1. Defining Family Policy: An Identify of Its Own
Chapter 3
© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Defining Family Policy:
An Identify of Its Own

2. Chapter 3 Outline How Important Are Definitions?
© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Chapter 3 Outline
How Important Are Definitions?
What Is Family Policy and the Family Impact Lens?
What Contributions Can the Family Impact Lens Make?
What Qualities Can the Family Concept Bring to Policymaking?
Does Consensus Exist Around the Definition of Family?
What Evidence or Precedence Can We Use to Define Family?
Does the Field Require a Single, Universal Definition of Family?
Is Defining Family More than a Theoretical Exercise?
Summary

3. How Important Are Definitions?
© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
How Important Are Definitions?
Family policy lacks clear definitions given its short and contentious history.
The United States has always had a family tilt in its policymaking, but family policy did not emerge as a distinct subfield of social policy until the 1970s.
Definitions are important to identifying the parameters of what family policy is, what it is not, and what it can achieve.

4. What Is Family Policy and the Family Impact Lens?
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What Is Family Policy and the Family Impact Lens?
Pioneers in family policy made an early distinction between:
explicit policies: designed to achieve specific goals regarding families , and
implicit policies: not specifically or primarily intended to affect families, but that have indirect consequences on them.
Family policy focuses on five explicit functions: family formation, partner relationships, economic support, child rearing, and caregiving.
Policies that do not explicitly address family functions would benefit from being viewed through the companion implicit term, the family impact lens.

5. What Contributions Can the Family Impact Lens Make?
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What Contributions Can the Family Impact Lens Make?
Family as a criterion for determining the impact of any policy or program on family well-being
Family as a means for achieving other non-family policy goals
Family as an administrator of public policy by determining eligibility for benefits and by distributing them to members
Distinguishes between family-focused policies or programs (i.e., what is enacted or established) and family-centered practices (i.e., how policies or programs are implemented)

6. What Qualities Can the Family Concept Bring to Policymaking?
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What Qualities Can the Family Concept Bring to Policymaking?
Shifts policy attention away from the individual and toward a family relationship
Moves toward holistic, multidimensional thinking
Changes focus to giving more, instead of getting more
Provides a moral voice that overcomes greed, self- centeredness, self-interest, and the quest for power
Targets attention to the whole family instead of an individual family member

7. Does Consensus Exist Around the Definition of Family?
© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Does Consensus Exist Around the Definition of Family?
Consensus emerges around the definition of family policy while questions arise about the definition of family.
Definition of family is complicated by many issues:
cohabitation and financial support of children
same-sex partnerships and parenting
racial/ethnic differences in the importance of marriage
globalization and its impact on the migratory flows of transnational families.

8. What Evidence or Precedence Can We Use to Define Family?
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What Evidence or Precedence Can We Use to Define Family?
Defining family cannot be settled by research or court cases.
Law books do not have a specific definition of family.
Courts have made decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Varying legal definitions have been credited as a recognition of changing family forms by some and criticized by others as attempts to undermine the traditional family.

9. Does the Field Require a Single, Universal Definition of Family?
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Does the Field Require a Single, Universal Definition of Family?
Legislators rarely ask the Family Impact Seminars to define family.
No singular definition of family may be possible because families encompass a myriad of structures and engage in multiple functions.
Either a structural or functional definition of family can be used to reinforce the intent of a specific program or policy.

10. Is Defining Family More than a Theoretical Exercise?
© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Is Defining Family More than a Theoretical Exercise?
Absence of a universal definition does not mean that family definitions are unimportant.
Definitions determine who benefits from a program and who does not.
Definitions are more important now than ever given that family structures are complicated and less sequenced.
Changes in family life add to the complexity of designing public policies to support diverse families.

11. © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014
Summary
Clear definitions of family policy and the family impact lens are central to establishing the field as a distinct field of inquiry and for moving the field forward as a legitimate subfield of social policy.
In contrast, precise and widely accepted definitions of family may not be needed to move the field of family policy forward; how family is defined will depend on context and purpose.
Family policy and the family impact lens can be powerful forces for creating the conditions to strengthen and support families in all their diversity across the lifespan.