study,

Jaeger (2012) found out those children educational success is highly dependent on factors

shared by siblings and first cousins. The extended family has many members some of whom

are financially affluent enabling them to take care of educational needs of the children within

the family (Broad et al., 2001). Additionally, the extended family provides fashionable

alternative to childcare. Among other benefits that are gained from the extended family,
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include developing and maintaining strong links with friends and siblings. Further, the

extended families were identified as machineries for sustaining cultural and racial legacy.

However, the youngsters argued that extended families had deleterious impacts of limiting

their freedom, exposed them to financial hardship and did not provide specialized help.

The extended family offers children the opportunity to learn the norms and values of the

society. Owing to the size of the extended family, children are able to learn societal values

and norms from different individuals. For that reason, they are able to get enhanced exposure

and experience than it is possible from a nuclear family. Ordinarily, within the nuclear family,

children interact with siblings and parents indicating that experience sharing is limited

According to Bashir et al. (2009) parents are not able to teach their children everything

because of limited time besides lack of wide-ranging knowledge. However, extended

families teach children cooperative work as they grow and this helps them develop virtues

of team work and a sense of brotherhood. In addition, such children become good stewards

caring for others both in the community and in the environment external to the community.

Children stability and consistency

The extended offers children stability and consistency. In my observation, the extended

family offers children placement stability through welfare services. In view of Walsh and

Walsh (1990) as well as Redding et al. (2000), it seems that failure to have preparation,

support and training of foster parents; children placement is marred with disruptions. This is

in the context of orphaned children who receive support from foster parents. However,

offering enhanced support to foster parents through the expended family enhances the

chance of foster parents offering stable placement for foster children (Redding et al., 2000).

Butler and Charles (1999) argue that children placement stability is predicted through the

foster parents understanding causes and reasons for the childs behaviour through the

extended family.
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The extended family nurtured nurtures healthy emotional development of babies and children

owing to their commitment towards offering baby care. Therefore, in the scenarios of

divorce or parent bereavement, grandparents intervene to avoid emotional disruption among

children. Millward (1992) argues that any disruption among young children is detrimental to

their emotional and psychological wellbeing. Therefore, grandparents act as gatekeepers

keeping an eye on the well-being of their grandchildren.

Extended families offer children a sense of security and convenience. In this sense, children

raised in extended families feel more secure and protected than children raised in nuclear

families do. In the light of Khan (2009), Extended is the new flavour in the family setting.

An Emirate interviewee by the name Ameera Abbas argues that the shift from nuclear family

to the extended family is a perfectly calculated choice, which is cheaper (Khan, 2009). To

substantiate this fact, she argues that she stayed with her mother-in-law in a rented house as a

cost saving strategy so that she could construct her own house. She feels that besides her

mother in law keeping an eye on Ameeras children, she pays rent and electricity expenses for

them. Further, she argues that it feels good to come from work tired to find food ready on the

table. In conclusion the extended family promotes sharing of expenses given that the

extended family lives together to cut rental expenses.

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Health care

The extended family acts as a nursing home for children and the elderly. Ordinarily, it is a

common phenomenon that when some family members are aged, they move in with their

children or relatives within the extended family. Therefore, the extended family acts as a

substitute nursing home for the aged. The extended family is important in taking care of

grandparents mental health besides nurturing children. As SonugaBarke and Mistry (2000)

reports, Grandmother and children are better taken care of within extended families than in

nuclear families. This interaction within he extended families had been reported both in

Hindu and Muslim families. In essence, it is not interrupted by factors such as acculturation.

The study involved 86 families out of which 44 were Muslim and the rest Hindu families. By

examining, the behaviour of children between 5 and 11 years raised some of whom were

raised in the nuclear family and the rest in extended families, it emerged that children raised

in extended family depicted positive behavioural adjustment (SonugaBarke and Mistry,

2000).

The extended family plays a crucial role in providing health care for orphaned children in the

family setting. Children orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, epidemic as well as civil wars in

Sub-Saharan Africa are taken care through the extended family. Ntozi et al. (1999) examines

the contribution of the extended family in offering health care to orphans in Northern

Uganda. Karimli et al. (2012) observes that 32% of parents interviewed argued that they

consulted grandparents for advice on how to approach issues of child fitness and health care.

Besides, 63% of the parents interviewed acknowledged that their grandparents were the most

influential on issues of child healthcare upon their first births (Rethinking Family Life, n.d).

Therefore, the extended family is crucial in health care provision.

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3.0 Counter argument

In spite of the above argument that seeks to support that extended families are better than

nuclear families, it can be rebutted that such an argument is to some extend pointless.

The nuclear family offers means to consistent positive behavioural change better than the

extended family. Essentially, the nuclear family offers children behavioural stability and

consistency. The result is that such Children excel in their education life and are more

involved in extra curriculum activities more than children raised by the extended family are.

