Mind Moves Marie MurrayThe publication of the 2006 Census figures last Friday provided objective evidence of what was already subjectively known: that is, the extent to which Ireland has changed in almost all domains of living in recent times.
These are more than minor changes across the traditional parameters of population, ethnicity, religion, age and family structure. The population has almost doubled in five decades and family configurations have altered unrecognisably.
In previous times societal structures, educational organisations, social behaviour, civil codes, interpersonal interactions, family size and composition, marital relationships, gender roles, sexual mores, child rearing customs, moral perspectives and religious practice were intimately tied to each other.
The inextricable past intimacy between the Catholic Church and State was constitutionally represented, legislatively reflected, ecclesiastically transmitted and socially enacted. The traditional or nuclear family defined by the Irish Constitution or Bunreacht na hÉireann was signified by the separate gendered legally married couple with children, couples who remained together until death. This has now been extended to include wide variations in family form.
Church and State are separate and the recent census figures show the diversity in religious beliefs and groupings, with those of no religion being the second largest group and Muslims representing the third largest religious category in this country.
The term "family" has shifted to include almost any relational configuration that describes itself as a family or "the members of a shared household who hold similar values and participate in shared goals". Changes have taken place in parental composition, in sibling configuration and relationship, in duration of the time spent together, in living arrangements and in the manner which "families" construct themselves as family.
The "norm" of what constitutes "family" has, therefore, changed, as adults enter into complex and often sequential relationships, which their children must also negotiate, as they find themselves in reconstituted family forms.
The census figures highlight increased divorce rates; decreased fertility; decrease in family size; increase in lone parent families; increase in cohabiting couples and in same-sex couples. Population composition has changed from the homogeneity of the past to the cosmopolitan composition of the present. Where we come from, where we live, how far we travel to work and how we live has altered.
But what, if any, are the sociological, the psychological, the child welfare and adult benefits or negatives of so much change? We do not know. Time is required to interpret and research the implications of the information we have just received. What we do know is that life as lived differs so significantly in every aspect that intensive sociological investigation into the meaning of these trends is required.
The questions that arise from this latest census are many. What is it like to be parented primarily outside the home as parents commute to work each day? What is it like to grow up in changing family forms? Does it matter who parents, whether one has a father and mother, one lone parent, or sometimes one and sometimes the other parent available? Does it matter if children have two "parents" of the same sex?
What is the impact on child development, adolescent identity and adult life of having a set of religious beliefs or having none? What is it like to have come here to live, to decide to stay, to form a family here?
Do we know how to assist, support, accommodate and cope with children growing up in shifting family forms? And what are the mental health implications of these changes for everyone?
Research in relation to the variables that assist long-term marital relationships include being over 30 years of age, having similarity in a couple's role expectations and cultural values, absence of premarital pregnancy and absence of parental divorce in their own families. The question now seems to be whether having a long-term committed relationship is a cultural value that is no longer ascribed to, or whether it remains an aspiration that new ways of living have made it increasingly hard to attain?
What beliefs do people hold about child development and the conditions most conducive to children's happiness, safekeeping and security? Do adults believe that children are as resilient in the face of parental separation, divorce and changing family form as they declare them to be? Do children agree?
What is the impact on adults of being single, being separated or divorced, of being in non-marital relationships, cohabiting, or living alone? Have the meanings of these situations changed with time? What are the constraints and affordances of interracial unions?
The post-modern family is one that is defined by itself: by those who choose to call their particular relationships to each other a family. What we now require is a comprehensive understanding of the sociological implications and psychological shifts of such changes in family form.
mmurray@irish-times.ie
Clinical psychologist Marie Murray is director of student counselling services UCD.