The problem of relationships within the family is always an essential one. How children interact with their parents, themselves, and the world around them is necessary to their future development. Social interaction begins with a family atmosphere and understanding. That is why this study was conducted because it examines knowledge within the family, not only their physical interaction but their moral interaction as well (Burford & Hudson, 2020). It is necessary to be able to assess family values and life in general properly as well. To do this, it is crucial to conduct research that will relate to the standard concepts that are living within the family.
With this purpose, a questionnaire was created, which consists of a number of open-ended questions, the answers to which will help to understand how this or that family lives. The questions in the test questionnaire are universal, so they will be suitable for everyone who wants to understand the importance of relationships among themselves and the quality of their family life (Minett, 2017). On the other hand, it is crucial to consider the data obtained because only their correct interpretation will allow one to count on a specific result rather than guesswork associated with the results. Thus, it is necessary to add that this study is considered to be classically qualitative and not quantitative.
Here is the list of questions created for this study:
- Values/Health Perception
- How often do you take care of your health and your loved ones?
- How respectful are you about family values?
- What values dominate your family?
- Nutrition
- Who in your family monitors food?
- How often do you let your children order food?
- What do your children eat most often, and what are their preferences?
- Sleep/Rest
- Who in your family takes the most vacations?
- How often do you go on vacation?
- Which is more important to you, vacationing alone or as a family?
- Elimination
- What is elimination in the family for you?
- What are your thoughts about elimination?
- Do you often see how other families are doing it?
- Activity/Exercise
- How often do you play sports?
- Do you prefer team or solo activities?
- Do you often involve your children in sports activities and what they are?
- Cognitive
- How often do you socialize with each other?
- Are conversations meaningful in your family and who is the initiator of such talks?
- How often do you encounter conflict?
- Sensory-Perception
- Is communication through image demonstrations vital to you?
- How exactly do you spend your time with visualization?
- How often do you watch movies or television series together?
- Self-Perception
- Do you have conflicts based on self-image and who is the initiator?
- Do you see children as separate members of society? If yes – then describe how they should look like in your eyes.
- How vital is self-perception to you, and why?
- Role Relationship
- Do you often switch roles in the family and how does it affect your family life?
- Is a sense of being in charge of the family important to you?
- Do you often listen to your children’s advice and preferences? In what way?
- Sexuality
- Have you talked to your children about sexuality and if yes – in what way?
- If yes, who brought it up? If not, who would?
- Do you know about your children’s sexual relationships? If yes, describe the situation in which the child told you about it
- Coping
- How would you describe your time spent together?
- How often do you go out together?
- Do you believe that leaving children home alone for more than a week is a good idea and why/why not?
Since it is required to consider the correctness of the answers and compare them not with the rest of the respondents but with the general trend of family relationships. For the same purpose, the questions that were used in this study were open-ended, which predisposes to specific answers to questions related to one family. They should be designed so that the solution can be converted as comfortably as possible into valuable conclusions about the health of the family and their values (Webb, 2017). It is essential to keep in mind that this is only possible if the participant has given an extensive answer to the task at hand, answering truthfully and frankly despite the uncomfortableness of the task at hand.
Thus, a family consisting of four members, namely a mother, father, son, and daughter, was interviewed for the study. This family model is ideal for several parameters at once. The most important is that this number and type of participants is the most common, which will allow one to study the answers to the question using a broader base of information about such relationships. In addition, gender plays an important role here, as it is necessary to consider the family interaction with reference to the gender of the representatives.
This will help to more accurately interpret the results obtained during the study. It is worth mentioning the age of respondents, as it significantly affects the impact of the survey. The oldest one was the father of the family, who was 44 years old at the time of the study. The mother is a little younger, 42. The children have a slightly more significant age difference, the oldest son, 18 years old, and the youngest daughter, who is 13 years old. It is essential to understand that the age difference between the older and younger generation is quite significant, which affects the relationship between them as well. The difference between the younger representatives of the survey plays a role because the boy has already passed the transition age, and his worldview is in the final stage of formation, while his sister is only at the initial step.
Referring to the results obtained in the survey, it is necessary to carry out a competent and reliable analysis of them. This should be done by specialists so that the data are as reliable as possible, as well as taking into account potential inaccuracies in giving answers. For this purpose, questions that were given to the parents were duplicated with children. This was made for a clearer understanding of how correct the answer is, and the average values between responses were used for reliability. The data remaining after the surveys are essential not only for this study but for future averaged answers as well, which will allow counting on the balancing of future answers to similar surveys.
Referring to the results, it can be noted that in this family, values come first. For them, the main thing is well-being and family comfort, which should be the first place for any community. It is also worth saying that in this family, there is no lack of clarity, judging by the answers to the questions asked. Having analyzed the family members’ responses, we can also conclude that they value honesty and openness and help each other in difficult situations.
In addition to these positive aspects, there were also negative aspects. The most striking was when it came to issues of a personal nature. It is undeniable that this is everyone’s business, but it was noticeable how difficult it is for children to answer questions of this nature. This was evident when a question was asked about children’s sexual education, which parents did not pay enough attention to. Therefore, it was decided to have a post-interview discussion about personal life behind closed doors.
Speaking specifically about this study, the answers received in the course of it coincided in most cases with the children’s responses, which provides the possibility to count on their reliability. In general, the respondents showed promising results in building family relationships. According to the results, parents’ involvement in their children’s lives and interest in their circle of communication was noticeable. Many of the questions looked exceptionally provocative and were asked to test not only their response but their reactions to the questions on how much they were concerned about life in the family circle. However, despite the positive findings, several things indicated that this family had to improve their relationships. Most of these are minor details, such as spending time together and eating healthy food. Still, respondents showed solidarity and decided to work together towards an ideal family relationship.
Reference
Burford, G., & Hudson, J. (2020). Family group conferencing : new directions in community-centered child and family practice. Aldine De Gruyter.
Minett, P. M. (2017). Child care & development. Hodder Education.
Webb, P. (2017). Every child supported. Child Care, 14(5), 2–3.