Which forms of abuse does the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 expressly recognise? Select all that apply.

Harassment by a stranger on the street, with whom there is no domestic relationship

Assertion (A): In Olson's circumplex model, the most cohesive families are always the healthiest. Reason (R): The model treats extreme enmeshment, like extreme disengagement, as unbalanced. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which of the following are features of positive parenting? Select all that apply.

Explaining the reasons for rules

Corporal punishment for every mistake

Explaining the reasons for rules

Which statements about India's family welfare programmes are correct? Select all that apply.

Sex selection is prohibited under the PCPNDT Act 1994

The cafeteria approach offers couples a choice of methods

The target-free approach replaced method-specific targets in 1996

The Reproductive and Child Health programme was launched in 1952

Sex selection is prohibited under the PCPNDT Act 1994

The cafeteria approach offers couples a choice of methods

The target-free approach replaced method-specific targets in 1996

Family Studies I: Dynamics of Marriage and Family Relationships, Family Welfare, Domestic Violence and Marital Conflict, Parent and Community Education, and Family Disorganisation and Single-Parent Families

Unit VIII studies the family as the setting in which Home Science works. This first chapter takes items 1 to 5: the dynamics of marriage and family relationships, with the systems and circumplex models that describe them; family welfare, its approaches, programmes and challenges and its place in national development; domestic violence, marital disharmony and conflict, with the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 and the ways conflict is resolved; parent education, positive parenting and community education; and family disorganisation and single-parent families. NET Sociology treats family, marriage and kinship as social structure, and NET Law treats family law; here the family is approached as Home Science approaches it, as relationships to be strengthened and families to be supported.

1. Dynamics of marriage and family relationships

Marriage is a socially sanctioned union that establishes rights and obligations between spouses, and between them and their children and kin. Its forms include monogamy and polygamy (polygyny, one husband with several wives; polyandry, one wife with several husbands), endogamy (marriage within a group) and exogamy (outside it, as across gotras), hypergamy and hypogamy (marrying into a higher or lower status group), and arranged or self-chosen marriage. Families are nuclear, joint or extended; patrilineal or matrilineal (as traditionally among the Khasi and Garo); patrilocal, matrilocal or neolocal in residence; and patriarchal, matriarchal or egalitarian in authority. Family functions include affection and companionship, reproduction, socialisation of children, economic cooperation, care of dependants, and the transmission of status and culture.

Family systems theory treats the family as a system of interdependent members with subsystems (spousal, parental, sibling), boundaries that may be clear, rigid or diffuse, rules, roles and feedback that maintain balance (homeostasis); Murray Bowen added differentiation of self and triangulation, in which two members in tension draw in a third.
Olson's circumplex model (1979) places families on two dimensions, cohesion (from disengaged through separated and connected to enmeshed) and flexibility (from rigid through structured and flexible to chaotic), with communication as the facilitating dimension; balanced families in the middle ranges usually function best.
Marital adjustment involves sex, money, in-laws, communication, roles and household work, and child rearing; satisfaction often dips during child rearing and recovers later.
Family relationships include parent-child, sibling, in-law and grandparent relationships, each changing across the family life cycle described in chapter 11.

⚠️ Enmeshed is not the same as close

In the circumplex model, very high cohesion (enmeshment) is as problematic as very low cohesion (disengagement): members of an enmeshed family have little room for individual identity. Healthy closeness lies in the connected and separated ranges.

2. Family welfare: approaches, programmes, challenges and national development

India began a National Family Planning Programme in 1952, among the first countries to do so, renamed it the Family Welfare Programme in 1977 to reflect a wider concern with maternal and child health, and moved from method-specific targets to the target-free, community needs assessment approach in 1996. The Reproductive and Child Health programme (1997) integrated family planning with maternal and child health and reproductive tract infections; the National Rural Health Mission (2005), expanded into the National Health Mission (2013), and the RMNCH+A strategy (2013) placed family welfare in a continuum of care across reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. The National Population Policy 2000 aimed at replacement-level fertility and population stabilisation, and Mission Parivar Vikas (2016) targeted high-fertility districts. The total fertility rate fell to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21), below the replacement level of 2.1.

Approach	Meaning
Clinic approach	Services offered at clinics for those who come; early, passive
Extension approach	Workers go to the community to educate and motivate
Cafeteria approach	A basket of methods from which couples choose freely
Target-free and integrated approach	Services planned from community needs and integrated with maternal, child and reproductive health

The basket of methods includes spacing methods (condoms, oral pills, the weekly non-hormonal pill centchroman, the injectable contraceptive, intrauterine devices) and permanent methods (tubectomy and no-scalpel vasectomy). Challenges remain: son preference and sex selection (prohibited under the PCPNDT Act 1994), low male participation in contraception, early marriage and adolescent pregnancy, unmet need for spacing, and wide differences between states. Family welfare contributes to national development through healthier mothers and children, women's education and work, lower dependency ratios and the chance to realise the demographic dividend.

