Cisf (Centro Internazionale Studi Famiglia), one of the founding bodies of the Family International Monitor, presented the 2020 Report "The family in post-family society". The document shows how we are moving towards a slow decline of the traditional model, while possible alternatives are being developed. Francesco Belletti, director of CISF, gave an interview to the magazine Famiglia Cristiana to discuss the information gathered in the report.
Director, what photograph of the family does your fifteenth report show?
"The confirmation of a great transformation that has been going on for years. The Cisf 2001 report had already addressed the issue of the pluralisation of family forms. Today we are faced with 60% of units made up of a maximum of 1 or 2 people, the constant decrease in the number of couples with children, the increasing break-up of couple ties and life plans that completely reject marriage and sometimes even the birth of a child. For this reason we have reported the "global warming" of the family - family warming to highlight an urgent need for accompaniment and awareness. A closer look at what is happening to the family".
Is this an appeal to the institutions?
"Certainly the institutions are called upon, but not only. The change of families is linked to people's choices and economic factors, but in our country a serious responsibility lies in politics that has never gone beyond the logic of bonuses, welfare interventions and selective interventions for small categories. Who knows if the debate on the Government's proposal for a Family Act that is currently underway could be a turning point...".
What does the family need?
"The family needs a far-sighted, upward looking policy with a vision of the family as the backbone of our society. Testified extensively during the lockdown when the strategic resource for the good and health of people was to rely on families".
Objective difficulties, economic difficulties, uncertainty about the future; but also a radical cultural change?
"There are many problems that row against making a family and young people are certainly the most penalized generation; however, cultural change is strongly perceptible, individualism and self-fulfillment although legitimate, clearly prevail over the commitment to build the bond and the alliance of couple.
Where do we start again?
"However, there are signs of hope, many people stubbornly continue to plan a life together, to bring children into the world, immigrant families can certainly bring a more supportive and less individualistic point of view and many try to network between families. This can no longer be a perspective for the few, but it is one of the possible positive strategies. Families together to better make their own family and to make more family in society".
So the family hasn't gone down?
"The family value seems to be the legacy that the older generations leave to the younger ones who want more individual freedom and less ties. Putting these two dimensions together is the challenge of today".
Source: https://bit.ly/3j4L9SB
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