Family Life Education....Shaila Sequeira

1. By
Shaila Sequeira
Dept. of Social Work
Mangalore University

2. Introduction
 Family life Education is an education in values and
relationships.
 The individual lives in a family or community of
persons where life consists of a series of inter-
relationships.
 It is preparing young people to live a full and
harmonious life by giving them the knowledge and
skills to develop satisfying and stable relationships and
a sound system of values.

3. Definition
“Family life education refers to those educational
concepts and experiences that influence attitudes
towards family living, personal relationships and
sexual development”
(Dept. of Education, Virginia)

4. Meaning
 Family life Education is a broad and flexible field.
 It contributes to the total growth and well being of the
family – physical, mental, emotional, economic and
spiritual –can be included under the umbrella of
family life education.
 family life education has its roots in many disciplines
including sociology, social work, psychology,
anthropology, biology, Education, history.

5. Objectives of Family Life Education
 To inculcate a sound system of values with correct
priorities.
 To help the youth to acquire in the process of growing
up, the skills necessary to develop and maintain
satisfying and stable relationships.
 To help the problem student to adjust better to home
and college situations.

6.  To establish as part of the syllabus a meaningful course
in family life education, marriage and vocation and
responsible parenthood.
 To set up a referral system for health, for study and
personal problems, in other words, a counseling cell.
 To establish a meaningful rapport with students, staff
and administration which will make the college a
community in the fullest sense of the word.

7. Aims of Family Life Education
 Family Life Education aims to supplement the education given by the
family, especially by the parents in the home.
 It aims to develop a good character or personality in the growing
adolescent.
 It seeks to provide the youth with a good moral and spiritual code,
conducive to health living.
 Wherever parents abdicate their responsibility due to various reasons,
Family life Education will seeks to fill this gap in the school or college.
 Whenever needed and feasible, parent education through counseling
and other means can be attempted.

8. Family Life cycle
1. Bearing families :
The married partners are learning to live with each
other for the first time.
Differences are found to appear from time to time
and couple should iron them out and establish
meaningful marriage.

9. 2. Child bearing families:
Couples enter first conception. With the Coming
of a child, finance, leisure time, entertainment, privacy
will change. Proper child care becomes important.
Attention is diverted or shared between new comer
and the spouse.

10. 3.Families with pre – school children:
Parents need to cater for the critical needs and
interests of pre – school children to stimulate their
growth and development.
By this time parents think about the question of
having or not having more children.

11. 4. Families with school children:
Families with school going children have to pay
attention to the child’s education and growth needs.
The parents are also expected to collaborate with the
demands and expectations of the school in helping the
child in studies and in development aspects.

12. 5.Families with adolescents:
Adolescents have special problems that need the help
of parents and this stage can be very crucial for them
and their children.
As the teenagers approach adulthood parents must
ensure a balance between freedom and responsibility
by helping their children to plan and then to execute
the plans will be beneficial and productive in various
life situations.

13. 6. Families as launching centers:
After the young adults have gone into work or studies,
parents begin to feel a certain sense of loneliness.
It is often referred to as ‘the empty nest syndrome’. At
the same time they also have the need to maintain a
supportive home base for the children.

14. 7. Families in the middle years:
This is a trying time for a couple who have to adjust to
a different life again away from the children and away
from work.
At this stage that hobbies are developed earlier in life
can keep their occupied during the time after
retirement.

15. 8. Families in the late years:
The family members need to learn to cope with
problem and living alone at this stage.
Society’s expectations will keep children away from the
concerns of aged parents very often helpers like home
nurses may have to provide the required services to the
parents.

16. Conclusion
Thus Family Life Education helps for full and
harmonious family life.
It helps the person with a problem in the family and to
other members to accept the person as he/she is