Psychology Principles of Family Policy Development Paper

 

 

Please read, “Contemporary Issues in Family Studies: Global Perspectives on Partnerships, Parenting and Support in a Changing World” in our readings to complete the forum this week.

While most people can identify the issues affecting American families, not many people understand what goes into the development of family policy, let alone agree on what the role of government should be regarding families. Based on your experience and what you learned this week, what are the principles that should guide the development of family policy? Please share your “take away” from the reading this week. For example, did you learn anything new or did anything surprise you? Feel free to use outside scholarly sources to complete this forum as well.

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Classmate #1:

This week’s lesson was very interesting to me, and very coincidental as it was happening during a time where our federal government was set to vote on a massive stimulus package due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In my research, I found three guiding principles that should be implemented if and when the government is developing family policy. The first is that the policy should support positive relationships with children and families. (Harvard University, 2020) This principle allows a development of good relationships in families, which assists in child development in the long run. A second principle that can be used as a guideline is if the policy can strengthen the basic life skills of a person. There are many campaigns that have aided in promoting child safety in vehicles, and reduced possible drug and alcohol abuse with mothers while they are pregnant. A third core principle is if the policy reduces stress on children and families. As we have read in our lessons, the financial landscape for families can be a huge stressor. There have been things implemented by the government, such as child tax credits, in order to alleviate that source of stress. Even now, with our global pandemic, the lawmakers in our country have provided a $2 trillion stimulus package, which is allotting $1,200 per adult and $500 per child during this global crisis. (Edmonson, 2020) This package was designed to assist families as incomes become nonexistent due to businesses shutting down, and governors signing executive orders requiring people to stay at home in order to not spread the COVID-19 virus. In addition to this, with people suddenly becoming unemployed, the stimulus package is also allotting for more unemployment benefits to people who are deemed “non-essential” during this time.

One big takeaway I had from the reading this week was the mass incarceration that the United States has, and learning how African-American children have been hit the hardest with this. Due to something like this, children become stress, they feed off of the non-incarcerated parent’s stress, and there are not many supports for those who are in low-income families. I think it is important that the government look into a policy that may aid those who are living this reality, as it can set children up for a brighter future.

References

Edmonson, C. (2020). 5 key things in the $2 trillion Coronavirus stimulus package. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/us/politics/whats-in-coronavirus-stimulus-bill.html.

Harvard University. (2020). Three principles to improve outcomes for children and families. Harvard University. Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/three-early-childhood-development-principles-improve-child-family-outcomes/.

Classmate #2:

Hello Everyone,

What a strange new world we are living in today. We are now on total lockdown and asked to shelter-in-place, which we have been doing anyway for the past three weeks basically. Now the schools are closed until the end of April and I highly doubt they will open up again until August. Thank goodness for wide open spaces, the wilderness and school to get me through all of this, mentally.

This week we were asked to read “Contemporary Issues in Family Studies: Global Perspectives on Partnerships, Parenting and Support in a Changing World” from our readings and then report on it. We are asked to look at the principles that should guide the development of family policy based on our own personal experience and what we have learned over the week’s lesson reading.

The main take-a-ways and what stood out to me about our reading was the basic structure of family has altered dramatically.  It says that though the normal family standard for structure is not completely gone, it has altered and is not a strict to follow the guidelines as it used to be. That also affects what the ideal family was or seems to be. The ideology of what the perfect family should look like was created more from the family structure in the eighteenth century and really should have no guide for today’s family structures. As a society, we need to have a new look at the “perfect family ideology” since that ideology is very outdated. Also, just because the new family normal is not “perfect” does not mean that they lack in family values. Some family values are simply replaced with newer ways to perform them such as with communication. There many be families that are more spread out and do not see each other every day, but they can communicate with various forms of media on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

That being said, the way that the government should be involved in family policy should be to look at how families are developing now and adapt. Our families are all different and are developing and changing with same-sex marriage, single parent households, grandparents raising grandchildren, income levels and who the main income family member is. The government helping in certain areas or looking at interfering will need to look at each family as different and not try to force something that is not the “normal” anymore. Many of the ways that the government may step in to help families are through things like public directives (such as now when we can not have larger get togethers), social programs especially for young children, elderly and those in need of a social group like AA. Other ways of the government having a part in family policy could be through court rulings on family conflicts and deciding on child placement.

CHFD225. Emergent Families in the Global Arena: Family Policy for the Twenty-first Century. (n.d.). retrieved from https://apus.brightspace.com/shared/elf/chfd225/lesson8/index.html

Abela, A., & Walker, J. (2013). Contemporary Issues in Family Studies: Global Perspectives on Partnerships, Parenting and Support in a Changing World. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com