THE IMPACT OF FAMILY VALUES ON SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT
NNOLI SYLVESTER CHIKELUE@sylvesternnoli140312
2 months ago
Regrettably, such discourse only tends to bring up wild imaginations in my mind. Imaginations like picturing a life of a tree without a root. Yes, root! That’s just the perfect description of family. Apparently, I see no life in such a tree. Family has this strong hold on every individual, that’s why everyone tends to rely heavily on family learning from his earliest stage of existence in life. These family values provide protections against making hurtful decisions while the individual grows from that earliest stage, into adulthood. Believe me, it’s just interwoven! There’s absolutely no society without a family. Just simply put, breath is life, family is society.
The Impacts of family values on our societal development can’t be underrated but calls from the echoes in the questioning minds of some, has drawn my attention to the need to throw more light on the phrase, “Family values”. Each time we talk about family values, we are just referring to the various ethical principles and moral traits which are being passed on within a family. Such values which often tend to be reinforced or traditionally taught are honesty, kindness, responsibility, family time, empathy, respect, integrity, hard work, love, morals, courage, being trustworthy, creativity, character values etc. These values contribute to the building of self-esteem and self-perception. That’s why a positive family background tends to help developing a strong being in someone which enhances a greater society.
At this juncture, it’s imperative to reconcile family values and its impact to the societal development, being the major aim of our discourse. Firstly, the primary role of family in the society is molding the children to become great productive entities in the society which they live in. This value is often referring to as socialization. This role includes inculcating societal norms, role, values, skills, behaviors in the children which in turns, reshapes the future generation.
Next inline is the economic support, these could be by directly providing the financial /needs of their individual members such as providing shelter, food, clothes and probably every other essential needs of their members. These economic supports can still be extended to the act of inculcating habits and skills needed by their members to eventually become self reliant. A great impact on societal development because nothing hinders societal development like juvenile delinquencies which tends to be on a rise when the major members of the society especially the youths are not self-reliant.
Another great impact of family values on societal development is health maintenance. In order to achieve significant societal development, health maintenance should be place at the top in the priority list. Families once again are at the helm of it all, being responsible for the health and well-being of its members. Besides providing good medical care and mental support, the family encourages and inculcates the habit of healthy living on their members. This impacts the general societal development because there is no great society without healthy occupants; one has to be healthy in order to be productive in the society.
Role allocation can be spotted in the impacts too. It can be seen that everyone has a specific role or responsibilities to play in the society. Thumb up should go to the family for instilling that value from the earliest stages in an individual’s life as they grow, preparing them for the various role in the society which they will eventually fit in to the societal building.
Protection is a major value which family lay down too, by protecting their members from societal challenges. This support structure no doubt, points to the fact why many progressive societies function effectively. The credit goes to the family because as they protect, they also instill social order in their members and it won’t be far-fetched that the discipline taught by the family, reflects on the individual behavior and how he maintains order in the society at large.
Cultural and family heritage impacts self-perception and esteem. Family offers a warmth, loving and understanding environment, this is essential to everyone’s psychological development. That’s why you observe that a positive family upbringing helps individuals develop good sense of self which can positively impact the general societal development.
Enumerating these impacts will be more of embarking on an endless journey because it’s too numerous but one fact to exaggerate a bit further on, is the need to encourage and educate the family heads not to relent on this specially task of keeping on, in instilling these family values on their members to enhance an effective societal growth. They should be educated on simple working ways to instill these values on their members. One of such ways is becoming a positive role model to their members. Empowering their members [children] to make their own decisions too helps. They should also acknowledge and apologize when they make mistakes. Let them often create discussion room on why these values are important to them and other family members. With all these being put in work, the society will be greatly sanitized and this will curb juvenile delinquencies and general social vices which has over the years been a bitter pill for any societal development to swallow.
NAME: SYLVESTER CHIKELUE NNOLI
Email: s************i@yahoo.com