3. Domestic violence, marital disharmony, conflict and its resolution

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, in force from October 2006, defines domestic violence broadly as physical, sexual, verbal and emotional, and economic abuse, including dowry harassment, of a woman in a domestic relationship (with a husband, a live-in partner or relatives in a shared household). It is a civil law that gives quick relief: protection orders, residence orders that secure a woman's right to live in the shared household, monetary relief, custody orders and compensation, granted by a Magistrate with the help of Protection Officers and registered service providers. Criminal remedies lie in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which punishes cruelty by a husband or his relatives (the former Indian Penal Code section 498A) and dowry death, and in the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961. One Stop Centres (Sakhi) and the women's helpline 181 provide integrated support. NFHS-5 found that 29.3 per cent of ever-married women aged 18 to 49 had experienced spousal physical or sexual violence.

Marital disharmony arises from poor communication, unmet expectations, financial strain, in-law interference, infidelity, substance abuse, and stress from work or illness. Conflict is not in itself destructive; how it is handled decides the outcome. The Thomas-Kilmann model describes five styles, competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating, of which collaboration (both concerns fully met) is usually best for lasting relationships. John Gottman identified four patterns, the "Four Horsemen", that predict breakdown: criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling, with contempt the strongest predictor. Resolution draws on active listening, "I" statements in place of blame, negotiation, time-outs, counselling, mediation and, where needed, the Family Courts set up under the Family Courts Act 1984, which emphasise conciliation.

⚠️ The 2005 Act is civil, not only criminal

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act gives civil reliefs such as residence and protection orders; breach of a protection order is an offence, but the Act's purpose is protection and support rather than punishment. Criminal prosecution for cruelty proceeds under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

4. Parent education, positive parenting and community education

Parent education gives parents knowledge, skills and confidence for child rearing: child development and nutrition, health and hygiene, communication, discipline, play and early learning, and recognising problems early. Positive parenting combines warmth and responsiveness with structure: praise and attention for good behaviour, clear and consistent limits, routines, explaining reasons, solving problems together and non-violent discipline, in place of harsh punishment, which harms development. Corporal punishment and mental harassment of children in schools are prohibited under the Right to Education Act 2009. Structured programmes such as the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) show that parenting skills can be taught and that child behaviour improves when they are.

Methods of parent education: individual counselling and home visits, group meetings and mothers' meetings at anganwadis, demonstrations, workshops, parent-teacher meetings, printed materials, radio, television and mobile messages.
Community education reaches beyond individual families to change norms: Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Days, Poshan Maah in September and Poshan Pakhwada in March under POSHAN Abhiyaan, self-help group meetings, school and panchayat campaigns, and folk media.
Fathers are increasingly included, since shared parenting benefits children's development and eases mothers' burden.

5. Family disorganisation and single-parent families

Family disorganisation is the breakdown of the family as a unit, when one or more members fail to perform their roles adequately. W. J. Goode's typology includes the incomplete family unit, the voluntary departure of a spouse (annulment, separation, divorce, desertion), changes in role definitions that produce conflict, the "empty shell" family in which members live together but communicate and support one another little, crises from external events such as death, imprisonment or disaster, and internal catastrophes such as serious mental or physical illness. Its causes include economic stress, migration, alcoholism, violence, changing gender roles and weakened social support; its effects on children include insecurity, lower school performance and behaviour problems, though these depend heavily on the conflict and support around the change.

Single-parent families	Points to note
Routes into single parenthood	Widowhood, divorce, separation, desertion, migration of a spouse, and single parents by choice or adoption
Common challenges	Lower income (especially in female-headed households), role overload, childcare, social stigma, loneliness, and the child's adjustment
Supports	Widow pensions under the National Social Assistance Programme, maintenance through courts, child care leave, crèches, self-help groups, counselling, and extended family and community networks

🎯 Why desertion is called the poor man's divorce

Legal divorce requires money, time and access to courts; a spouse who simply leaves avoids all three. Desertion therefore breaks many poorer families without any legal record, leaving the remaining parent without the maintenance and property rights a court would have secured.

