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Socialization And The Family Environment

Decent Essays

Children’s lives are centered initially within their families, the family environment becomes the primary agent of socialization. The family environment “involves the circumstances and social climate conditions within families. Since each family is made up of different individuals in a different setting, each family environment is unique. The environments can differ in many ways. For example, one obvious difference lies in the socio-economic level. Some families live in luxurious twenty-four-room estates, own a Porsche and a Mercedes in addition to the family mini-van and can afford to have shrimp cocktail for an appetizer whenever they choose. Other families live in two-room shacks, struggle with time payments on their used ‘85 Chevy and have …show more content…

When faced with decisions or crises, healthy families involve all family members to come to solutions for the mutual good. Conflicts are settled through rational discussion and compromise instead of open hostility and conflict. If one family member feels strongly about an issue, healthy families work to accommodate his / her views in a satisfactory way. As unhealthy families suffer conflict and disagreements, so do healthy families. However, a healthy family deals with conflict much more rationally and effectively. Families can be compared and evaluated on many other dimensions and variables. The specific variables involved are not as important as the concept that children learn how to behave or are socialized according to the makeup of their individual family environments. The family environment is important in that children are taught what types of transactions are considered appropriate. They learn to form relationships, handle power, maintain personal boundaries, communicate with others and feel that they are an important subset of the whole family

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