Impact of social and economic forces on individuals and their families

¶ … Social and Economic Forces on Individuals and Families

Inasmuch as culture determines the structure, composition, and nature of families in a society, numerous other factors also play a critical role in changing the dynamics in the family. Both the social environment and economic status or climate that individuals and families belong to determine the individual's and family's nature and dynamics.

Why study the impact that social and economic forces have on the individuals and families? Studying the socio-economic factors that influence society (individuals and families alike) is found to have historically created an impact in determining changes that have happened and will happen to the individual and the family through the years. Changes have happened because of the social factors that give individuals and families their unique nature/characteristic, but these social factors are also mainly motivated by the economic climate of the society when these changes occurred. The United Nations (UN) provide a good example of how families and individuals are understood based on the social and economic climate that the society lived in at a particular point in time. In understanding the nature and dynamics of families (including individuals), UN looked at both social structure and composition, as well as economic variables that could have influenced the maintenance of a family structure, or eventual dissolution, of the family unit in specific societies.

In studying the role of families in international development, the UN, through a publication from the UN University, studied the different variables it looked at in studying families, specifically intra-household or family dynamics. This approach is called the "new household economics" or NHE. Under the NHE approach, families are analyzed as households that "consume," and these 'consumables' can be both tangible (basic commodities such as food, clothing, shelter) and intangible (such as health and relaxation, among others).

All these socio-economic variables impact the family, according to the UN study (Zeitlin et. al., 1995). Examples of these impacts include the following findings: (1) "loosening social controls" -- legal controls or social norms that must be followed by members of the society -- lead men to "discontinue their support to wives and children," (2) "economic profitability" (i.e., more financial resources) for female head of the family allows other female members of the family to be economically profitable as well, and (3) increased employment opportunities for women in the family improves child welfare in general (related to finding #2). These findings demonstrate that power and conflict in the family is determined by the social forces and economic resources that are available to each family member. Inevitably, access to more resources results to increased power within the family, particularly to the family member with direct access to these resources, including family members directly associated to the more powerful and/or economically profitable family member. It is in these examples that both social and economic forces indeed impact the family, as well as individuals in the society (who are also individual members of the family.