Characteristics of Family Lives in Central Europe

In this chapter, authors give a picture of families in individual countries, which participated in the survey, so from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Latvia. They pay attention mainly to the family changes after the year 1990. There is mainly demographic situation. Furthermore, there are features which present contemporary family such as an increase of democratization in family coexistence in connection with the shifts of roles and disintegration in a family life linked with overall individualism manifested by automation, where one creates his/her own way of life. The contemporary family is more likely affected in all countries by progressive social differentiation; in a different level of unemployment, certain isolation and changes are always seen in intergeneration relationships. The authors also pay attention to family social policy and housing situation when starting a family.

Socioeconomic Situation and Satisfaction in the Family Life

In this chapter, the attention is paid to two fields which are linked with family lifestyle. The first one concerns socioeconomic situations in a family and shows that the economic side of family functioning is actually very essential these days. The importance of family economic situation is affirmed also in the results of our international survey. We asked what was the main family income, experience with unemployment and whether our respondents had possibility to save some money. Furthermore, we were interested in expenditure items and in evaluation of an overall standard of living by respondents. The Germans and then Czechs evaluated it as the best, the worst was found in families in Latvia. The second part monitors life satisfaction as a subjective feeling of well-being and is understood as a part of quality of life. To the question “How do you imagine a satisfied family?”, the most frequent response was—harmonic coexistence without conflicts, well-being, good health of all family members and material security. For the question “What do you lack to your satisfaction?” respondents stated—financial security and lack of free time for the family. However, there were specific differences among individual surveyed countries.

A Look at the Contemporary Family’s Life

This introductory chapter approaches two basic categories of the whole monography which is a family and a lifestyle. The first subchapter deals with the complexity around the definition of the term family nowadays and difficulties with its definition. Furthermore, there is a description of post-war family development in Europe up to now, changes of the functions and further changes in the families’ lives differentiated in Western and Eastern part. It turns out that changes in society have caused significant changes in family lives (democratization, individualism, pluralism of family forms, dynamization, adaptability). The term lifestyle, as different concepts, is depicted in the next part of this chapter. It is perceived as a concept of multidimensional and multidisciplinary. The second subchapter contains several researches related to lives of the families. The project of our research and its goals, methods, selected sample (in total of 2437 respondents) and research process is described in the conclusion of the whole chapter.

Media in the Lives of Contemporary Families

The chapter on media in family life highlights the aspects of lifestyle of contemporary families in the context of the saturation of households with modern means of communication, their usage and attitudes towards them. Considerable attention was paid to the issue of family-related media in current research, as evidenced by a wide range of studies and research surveys. This chapter is devoted to several partial aspects of this attention and is based on the data of two surveys. The first research is the European representative survey Eurobarometer 88 (Eurobarometer 2017), and the other one is our research on the Lifestyle of the Contemporary Family (further LSCF, 2012–2015). These data shows an extension of selected media facilities in families, their usage and media leisure time activities and attitudes towards media. The studied countries are in some respects very similar to each other (relatively strong media saturation of households, most common daily use of television and computers, positive perception of media as a way to facilitate communication and negotiation). In other respects (joint media activities, strength of perception of negative aspects of media, usage of media by parents and by children), the countries differ.

Leisure Time in Family Life

The chapter in its first part presents changing understanding of leisure time in the past and currently. Major shifts have occurred in the increasing amount of free time and its democratization. The free time or leisure time is understood only just as a supplement or the rest after work; however, it has its intrinsic value, carries potential of freedom, self-realization, fun and relax. The text deals with leisure time functions and its meaning for individuals and complete family. It highlights issues that are connected with spending of leisure time. In the second part of the chapter, there are results of survey, which was mapping of family spending of free time, its amount and fulfilment. In all the surveyed countries, spending of leisure time has proved to be an important perquisite for family life satisfaction. Activities that are the most likely to be undertaken together with family members are watching TV, walks, trips, visits of friends or relatives, visits of cultural actions and social games.