HW5: Survey Form

 Diversity Among Filipino Families 

and Its Effects on Children

Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey and share your ideas. Your input will help the researcher to complete her research project. Your involvement in the study is voluntary, and your responses will be completely anonymous. You do not have to answer any question you would rather not answer. There are no consequences if you decide not to complete the survey and you can stop at any time.

Name: _(Optional)_

Gender: 

      Male
      Female

Age: ____________

Year Level: ______________

Are your parents together?
      Yes
      No
      Neither or N/A

 Do you live with...?
      Mother

      Father

      Both Mother and Father

      Neither Father nor Mother

      Others: ___________

Who is/are at home when you come home from school everyday?
     __________________________________________

What are your average grades in school? 

      0-55

      56-60

      61-65

      66-70
      71-75

      76-80
      81-85
      86-90
      91-95
      95-100

What are your vices? (Please select all that apply)
      None
      Cigarette smoking
      Drinking alcoholic beverages
      Others: _(Please specify)_

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey! :)

HW4: Cover Letter

November 21, 2012


Dear Respondents,

Hi! I am Ranielyn T. Manuel, a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy student at Asia Pacific College. I am conducting a research study entitled 'Diversity among Filipino Families and Its Effects on Children'. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that influence the well-being of Filipino children living in diversified family structures.

Your participation will involve answering some general demographic questions and some questions relative to my research study. The questionnaire will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. Your involvement in the study is voluntary, and your responses will be completely anonymous. You do not have to answer any question you would rather not answer. There are no consequences if you decide not to complete the survey and you can stop at any time.

The findings from this project will provide information with no cost to you other than the time it takes for the survey. If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me at (0922) 463-6293 or send an e-mail to ranielynmanuel@yahoo.com/ran.manuel012@gmail.com.

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided or by sending me your answers via electronic mail, whichever is more convenient for you, you will be agreeing to participate in the above described project.

Thanks for your consideration!


Sincerely,


Ranielyn T. Manuel

BSA Student, Asia Pacific College

HW3: Single-Parent Families - How Do They Affect Children?

Single parent families are those families that may have been the products of divorce or some other separation or widowhood. No matter how these families come to be formed will eventually affect an individual parent’s financial circumstances, involvement with his/her child/children and his/her competencies as a parent. Single-parent families are all around us today where cases of teenage pregnancy and early marriage and marital dissolution have been increasing.

Single-parenthood can be one of the biggest challenges in one’s life. Apparently, Women and men may find themselves taking the full responsibilities of the upbringing of their children alone. Although single-parenthood, in some ways, can be as satisfying as sharing parenting with a husband or a wife, there are problems which are common or unique w/ being a single parent.

In the succeeding paragraphs, I will provide information which, hopefully, will help you to have a better understanding of what encompasses a single-parent household and the effects of such household on children, with some focus on the difference between single-mother and single-father households. Single-parent families face many challenges, both for the parent and the child, but the children in these families can succeed in our society.

As I was researching, I came across with an article which shows the general effects of single-parent families to the children. This article is entitled as The Effects of a Single-Parent Home on Children by Roger Perez of LiveStrong. The article provides us the following effects and I had them summarized.

Economic Stress
Based on the article, children from single-parent families are believed to be facing more difficulties compared to those children with intact two-parent families probably because one parent earns less than two parents who earn two times larger than a single parent.


School Work Suffers
Since single-parent families may experience financial difficulties, some children may tend to give up studying and work at young ages just to sustain the physiological and other needs of the family. Although some children are still being sent to school, they are more likely to be poor in measures of reading, math and critical thinking skills because their moms/dads were not able to monitor their studies and were not able to provide resources for schooling.

Emotional Problems
Research has shown that children in single-parent families are more likely to develop and suffer from emotional problems such as anxiety, depression or aggression almost five times than those children living with both parents. Young people whose mother and father split up are also three times as likely to become aggressive or badly behaved. Children who endured three stressful events such as seeing one's parents' divorce or appear in court, or suffering a serious disease or being badly injured, were three times as likely to develop emotional problems.

Single parent families, whether headed by fathers or mothers, are more likely to deal with more difficulties compared with two-parent families. These parents are more stressed because they have to attend alone on the needs of their families, particularly the needs of the children, without their spouses. If not monitored, there are high possibilities that these children will be delinquent or will be adversely affected emotionally, physically and intellectually.

In this kind of situations, I think that there are some things that single parents can do to lessen or reduce the risks on their families and children. These parents have to make strong support networks, personal friendships, and new social networks as well as enhance their self-esteem if needed. The single parent's sense of self-respect and fulfillment can give an excellent anchor for children. Many single parents have learned or have been accustomed living on reduced incomes, and have redefined their relationships with their children.

