Real‑Life Contexts of Spontaneous Family Life Education
Abstract
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the research is to explore how spontaneous family life education and preparation for adult life takes place in students’ immediate environment in Hungary.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Our main research question is “what are teachers’ and support professionals’ perceptions of patterns of family life education in different family milieus?” The target group for the individual and focus group interviews was teachers working with grades 5–13 and school support staff (N = 53).
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The theoretical basis of enhancing family life has undergone considerable change in recent decades. Several international studies have addressed the extreme context sensitivity of family and adult life education in societies with significant regional and social inequalities, such as Hungary, and have called for the compilation of a problem map on which adult life education is based.
RESEARCH RESULTS: One important finding of the study is that spontaneous family life education in Hungarian families varies widely according to social and regional aspects. Four family models emerged from the analysis (rural low status, rural or small‑town strivers, urban middle class, and urban educated high status).
CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: Preparation for various aspects of adult life is a challenging school task that requires special preparatioand extra work by teachers and school support staff. Because of the dialogue between spontaneous family life education and family life education in schools, there is no uniform curriculum and method for family life education that can be used in all social contexts.
References
Ballard, S.M., & Taylor, A.C. (Eds.). (2011). Family life education with diverse populations. Sage Publications.
Buehler, C. (2020). Family processes and children’s and adolescents’ well‑being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1),145–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12637
Dafinou, A., Olaya, B., & Essau, C.A. (2022). Parental economic migration and children’s outcomes in Romania. The role of social support, parenting styles, and patterns of migration. Journal of Family Issues, 43(3), 567–587.
Darling, C.A., Cassidy, D., & Ballard, S.M. (2022). Family life education: Working with families across the lifespan. Waveland Press.
Demo, D.H., & Acock, A.C. (1993). Family diversity and the division of domestic labor: How much have things really changed? Family Relations, 42(3), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.2307/585562
Duncan, S.F., & Goddard, H.W. (2016). Family life education: Principles and practices for effective outreach. Sage Publications.
Engler, Á., Kozek, L., & Németh, D. (2020). The concept and practice of family life education. Central European Journal of Educational Research, 2(3), 55–61.
European Court of Auditors (2020). Combating child poverty: Better targeting of Commission support required. Special report 20. Publication Office of the European Union. https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/publicationsdid=54614
Makay, Z. (2019). Fiatalkori gyermekvállalás Magyarországon. Korfa, 19(1), 1–4. https://demografia.hu/kiadvanyokonline/index.php/korfa/article/view/2763
Mancini, J.A., O’Neal, C.W., & Lucier‑Greer, M. (2020). Toward a framework for military family life education: Culture, context, content, and practice. Family Relations, 69(3), 644–661.
Myers‑Walls, J.A. (2000). An odd couple with promise: Researchers and practitioners in evaluation settings. Family Relations, 49(3), 341–347.
Myers‑Walls, J.A. (2020). Family life education for families facing acute stress: Best practices and recommendations. Family Relations, 69(3), 662–676. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12452
Oz, S. (1991). Attitudes toward family life education: A survey of Israeli Arab teachers. Adolescence, 26(104), 899–912. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1789177/
Plaza‑del‑Pino, F.J., Soliani, I., Fernández‑Sola, C., Molina‑García, J.J., Ventura‑Miranda, M.I., Pomares‑Callejón, M.Á., & Ruiz‑Fernández, M.D. (2021). Primary school teachers’ perspective of sexual education in Spain. Healthcare, 9(3), 287. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030287
Pusztai, G., & Csók, C. (2023). Views of teachers and support staff at schools on the implementation and development of family life education. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 12(4), 1401–1409.
Pusztai, G., & Engler, Á. (2020). Értékteremtő nevelés az iskolában és a családban. Kapocs, 3(2), 5–132.
Tóth, O. (2018). A nők elleni párkapcsolati erőszak Magyarországon. Socio.hu Társadalomtudományi Szemle, 8(4), 1–28. https://socio.hu/index.php/so/article/view/688
Ulferts, H. (2020). Why parenting matters for children in the 21st century: An evidence‑based framework for understanding parenting and its impact on child development. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/129a1a59-en
Varani‑Norton, E. (2014). “It’s good to teach them, but… they should also know when to apply it”: Parents’ views and attitudes towards Fiji’s family life education curriculum. Sex Education, 14(6), 692–706. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2014.934443
Wiley, A.R., & Ebata, A. (2004). Reaching American families: Making diversity real in family life education. Family Relations, 53(3), 273–281. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3700345
Yildirim, G. (2019). The views of pre‑service primary school teachers regarding the concept of “basic life skills” of life science course. Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 14(3), 64–79. https://doi.org/10.29329/epasr.2019.208.4
Copyright (c) 2024 HORIZONS OF EDUCATION
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright to their work while granting the journal the right of first publication. The work will be simultaneously licensed under a CC BY-ND license, which permits others to share the work with proper credit given to the author and the original publication in this journal.
- Authors may enter into additional, non-exclusive agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work (e.g., posting it in an institutional repository or publishing it in another journal), provided that the original publication in this journal is acknowledged.
We allow and encourage authors to share their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) both before and during the submission process, as this can foster beneficial exchanges and lead to earlier and increased citations of the published work. (See The Effect of Open Access). We recommend using any of the following academic networking platforms:
