The Family as the Primary Instance of Socialization

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. The family as the primary instance of socialization
2.1 The meaning and stages of the socialization process
2.2 The family as a central instance of socialization

3. The transformation of the family in the 20th century: From the dominant traditional family model of the bourgeois nuclear family to a pluralization of family lifestyles
3.1 The establishment of the modern bourgeois nuclear family as the traditional family model
3.2 The pluralization of family life forms as part of the transformation of the family
3.3 Changes in parent-child relationships as another aspect of family change

4. What new socialization problems arise due to the pluralization of family life forms?
4.1 Socialization in single-parent families
4.2 The socialization in stepfamilies

5. Final part

Bibliography

1. Introduction

The family life form - as can be observed again and again in the media, but also in the closer or more distant social environment - currently no longer necessarily consists of a natural father, a natural mother and a child or several children. This traditional form of family is nowadays partly replaced by other family forms. As a result, some children grow up with only one parent due to divorce and separation, for example, or are confronted with a new (marriage) partner of the mother or a new (marriage) partner of the father and possibly also with new siblings in their cohabitation. Single-parent families as well as step- and patchwork families have not been a rarity in our society for several years. All in all, since the mid-60s of the 20th century, there has been a change in the family, which - to exaggerate - has brought about a crisis of the normal family. This is reflected in particular in a pluralization of family forms of life. But how does the change of the family affect the smallest members of our society and what effects does it have on the socialization process of children? - And what new socialization problems arise as a result? It is important to face this question, because the family is the primary socialization instance for children.

In this work, the above-mentioned question is to be pursued. For this purpose, it is essential to clarify what is meant by the socialization process, why the family is of the greatest importance within this process, and which family factors, which are modified by family change, influence this process. Finally, a third chapter is devoted to the transformation of the family in the 20th century and the related pluralization of family life forms as part of the changes. The starting point of the change is the traditional family model of the modern bourgeois nuclear family. This model is first presented in its establishment and its characteristic features, in order to be able to deal with the family change afterwards. Within the framework of this, the pluralization thesis in particular, but also briefly the changes in parent-child relationships will be dealt with, since the intra-familial network of relationships is also undergoing change. The basic idea of this thesis is that child socialization is not unaffected by the changes the institution family has undergone since then. Therefore, in conclusion, the consequences of the family changes on the primary socialization of the children and which new socialization problems arise from these changes will be dealt with.

In some places, statistical data will be invoked to adequately represent social reality and to corroborate or invalidate the theses put forward with facts and figures.

2. The family as the primary instance of socialization

By way of introduction, this chapter will be devoted to the significance of the socialization process, but in particular to primary or early socialization, which takes place within the family. For this purpose, it is first necessary to clarify what is meant by the term socialization as a process.

2.1 The meaning and stages of the socialization process

In everyday language as well as in scientific usage, socialization is first of all roughly understood as "(...) the totality of social influences on the personality development of a person" (Tillmann 2010, p. 13). This understanding implies two elementary aspects: Through socialization, the individual experiences social integration on the one hand, and on the other hand, he or she thus acquires the ability to lead his or her life independently. A more profound, scientifically based definition of the term is provided by Dieter Geulen and Klaus Hurrelmann. This appeared in 1980 in the Handbook of Socialization Research by Klaus Hurrelmann and Dieter Ulrich and is still a widely used and recognized definition of socialization in scientific discourse today. Moreover, it is used consistently within socialization research (cf. ibid., p. 13 f.):

According to Geulen and Hurrelmann, socialization "can be described as the process of the emergence and development of the personality in mutual dependence on the socially mediated social and material environment. The primary thematic issue is ... how man forms himself into a socially capable subject."" (Geulen/Hurrelmann 1980, p. 51, cited in Tillmann 2010, p. 14).

Hence, the development of the individual into a subject is influenced by the totality of all environmental conditions that are socially shaped. In terms of family socialization, an environmental condition of a social nature can be, for example, the parenting style of the parents, which varies according to social integration. Under psycho-material environmental conditions, toys, for example, can be understood as products of social shaping. The interest in the influence of the entire socially mediated environment is focused exclusively on personality development (cf. ibid., p. 15), whereby personality is understood as "(...) the specific structure of characteristics, traits, attitudes, and competencies for action that characterize the individual human being" (Tillmann 2010, p. 16).

According to Geulen and Hurrelmann, the concept of socialization also implies and emphasizes an active, creative part of the individual in his or her own socialization process. From an anthropological point of view, this implies a conception of man that includes the individual's active ability to shape his own socialization process. According to this view, man is not only passively socialized by the socially mediated environment; he also actively participates in his becoming a capable subject by actively appropriating the environmental conditions. As can be seen from the above definition, the socially mediated environment and the development of personality are therefore interdependent (cf. ibid., p. 17): "People are not victims of their socialization, but they always have an effect on themselves and their environment and in this way develop into a being capable of action, a subject " (ibid.). There is now agreement within socialization research about the aspect of active appropriation of environmental conditions. Moreover, this aspect is already included in more recent theories of socialization, for example in Hurrelmann's concept of the productive reality-processing subject from 1986, which cannot be discussed here (cf. ibid., p. 17 f.).

Rather, we will now turn to the phases of the socialization process, and among them, above all, explicitly to family socialization. Finally, the meaning of the term socialization that exists within current family socialization research can be summed up once again in a few words at this point: "Both socialization and development are understood as processes that transcend the lifespan and are characterized by active processing of interactions between the person and the environment "¹ (Trommsdorff 2001, p. 38).

The socialization process can be roughly divided into three phases: primary or early socialization, which takes place within the family (cf. Hurrelmann 2002, p. 127), secondary socialization, which takes place in upbringing and education systems (cf. ibid., p. 187), and finally tertiary socialization, which takes place in adulthood through the mass media and within peer groups - the latter are also referred to as peer groups (cf. ibid., p. 239). These three phases that people go through during their lifelong socialization process thus take place within specific domains or social contexts. They represent webs of interdependence in which an individual is integrated and in which he or she must adjust to other individuals. These areas can also be referred to as socialization instances (cf. Niederbacher/Zimmermann 2006, p. 71).

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¹ This addresses another important aspect of the socialization process: Socialization represents a lifelong process.