Apparently, single-parent families will continue to exist in our society. However, being a member of such families does not always mean or result to unhappy homes because if armed with the right tools and knowledge then such families can succeed.

HW2: Parental Separation and Its Effects on Children

Have you ever experienced celebrating Christmas with either your mom or dad and the rest of the clan? This temporarily happens to children whose parents are working overseas. What if this is not the case and your parents have separated due to some conflicts at home? What would you feel about it? How will this affect you?

Majority of us think that Christmas is always a magical time in our lives particularly for children where all of our family members are gathered to celebrate such special occasion together. But unfortunately, this is not often the case. There are some cases of parental separation where the children whose parents have separated during the past year may experience the prospect of having their Christmas divided into two homes. But the worst case scenario would be that of not seeing one of their parents at all.

The effect of such parental separation on children can be disastrous whether it happens out of the blue or if conflicts are already present in the home before, during and after the separation. In this sad cases, the children are the ones who suffer and they often find it difficult to adjust with the strong emotions caused by such family break up. Parental separation is deemed connected with a wide range of adverse impacts on child outcomes, both as a short-term results of the change and in the form of more continuing effects that carry on into adulthood. Some of these effects include anxiety, aggression, behavioral problems, lack of concentration, low self-esteem and other adverse impacts on cognitive capacity, schooling, physical, mental and emotional health, social behavior, relationship with peers and they are more likely to have vices such as smoking and drinking alcohols. A further range of effects in early adulthood and beyond include higher rates of early departure from home, teenage pregnancy, early marriage, marital dissolution, lone parenthood, economic hardship, poor relationships with parents and discontentment in life.

I found an article written by Nicole Campbell, a LiveStrong contributor, which discusses the effects of separating children from their parents. This article is actually based or in reference to an article written by Susan Hois, a child development specialist of nurturing parents, entitled Effects of Separation and Loss on Children's Development. According to her, the separation of a child from his/her parents which is caused by death, separation, divorce and etc. can have serious effects on children's development. 

Increased Dependency
Children who have separated from one or both of their parents are appeared to have more dependency on others. According to Hois, it is only natural for these children to require more help with the things that they can do on their own. This may also lead to a more clingy behavior particularly in situations where children have been or feel like they have been left by their parents.

Grief
Research has shown that grief is one of the effects of parental separation to children. Experts suggests that it is important to understand this grief and to talk it out in order to help the children to successfully pass through it.

Trust Issues
The article tells us that children who are victims of parental separations tends to mistrust their parents or those adults who are supposed to be the ones who should be giving care and guidance for them as they undergo developmental processes. According to Hois, this mistrust extends only for a short period of time and although it is difficult to gain back this trust, being consistently there on their children's side may help them to get it back.

Identity Issues
Based on what I have read from the article, children may also struggle with the development of their own sense of identity. Just like trust issues, having identity issues is a short term effects on children.

The changing of the structure of a family caused by separation and divorce of parents requires complex adjustments on the part of the children. Frequently, these produce higher chances of poor child well-being when it comes to academics, physical and emotional health, and psychological development of children which can be carried on to adulthood. If there are more conflicts even after separation, the extent of risk for children's development are more likely to increase.

Any relationship break-ups can be a serious nightmare in our lives for it is often the time where we may may experience confusions, anxiety and anger with high levels of conflict. Although some people think that an acceptance of such break-up can be quickly done and after which the healing process may begin, it is still important for our parents to consider before thinking of separation that we, the children, are the ones who will be adversely affected by such end of relationships.

HW1: Background of the Survey

This research study entitled 'Understanding Family Issues: Diversity Among Filipino Children and Its Effects' consists of three chapters and I had recently accomplished the first one during the first half of this term. The first chapter which is the introduction includes the background of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, scope and delimitation, the materials and methods that I'm going to use and the definitions of some important terms that I will be using throughout the conduct of this research study.

To begin the chapter two,  I formulated the following survey questions which I think useful in determining between the two groups of children (children from the traditional two-parent families and children from non-traditional families like divorced families, single-parent families, and gay or lesbian families) who are more likely to experience academic and social adjustment problems and who are better off across measures of well-being particularly in school.

I have been researching for more than two months but there are still things that I don't know yet. I don't know the percentage of college students from a selected school who are living in two-parent families, single parent families, divorced families, and gay and lesbian families and how well each of them performs in school. In order to figure it out, I decided to conduct a survey and ask them few questions like whether their parents are together, whether do they live with their mothers only, fathers only, both or others and what are their grades in school.