Key takeaways

Marriage takes monogamous and polygamous, endogamous and exogamous forms; families vary by structure, descent, residence and authority; systems theory and Olson's circumplex model (cohesion and flexibility) describe family dynamics.
India's family planning began in 1952, became family welfare in 1977, went target-free in 1996 and joined RCH (1997), NHM and RMNCH+A; NFHS-5 put the TFR at 2.0, below the replacement level of 2.1.
The PWDVA 2005 recognises physical, sexual, verbal-emotional and economic abuse and gives civil reliefs, including residence orders; criminal cruelty is punished under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
Conflict styles are competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating; Gottman's Four Horsemen predict breakdown, contempt most strongly.
Positive parenting joins warmth with structure and non-violent discipline; family disorganisation ranges from divorce and desertion to the empty shell family; single-parent families need economic, social and emotional support.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

What total fertility rate is generally taken as the replacement level of fertility? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 2.1
A TFR of about 2.1 children per woman replaces the parents' generation, allowing for child deaths and the slightly higher number of male births. India's TFR fell to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21), just below it.
Under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, an order securing a woman's right to continue living in the shared household is a:
1. Residence order
2. Compensation order
3. Custody order
4. Maintenance decree
Show answer
Answer: A — Residence order
The residence order protects the aggrieved woman's right to reside in the shared household and can restrain the respondent from dispossessing her. Custody orders concern children, compensation orders damages, and maintenance is a separate monetary relief.
Which forms of abuse does the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 expressly recognise? Select all that apply.
1. Harassment by a stranger on the street, with whom there is no domestic relationship
2. Physical abuse
3. Economic abuse
4. Verbal and emotional abuse
Show answer
Answer: B — Physical abuse; C — Economic abuse; D — Verbal and emotional abuse
The Act defines domestic violence to include physical, sexual, verbal and emotional, and economic abuse, such as depriving a woman of resources she is entitled to. It applies only within a domestic relationship, so harassment by a stranger falls under the criminal law instead.
In Gottman's research, which of the "Four Horsemen" is the single strongest predictor of divorce?
1. Stonewalling
2. Criticism
3. Defensiveness
4. Contempt
Show answer
Answer: D — Contempt
Gottman found contempt, expressing disgust or superiority through sarcasm, mockery or eye-rolling, to be the strongest predictor of relationship breakdown. Criticism, defensiveness and stonewalling are the other three horsemen.
India's national family planning programme, one of the first in the world, began in:
1. 1977
2. 1952
3. 1996
4. 2005
Show answer
Answer: B — 1952
The programme began in 1952. It was renamed the Family Welfare Programme in 1977, adopted the target-free approach in 1996, and was absorbed into the National Rural Health Mission from 2005.
Assertion (A): In Olson's circumplex model, the most cohesive families are always the healthiest. Reason (R): The model treats extreme enmeshment, like extreme disengagement, as unbalanced. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: D — A is false, but R is true
A is false and R is true. The circumplex model holds that balanced levels of cohesion (separated and connected) work best, while both extremes, enmeshed and disengaged, are problematic; so maximum cohesion is not maximum health.
A couple in conflict works together until they find a solution that fully satisfies both. In the Thomas-Kilmann model this is:
1. Compromising
2. Collaborating
3. Avoiding
4. Accommodating
Show answer
Answer: B — Collaborating
Collaboration seeks a solution that meets both parties' concerns fully. Compromise splits the difference so each gets part of what they want, accommodation gives up one's own concerns, and avoidance sidesteps the conflict.
Which of the following are features of positive parenting? Select all that apply.
1. Corporal punishment for every mistake
2. Praise and attention for good behaviour
3. Clear and consistent limits
4. Explaining the reasons for rules
Show answer
Answer: B — Praise and attention for good behaviour; C — Clear and consistent limits; D — Explaining the reasons for rules
Positive parenting combines warmth with structure: consistent limits, praise and explanation. Corporal punishment harms development and is prohibited in schools under the Right to Education Act 2009.
A husband and wife continue to share a house but rarely talk, share activities or support each other. In Goode's terms this is:
1. An empty shell family
2. Desertion
3. An external crisis
4. Annulment
Show answer
Answer: A — An empty shell family
The empty shell family stays together formally while its emotional and supportive relationships have largely ended. Desertion and annulment involve a spouse leaving or the marriage being declared void, and an external crisis is caused by events such as death or imprisonment.
Which statements about India's family welfare programmes are correct? Select all that apply.
1. The Reproductive and Child Health programme was launched in 1952
2. Sex selection is prohibited under the PCPNDT Act 1994
3. The cafeteria approach offers couples a choice of methods
4. The target-free approach replaced method-specific targets in 1996
Show answer
Answer: B — Sex selection is prohibited under the PCPNDT Act 1994; C — The cafeteria approach offers couples a choice of methods; D — The target-free approach replaced method-specific targets in 1996
The target-free approach dates from 1996, the cafeteria approach means free choice among methods, and the PCPNDT Act 1994 prohibits sex selection. The RCH programme began in 1997; 1952 is when the national family planning programme started.