Social Institutions

The traditional family set up is changing rapidly because of many exogenous social factors like poor interaction, roles of different gender in a family or marriage and life behavior. Consequently, the rates of cases like divorce, grandparents as parents, unmarried women and cohabitation have increased, thus, changing the traditional family structure. However, the government has not much to do with the divorce rates. Formulation of laws that makes divorce more difficult or making cohabitation outside marriage impossible will not solve all the family problems. The government alone is not able to deal with marriage and family problems because the problem does not lie within the regulatory structures, but it is in people’s ways of thinking. The problem is people’s understanding of family and the institution of marriage. There is nobody to teach the society what a family or marriage means. The United States government needs to mobilize all other social institutions to create the new culture that values marriage and family life. The media, government and other social institutions need to combine efforts in educating the society on the meaning of marriage and the best family cultures.

To save the families and marriages, all social institutions and individuals like celebrities and other influential members of the society need to teach the younger generations on how to embrace values that harness bright side of family life (Henslin, 2012). They should also lead by example. The government should also intervene on the impacts of dark side of life through bringing the perpetrators to justice. When in courts, there is need for restorative justice and educating the parties on better ways of leading family life. Such steps are very essential because they will help the family members, husbands and wives, to set family goals, have mutual understanding, respect each other’s opinions and share responsibilities, which will eventually save the families and reduce divorce cases.