Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the changes and trends of families in the social transition period, explore the changes and characteristics of the educational function of the only-child family, and guide the current family education practice.
First, the changes and trends of families in China during the social transformation period.
Looking back on the history and traditions of China for thousands of years, we can see that agriculture and handicrafts have long been the mainstay of China society, so the Chinese nation has always advocated a large family with many children. However, since the late 1970s, the Chinese government has been constantly aware that the huge population base has seriously hindered the sustainable development of society, and adopted the family planning national policy of "only one child for a couple". With the implementation of the national family planning policy, the structural types of families are changing from joint family and the main family to the nuclear family. Before 2 1 century 10, there will be at least the second generation of only children in urban families. Families in China will have a unique "4-2- 1" structure in human history, that is, four old people (grandparents) plus two middle-aged people (parents) and one young person (only child).
(A) the family size is shrinking, the family structure tends to be single, and the interpersonal relationship in the family tends to be simplified.
Changes in family size and structure will directly affect changes in interpersonal relationships in the family. American family expert Shapot pointed out that the complexity of interpersonal relationship in a family depends on the number of family members. He quoted the formula "(N2-N)/2" to calculate the number of family relationships. The relative reduction of family members makes the family interpersonal relationship from complex to simple, and the complex interpersonal relationship (such as brother-in-law and sister-in-law) in the traditional extended family gradually disappears. The simplification of the interpersonal relationship between the members of the only-child family makes it impossible for family members to understand the complicated networked interpersonal relationship between joint family and the main family in family life, and thus they cannot experience a more comprehensive social experience in family life.
(2) The number of family members decreases, role-playing tends to be specialized, and the role imbalance in the family tends to be universal.
Although the scale and structure of the family have changed greatly, as a typical primary social group, the role relationship between modern family members is still interrelated, interdependent and complementary. However, with the relative decrease in the number of family members, some social roles played by family members (such as brothers and sisters) gradually disappear. In the modern family with "4-2- 1" structure, social roles such as husband and wife, grandparents, parents and children will become the main social roles in the family role concentration, and family members will have a clearer understanding of their respective roles in the family and their behavior norms and models. However, in the process of social transformation, the pace of life is accelerating and the lifestyle is changing. People's expectations, understanding and practice of various roles in family life will be different at different levels, and members' role-playing in family life will also be contradictory, encounter obstacles and even fail. In recent years, the rising divorce rate and the increase of single-parent families have also highlighted the increase of family problems caused by the widespread imbalance of roles.
(c) Frequent communication among members, diversified types of interaction, and significantly enhanced family cohesion.
With the acceleration of social differentiation, the production function in traditional families has been transferred to specialized social organizations, and the mechanization and modernization of modern family life have been continuously improved, which has significantly increased the leisure time of family members. In the special social communication scene of family environment, with the relative decrease of family members, the communication between members is closer, the interdependence between members is also increasing, and the types and ways of communication between members are more diversified. The family's ability to meet the emotional needs of individual care, warmth, security and belonging is more prominent. The possible forms of interaction between joint family and his brothers and sisters in the main family will gradually shift to the secondary groups. The increasingly strong democratic atmosphere in the family will also transform the form of parent-child interaction into competition and cooperation, and parent-child interaction will gradually dominate the interaction among family members. Interpersonal communication and social exchange in family relations follow the demand law of each according to his ability and each taking what he needs. The fierce competitive pressure and threats in modern society have significantly enhanced the cohesion in the family.
With the rapid popularization of mass media and the deepening generation gap, family members are under increasing pressure to adjust and control social influence.
In the traditional society, social changes are not obvious, and the vertical transmission of culture makes the difference in values between generations of family members not significant. In modern society, with the development of mass media, the popularity of television, telephone and computer has flooded into families, and the mass media has more and more ways to enter the family field, and its cycle is getting shorter and shorter, which has become more and more important in the process of human socialization. This influence is manifested in the diversity of forms, the richness of contents and the extensiveness of audiences. The guiding role of mass media in people's values and the suggestive role in people's behavior activities not only lead to intergenerational differences in families, but also lead to various differences in values among family members of the same generation. In the period of social transformation, the time interval of this psychological difference phenomenon has been obviously shortened. Especially in one-child families, children have no contemporaries, which further aggravates the depth and width of the generation gap. The coexistence of multiple values among family members also has a certain influence on strengthening family cohesion and forming the same family goals. In the process of receiving all kinds of information, members are under increasing pressure to consciously regulate effective information to achieve family harmony and unity.
Second, the form and characteristics of the educational function of the one-child family in the social transformation period.
China has always attached great importance to family education, and giving full play to the educational function of the family has become a long-standing national cultural tradition. However, with the transformation from the traditional planned economy system to the market economy system and the deepening of reform and opening up, the family lifestyle has undergone fundamental changes, especially with the arrival of the knowledge economy era, knowledge and intelligence have become symbols of capital, and the enthusiasm of family education has improved. Traditional family education has been challenged and impacted to varying degrees, and the educational function of the family has also shown some new forms and characteristics, mainly in the following aspects:
(a) The educational role of the family in basic life skills is weakened.
