A Sociological Study of Behavior Pattern of Single Child Family | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this study is to the Single child family has been becoming a family norm among a substantial number of people. In an age when family groups are fundamentally changing, to understand the interaction dynamics and its multi-faceted consequences on the behaviour pattern of children seems significant. There have been various stereo-typical beliefs in general about the personality and behavior pattern of the single child as well as about the interaction dynamics in the single child family in the present culture. At the same time, growth of individualizing tendencies in the tiny households creates major concern about societal unity. Family being the primary agency of socialization has a great impact in shaping the new generation. It has been noticed that the parenting style and the socialization pattern undergo changes with the changes in the structure of the family. Hence a sociological analysis of the single child family is expected to reveal many key insights into the socialization process in these new family formations. It has been found that whereas adolescence is proposed to be a period of storm and stress, its appearance is ultimately controlled by the individual socio- cultural surroundings. Hence in the back drop of a relatively new family type such as single child household, study of the behavior pattern of adolescents becomes particularly relevant. As per the empirical evidences, the downward trend in the fertility in India is neither driven by increasing childlessness nor by increasing number of unmarried women. As the fall in marital fertility aiming at moulding of a high quality globalized children have been highlighted as the key factor, it is likely to have substantial effect on the parent –child interaction pattern in the small family.Further, the modern compact family is projected to exhibit a totally new dynamics in the setting of shifting status, power and gender dimensions. But it can be also argued that the intricacies of modernity in many times turn out in effect as „King Midas‟ touch‟. The social worry about the prospect of development of a generation weak in social skills from the individualizing environment of the nuclear family needs more careful research of emerging family configurations such as single child family.