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Difficulties regarding families in Hungary

Document Citado por Relacionados
Vincent
AutorKatalin Visontai-Szabó
Páginas407-413

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I The stability of families is decreasing

Currently the young in Hungary make their decision on establishing a family at a later and later date. While in the 70s people tended to get married and have children in their early twenties, in the 2010s this age gets a lot over
30. This phenomenon not only in Hungary is experienced, but in the case of generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995) also in the whole of Europe1.

The reasons for the changes might be numerous. Many refer to the prior cause of the lack of launching a family is not finding the proper partner. Is it possible that the children of the digital era, in the age of artificial social networks build relationships harder? What else could the reason be? Although in their parents’ and grandparents’ youth with the lack of internet, smart phones and Facebook people had fewer opportunities to meet potential partners, they all still sooner or later found their mates. At present the higher number of women at universities and colleges makes their chances to find the man according to their expectations –with the same or a higher level of education– undoubtedly more complicated. It is well known that for women to respect their man is essential in a relationship. Due to this attitude quite a lot of women get trapped, namely spending such a long time selecting, and postponing childbearing so long that in the end they run out of time to become a mother in a natural way. Another reason could be that a lot of young people are afraid to start their

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own life, feeling frightened of being committed and of the adulthood, which phenomenon is called quarter-life crisis. These people typically even at the end of their twenties, or at the beginning of their thirties still live with their parents, attending a university or doing another training and by no means are they willing to leave the state of being a child. It makes the situation more complicated that since 1978 every other marriage has ended in a divorce2, so among those who are to start a family five out of ten have grown up in a family where the parents got divorced. There is a good reason to assume that it is the dreaded childhood experiences which lead not to wish to get married, what is more, not to think of having a child. Furthermore, it is highly typical of generation Y that freedom and independence are widely appreciated and the lack of commitment appears not only at the labour market, that is shifting from one job to another in every 1-3 years, but also in their relationships. If somebody wants to maintain their freedom under any circumstances, perhaps a loose relationship might be accepted, but a family with children definitely not.

These changes will result in severe social and individual consequences, or rather they already currently do. The most important to be mentioned is the dramatic change in the structure of the society accompanied by a radical decrease in the number of newborns, causing quick ageing.

As a result of the above mentioned reasons fewer and fewer marriages are made in Hungary (in 1950 100,000 marriages were made in a year, but nowadays only 35,000)3. It seems to be controversial as the Hungarian state respects and protects the institution of marriage and the family unit, although its framework is quite tight. According to the Hungarian Fundamental Law “Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman established by voluntary decision, and the family as the basis of the survival of the nation. Family ties shall be based on marriage and/or the relationship between parents and children. Hungary shall encourage the commitment to have children”4.

The Fundamental Law does not respect neither the marriage between the same sex couples nor families not based on marriage. Before the Fundamental Law signed on 25.04.11. no act had defined the concept of family since it was obvious to anybody. This regulation came into force with the aim of increasing the number of marriages, however, this goal has not been achieved yet.

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Beside the decreasing number of marriages, the number of divorces has been slowly increasing since the 80s, currently approximately 23,000 marriages are annually dissolved5. Getting divorced is only one problem, the other difficulty is that the marriages last shorter and shorter preceding the final step, the divorce. According to the statistics a marriage lasts 12.5 years6 on average, which means that a lot of...

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