In view of Blessing (2012), within the nuclear family, children eat together with their parents,

go to church and attend vacations together. This helps build a solid relationship foundation

that is unshaken promoting the development of solid future goals for the family.

Within the nuclear family, children are free to lead own life and nobody interferes with their

routine life except minimal interference from parents. Ordinarily, a majority of nuclear

families offer children opportunities to enjoy life. This is because they are economically

stable and are able to offer luxurious opportunities to their children. According to Blessing

(2012), some of such opportunities include the chance to attend music classes, dance and

gymnastics among other luxurious events as long as the parents work outside home.

Fortunately, children who are offered such opportunities are likely to excel exceedingly both

socially and academically. Further, such children develop good management skills besides

developing self-confidence (Blessing, 2012). The aspect of self-confidence among children

raised in a nuclear family can be explained by the fact that if the children suffer from disease

when their parents are working, they develop sense of self-confidence and visit a doctor. This

eliminates the notion of overdependence on the extended family, which is destructive to self-

reliance and confidence.

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4.0 Conclusion

Based on this argumentative essay, it is clear that the extended family is very important in

developing moral value of children since they are able to interact with the family in the wider

spectrum. Further, the extended family provides educational and health care support for the

orphaned children. Besides, it offers information to foster mothers on the cause of behaviours

of children under their care. Moreover, when the extended family congregates, it eliminates

rental expenses as well as food related expenses since costs are shared. On the contrast,

supporters of nuclear family argue that it nurtures children with consistent and stable

behaviours owing to close monitoring. Besides, children raised by the nuclear family have the

autonomy to practice and engage in extra- curriculum activities more than their counterparts.

Finally, they develop a sense of self-reliance since they do not highly depend on their parents

or on the extended family for simple decisions. However, the gains of extended family to the

children supersede the gains of nuclear family to the same children. This supports the claim

that the extended family is the most beneficial household type for children and adolescents.
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References

Bashir, H. (2009). Right thinking, right doing: Changing minds and perceptions. Retrieved at:

https://hamidalsharif.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-the-

extended-family-in-africa/ [2 April 2015].

Blessing, M. (2012). Pros and Cons of the Nuclear Family. Retrieved at:

http://family.lovetoknow.com/advantages-disadvantages-nuclear-family [2 April 2015].

Broad, B and Hayes, R and Rushforth, C. (2001). Extended families provide a popular

alternative to state care. Retrieved from http://www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/extended-

families-provide-popular-alternative-state-care-474 [2 April 2015].

Butler, M., & Charles, M. (1999). The past, the present, but never the future: Thematic

representations of fostering disruption. Child and Family Social Work, 4, 9-19.

Enrique, J., Howk, H., & Huitt, W. (2007). An overview of family development. Educational

Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University

Jaeger, M. M. (2012). The extended family and childrens educational success. American

Sociological Review, 0003122412464040.

Karimli, L., Ssewamala, F. M., & Ismavilova, L. (2012). Extended families and perceived

caregiver support to AIDS orphans in Rakai district of Uganda. Children and Youth

Services Review, 34(7), 13511358.

Khan, N. (2009). Families growing amid recession. People opt to live with their kin for the

greater sense of security and convenience it provides. Retrieved from:

http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/general/families-growing-amid-recession-1.56530 [2

April 2015].
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10
Millward, C. (1992). Keeping in Touch Extended Family Networks. Retrieved from:

http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/fm1/fm32cm.html [2 April 2015].

Ntozi, J. P., Ahimbisibwe, F. E., Odwee, J. O., Ayiga, N., & Okurut, F. N. (1999). Orphan

care: The role of the extended family in northern Uganda. The continuing African

HIV/AIDS epidemic, 3, 225-36.

Population Reference Bureau. (1999). Conveying Concerns: Women report on families in

transition. Retrieved from http://www.prb.org/pdf/FamiliesConveyingFinal.pdf [2 April

2015].

Redding, R., C. Fried, et al. (2000). Predictors of Placement Outcomes in Treatment Foster

Care: Implications for Foster Parent Selection and Service Delivery. Journal of Child &

Family Studies 9(4), p. 425-447.

Rethinking Family Life (n.d). Introduction: living extended family lives. Retrieved from:

http://www.grandparentsplus.org.uk/files/Rethinking%20Family%20Life

%20Report.pdf [2 April 2015].

SonugaBarke, E. J., & Mistry, M. (2000). The effect of extended family living on the mental

health of three generations within two Asian communities. British Journal of Clinical

Psychology, 39(2), 129-141.

Walsh, J. A., & Walsh, R. A. (1990). Studies of the maintenance of subsidized foster

placements in the Casey Family Program. Child Welfare, 69(2), 99-114.