Journal of Sociology and Social Work

The Changing Nature of the Family and its Duty as Foundation for Morals and Sustenance of Core Societal Value
Dibia Emmanuel Ogormegbunem

Abstract
The foundation of every structure plays a strategic and important role in the kind of building that would eventually take shape upon it. The deeper the foundation, the higher the structure so, a family’s foundation for morals and it support has to go deep in other to sustain the core values of the society she finds herself. The family is considered as the basic building block of a life that brings about the existence of the society and every of its members and individuals make up the community in which they find themselves. Through time, the family has always been the foundation from and upon which the moral of children are built, nurtured and developed as no individual is born in a vacuum, which implies that the family is of basic importance and necessity. A child’s first contact with the world is the family he/she finds himself/herself (be it biological or adopted) and it is from this contact that impressions about the world is formed and its relation to it based therefore on what has firstly been imprinted by this most basic unit of society. Morals and social values are believed to be part of that which makes a society run while its oil is fueled by the varying family units that makes up the society. A typical family is made up of father, mother and children while in some instances, and the extended family. Morals we would remember refer to the social norms and values that guide both individuals and their interaction with their fellow human beings and communities, and with their environment. Society we would describe as a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same authority and dominant cultural expectations. Hence human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institution which the family ultimately happens to be its foundation. The family of late unfortunately is now under attack as there is a consistent attempt to break this vital unit of society and this we find in the attempt to redefine marriage, child care and other pertinent issues that relates to it. The changing nature of the family tends to portray the family as one that has lost its ground to being the foundation for morals and the sustenance of core societal values. This paper intends to show that though there happens to have been varying and new family structures, one thing still stands out; the family still is the foundation and custodian of morals and further acts as the sustainer of core societal values.

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