Children in Society

As children grow up, they are influenced more and more by the sphere outside their homes, and by their friends, parent’s friends, teachers, and people they meet and interact with in the outside world. Hence this essay shall be focussing onhow family influences children and young people, and the effect of parental and family influences on the personality development of children and young people. Furthermore, current social and equal opportunity issues which may influence the development of children in a multi-cultural society in Great Britain will be explored. The roles and responsibilities of Social Services, Health Care Trust, Private Sector, and Child Care Agencies as multi-disciplinary and interagency working together will be analysed. Lastly, this essay will reflect on my personal experiences in my work placement, in relation to diversity; and confidentiality will be maintained all through the learning outcomes.
‘Family’ can be defined differently as there is no typical family model across society (Lamanna et al, 2006). However, United Nations (1948) stated that ‘the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state’. As family patterns change over time, Crawford (1999) asserted thatsociety’s definition of ‘family’ is rapidly expanding and has come to include single parents, biracial couples, blended families, unrelated individuals living cooperatively, and homosexual couples, and so forth. For instance, the Nuer ‘ghost’ marriage in Sudan is different from what is considered as typical family setting in the west as described by Maybin and Woodhead, whichstated that a dead husband continued to be the father of the children born to other lovers by the widow (Maybin and Woodhead 2007). This form of family emphasizes the social connection between children and parent rather than biological ones.McDaniel et al (2005) has a different view about what a family is‘We define family as any group of