This survey is intended for college students. The first part of the survey will require the respondents to answer few general demographic questions like their age, gender and current year level. The above questions are helpful in determining what type of family that each of the students has and how well each of them perform in school.

I came up with an assumption that Filipino children living in non-traditional families, such as those children raised in lone-parent families, divorced families, gay or lesbian families and etc., are worse off across a range of measures of well-being than their classmates with stable two-parent families (Traditional families). However, the scale of the differences in wellbeing between the two groups of children is not large and most children are not adversely affected. The result of this survey will either support or contrast with my above mentioned assumption.

Family and Marriage

Have you ever imagine yourself marrying with more than one man/woman at the same time? Or marrying your deceased brother's/sister's spouse? This article intends to inform you about the different types of marriages that currently exists in the modern society not just in the Philippines but also, around the world.  

Marriage is the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law. It is another key social institution that is closely linked with the institution of the family.Though, most people thought that marriage is a union between one man and one woman but marriage comes in a variety of forms. 

Marriage History, an article by Molly Kalafut, talks about the different types of marriage that exist not only in the Philippines, but also, around the world. By reading this article, it raised my awareness about the different types that are existing other than monogamy and polygamy. also, I am able to be familiarized with the distinguishing characteristics of each types. This article gives us 7 types of marriages, namely:

1. Monogamy
2. Polyandry
3. Polygyny
4. Polygynandry
5. Levirate and Sororate
6. Hypergyny
7. Hypogyny

Monogamy

Monogamy, or a marriage where each person has only one spouse, is one possibility among many. The marriages of my parents, as well as my uncles and aunties, belong to this type of marriage. My father and uncles find it advantageous because my mom and my aunties can take good care of their domestic needs and they are happy to have their wives who will take care of their health needs as they get older. On the other hand, my mom and my aunties may find it advantageous because they can have benefits like health insurance, protection, money and child-rearing supports from their husbands.

Polygamy

As I recall from my previous learning, this type of marriage involves marriage between one individual and more than one spouses at the same time and it is divided into two forms, namely: Polygyny and Polyandry. I am well familiar with this one because I had learned this already since grade school.

Polygyny

Polygyny is the most common form of polygamy and involves marriage of a man with two or more woman at the same time. It is practiced in parts of the Middle East and Africa but it is not widely practiced because it is not practical and expensive for a man to sustain more than one woman. For instance, Islam allows (but does not encourage) Muslim men around the world to marry up to 4 wives at the same time, provided that the man is fair in treating his wives. However, according to their Qur'an, if Muslim men are not able to economically support the women they marry, then they should be only married to only one woman.

Polyandry
This type is rarer and it involves the marriage of one woman to two or more men at the same time. In the previous example, if the Muslim men can marry more than two women at the same time, Muslim women, on the other hand, is not allowed to have a polygamous marriage.



Levirate and Sororate
Based on the article, levirate is the marriage of a man to the widow of his dead brother. In this type of marriage, family connections and alliances created by marriages can be maintained and reinforced. Sororate, on the other hand,  allows a widower to marry one of his wife's sisters.

The last two types are the Hypergyny and the Hypogyny. Hypergyny is the marriage of a woman to a man of higher social status or rank while Hypogyny is the marriage of a woman to a man of lower social status, rank or age. We always see this cases in dramas or in movies where the man/woman protagonist who is the president or owner of big company marries a woman/man who is younger or from the middle class. 

Families around the world also differ in terms of who rules or is in charge of the family. Therefore, patriarchal family is one which is being governed by men or a family where men are the ones who make the most important decisions while matriarchal family is one which is being ruled by women. Recently, another type of family exist which is the so-called egalitarian family, where both husband and wife share power in the family more or less equally. Note here, however, that many studies show that women (as compared to men) end up bearing a heavier load of housework and childcare in the majority of cases than men, even in so-called egalitarian families. 

Lastly, residence is a final factor that tends to change cross-culturally and which gives rise to the varied family types. In some cultures, families are patrilocal where the married couple lives with or near the husband’s family while in other cultures families are matrilocal where the married couple lives with or near the wife’s family. However, neolocal families is the most common type of residence in the world in which the married couple chooses its own place of residence separate from the husband’s or wife’s family residence.

The choice of one's own marriage is in his/her hands. No matter what type one wants to be married in the future, he/she must be responsible and must attend with his/her family needs especially the needs of his/her children.