The initial socialization is the socialization that happened in the early life. From the time point of view, the initial socialization accounts for a relatively small proportion in the whole socialization process, but it is the basis of the whole socialization. In childhood, individuals have poor adaptability to the environment and are unable to get enough food and clothing. He needs the care of his family in many ways, but as the child grows up, the family should teach him the basic life skills of food, clothing, housing and transportation. In the modern society where science and technology are changing with each passing day, people's life content is greatly enriched, and basic life skills are also complex and diverse, so the position of family in teaching these basic life skills is becoming more and more important and irreplaceable. Regrettably, in the one-child family, this function of family education has been generally weakened. The ultimate goal of family education is to help children get rid of their parents, move towards independence and successfully build their own lives. However, parents (including grandparents) in the one-child family are too fond of their children and care nothing. Not knowing the arrangement of parents deprives children of the opportunity to learn and practice basic life skills, which eventually leads to the lack of the most basic life skills and poor ability to live independently and adapt to life. The initial socialization process is the key period for children to develop good behavior habits. Parents' meticulous care and meddling not only make children willful, lazy and self-centered, but also delay the development of their practical ability and form a style of extravagance and waste. Family education should adhere to rationality, otherwise children will form the worst habits under the best motivation of their parents.
(2) The educational role of the family in forming social norms and moral sentiments has been alienated.
Educated people, as social people, must have certain social values and abide by certain codes of conduct and ethics if they want to gain a foothold in society. Family is the social environment that one learns to adapt to first. As a primary group, family educated people have initial social contacts with their parents, grandparents and peer groups, and the behavioral norms of family life are also the first social norms that individuals come into contact with. In the one-child family, parents' words and deeds become the only frame of reference for the educated. Children regard their parents' needs, attitudes, personality, will, values and emotions as the objects of recognition, and gradually internalize them into their own set of behaviors and moral beliefs through learning and imitation. As the leader of family education, parents have the earliest and most intuitive influence on children's education with their own personality, manners and ways of treating people. Jiang Zhenghua, a famous psychological education expert, once put forward an equation: "5+2=0". He explained that five days of school education plus two days of family education, due to educational conflicts and contradictions, the actual educational effect was hedged, leaving children at a loss, and the final educational effect was "0". In addition to the differences in educational requirements, educational methods and educational evaluation standards, parents' different words and deeds or parents' subconscious social anomie behavior all lead to the alienation of the positive role played by families in imparting social norms and forming moral sentiments.
(3) The guiding role of family in the formation of life goals, personal ideals and interests has been strengthened.
Due to the increase of only-child families, China's traditional psychology of "looking forward to children's success" and "looking forward to women's success" has been further strengthened, and people generally attach importance to guiding their children's life goals and consolidating their life ideals. The positive role of family education lies in that it can guide the educated to gradually adapt to real life and gradually understand the meaning of real life, and pay attention to developing their legitimate interests and hobbies. With the growth of children's age, it can help them establish lofty ideals and ambitions; Parents use all their life experiences to influence their children's education, cultivate their enterprising spirit, and at the same time place great expectations on their children so that they can make valuable choices on the road of life. The problem is, if this kind of strengthening of educational function is too extreme, its actual effect will go to the opposite side. This kind of family problem caused by the negative function of family education is also very common in society.
(d) The role of the family in cultivating individuals to adapt to social roles has been diluted.
Family plays a very unique role in cultivating children's social roles. The family provides the necessary social context for the individual to play the first social role, and the individual's expectation, understanding and practice of the first social role are gradually completed in the family. The family itself is a role set, and the relationship between the educated and family members also forms a role set. For the first time, the individual becomes the subject of multiple roles in the family, which also forms the enlightenment experience of playing complex and diverse roles in society in the future. Due to the disappearance of complex interpersonal relationships in the one-child family, the individual's role experience in the family is greatly reduced compared with that in joint family and the main family, and even the cultivation of gender role behavior will be affected. On the other hand, with the continuous progress of society, the decisive role of family in the professional role and class role of its members has been weakened, and the change from pre-assigned role to self-directed role has also obviously weakened the role of family in the process of cultivating the social role of the educated.
Family is the cell of society. Although the scale of family is smaller than that of school and society, the function of family education far exceeds its scale. At present, in terms of family structure and membership in China, the only-child families attach unprecedented importance to their children's education, and their enthusiasm for family education is among the best in the world. However, in the specific process of family education, the new forms and new features of family education for only children have also led to new misunderstandings, which have had a certain negative impact on the effect of family education and should be highly valued by the whole society. At present, in the process of deepening the reform of education system, teaching content and teaching methods in China, family education must also give full support and cooperation, gradually get out of the misunderstanding of family education, and lay a good foundation for promoting the modernization process of the whole country and nation.