Family Policy

Defining Family Policy

The roots of family policy lie in the fields of general public and social policy. Public policy is often described as the totality of government action and inaction that affects the larger general population (Stone, 1997). Social policy addresses those same [Page 451]actions but focuses not so much on the general population as on individual demographic groups, such as low-income communities, older adults, or people with disabilities. Family policy is even more specific. It focuses on the well-being of those individuals who, in one way or another, make up a family unit.

Family policy covers a broad area of programs and actions that have prompted some critics to describe certain definitions as “meaningless” (Bogenschneider, 2000) or as “everything and nothing” (Steiner, 1981, p. 197). It has come to be understood as “everything governments do that affects families” (Zimmerman, 1992, p. 3). Government actions affect families in many ways: directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly, targeted or (less often) universally. These policies and programs range from the Earned Income Tax Credit to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to child care to Head Start to marriage itself.

Family policy is not exclusively the domain of governments. It is not unusual for workplaces to have policies and programs that focus on the family or members of a family (Bogenschneider, 2000). Major workplaces, with 50 or more employees, have a paternal leave policy (some with benefits beyond those required by the Family and Medical Leave Act). Many larger employers also provide child care benefits, health and wellness benefits, or educational programs for spouses and children.

Policy scientists also consider family policy in a manner similar to social policy: as a perspective or way to think about or analyze public and social policies that affect families (Zimmerman, 1988, 1992). In this manner, academic and governmental analysts examine policies to see the real effects that these policies have on families.

These broad definitions still make it difficult to understand specifically what family policy is and how it affects positive family functioning, well-being, and youth development. Yet understanding family policy as the by-product of government action directed at members of families and as a way to analyze those policies allows the family practitioner, the policymaker, and the policy scientist to better evaluate government policies and how they do or would affect families.

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