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION (Final Draft)

DIVERSITY AMONG FILIPINO FAMILIES
AND ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

A Research Paper Presented to 

Sir Dustin Celestino 

Asia Pacific College 

Magallanes, Makati City 

In Partial Fulfilment 

of the Requirements for the Course 

RESWRIT – Research Writing 

Ranielyn Manuel 

October 2012

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1 

INTRODUCTION 

A. Background of the Study

A family is the social basic unit of any society. A father, a mother and one or more children living in the same lodging is what construct a typical family. However, in the past decades, nuclear families have gone through major changes resulting in a more diverse family structure. This diversification and the appearance of new patterns of family and household formation bring in a real challenge in the Philippines present society.

The changing structures of the Filipino Families, such as single parent families, grandparent-led families, blended families, cohabiting families, homosexual families, etc., and a high chance that these families are experiencing different forms of family issues in their daily lives makes sharp focus the need to be discussed in a way that would not give severe adverse impacts to the children.

Children are experiencing much more diverse and fluid family arrangements than in the past decades. As childbearing outside of marriage has become more prevalent and divorce rates remain high, many children are spending at least a part of their lives with a parent or a step-parent. (Heather Joshi)

These changes in family arrangements resulted to a benefit of greater freedom to at least some adults, but how have they affected the children? (Heather Joshi) McLanahan explained that the pendulum of opinion on the effect of non-traditional family living in determining children’s welfare has been moving back and forth from pessimism to optimism over the past few decades.

“After a decade of research, a new consensus has emerged with regard to the effects of family structure on children: children who grow up with only one biological parent are less successful, on average, than children who grow up with both parents. These differences extend to a broad range of outcomes, and they persist into adulthood.”(McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Haveman and Wolfe 1991, p. 37)

It is believed that material, emotional, and social sources is more abundant and effective if both of the parents are working together compared to the other family arrangements. (McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Therefore, some people argue that the enterprise of child rearing is more likely to succeed if there are two adults rather than one (Popenoe, 1993). and and a less conventional child-rearing may be  harmful to children. (Heather Joshi)

It is important to discuss the different non-traditional family structures and the evidence about their impact on child development. Although many forms of diversity in family structure occur, space does not permit to explore them all. In this research, nontraditional families such as one-parent families, unmarried heterosexual-parent families, families with lesbian and gay parents, and grandparent-led families will be discussed. With these, the readers will be able to understand the different needs of the families of today in order to develop family policies and services that will effectively support families in the upbringing of their children.

This research paper aims to enhance the understanding of the readers about how family structure relates to the development of Filipino children. It examines the results for children in different family types and in relation to factors internal and external to the family.


B. Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer this question:

1. What are the issues brought by the diversification of family structure and their effects on Filipino children?


C. Significance of the Study

This study aims to establish an understanding on the different family issues in the Philippines brought by the diversification of the structures of the families and its implications on children. Furthermore, the study could be of importance to the following:

To Families. This study will be useful in making families, traditional or non-traditional, to understand the diverse family living situations and how it affects the development of their children.

To the Readers. This study will make the readers to be aware of the different family structures that are prevalent in the Philippines. Through this research, they will be able to understand how the development of the children varies with the different kinds of family structures.

To the Future Researchers. The ideas presented may be used as reference data in conducting new researches or in testing the validity of other related findings. This study will also serve as their cross-reference that will give them a background or an overview of the study.


D. Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the different issues brought by the diversification of the structures of the families and its effects on children. This study will only discuss about the different structures of families that currently exist in the Philippines.


E. Materials and Methods

This research paper uses a descriptive method because the researcher’s aim is to describe and to discuss the diversification of families and its implications on children. The researcher will also use articles, publications and the like from the internet as guides in making this research. The researcher will also conduct a survey in order to support the outcome of this study.


F. Definition of Terms

Blended Families and Step Families. In these families, children who are not blood related may live in the same house.

Cohabiting Families. In this kind of family, a man and woman live together but are not married. If there are children, at least one of the adults is a biological or adoptive parent.

Commuter Families. In these families, the parents live and work in different places in which one parent is the one who provides the primary residence while the other parent comes home after work but only for a short period of time.

Crisis. It is a crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point in one's family life.

Extended Family.  A family which is usually define by some common genetic lineage that falls outside of the nuclear family. It consists of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Family. A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.

Foster and Group Home Families. Children may live with foster parents and institutional child care workers while problems with their biological parents or guardian are being resolved.

Grandparent-led Families. The grandparents are the one who take the lead responsibility of child care when their biological parents are working, have died or cannot take good care of them.

Nuclear Family. It is named from the idea of it being the 'nucleus' of other family groups which consists of a father, mother and their children. A family is defined by their blood relation and through marriage of the parents.

Single-Parent Family. In this family there is only one parent in the home.

Society. The organization of mutually dependent people who share the same territory and culture and who act as one for survival and well-being purposes.