The family in Romania: Cultural and economic context and implications for treatment

Abstract

The study of family structures, functioning, roles and values is fundamental in family therapist's activities for better understanding the psychological, cultural and social specificity of different clients and interventions. In this paper we describe the Romanian family and the family therapies which are available in Romania. We illustrate basic needs using demographic data and research available from Romania. The nuclear family remains dominant instead of other alternatives, the age of marriage is earlier than in western European countries and celibate and consensual living are exceptions or only for the transitional period before marriage. The role of marriage and childbirth within the marital setting is still important. The model of a single child appears increasingly common due to an improvement in financial resources and better living conditions. Relations with family of origin remain close. The difficulties for children with parents working in different countries raise problems and have implications for the extended family, educators and psychotherapists as well as mental health service providers. Family therapists should keep in mind the structure, function, role and values of the Romanian family for better understanding the issues and resources and use these accordingly in therapy. Policy-makers should be aware of the difficulties concerning availability and access to this therapeutic approach.

Introduction

The study of family structure, functioning, roles and values is fundamental in the family therapist's clinical activities for better understanding the psychological, cultural and social specificity of different clients. In order to present the Romanian family, in this review we use basic demographic data, laws, books and research published in Romanian concerning this topic. The data are limited and there is a paucity of publication and research in the field. Usually the articles are published in the local language and are available for a few specialists. The Internet is an important source of information but not always of good scientific quality. There is one scientific journal on family therapy in Romania, Systemic Therapy Journal, bilingual English-Romanian with two issues a year, active since 2008. The strength of the journal lies in its cultural specificity offering an image of Romanian families and of the situation of family therapy in Romania.

Family

Family could be defined as 1) a social group based on marriage, formed by the couple and their descendents – nuclear family, 2) a human community composed of a group of individuals related by consanguinity and kinship – extended family, and 3) all the individuals who live as a group in the same house under the authority of the ‘pater familias’, juridical leader (Romanian Academy, 2007). The third definition has its origin in the Latin word ‘familia’ and this definition was used in the Roman Empire.

Some sociologists also consider that family includes at least two individuals united by marriage or paternal relation; family therapists can work with a family that consists of one member who lives alone: single, divorced or widowed (Mitrofan & Ciuperca, 2002, Nichols & Schwartz, 2005; Stanciulescu, 2002). In the case of an extended family, in therapy we can work with all the people who live together. In these cases the definition of family is the third one.

For Romanians, among the relationship between the family members, relationships resulting from marriage or procreation seem more important than the amount of time of living together or the location of the family members. For example: even if one parent lives abroad for working for a long time (years), she or he will still be considered a family member.

A marriage is a union between a man and a woman, in a sense that the children born are recognized as offspring by both partners. This union has biological, psychological and social elements (Dunareanu, 2000a).

Although the family was identified as the fundamental unit of socialist society, and it heavily influenced the values of the younger generation, its primary role became reproductive (Bachman, 1989; Dunareanu, 2000b).

Structure of the family

There are two types of families: family of origin, and family of procreation (created after marriage). There is also the nuclear family, which includes the husband and wife and their children, and extended family with other relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., living together.

In 1960, 21.5% of families had grandparents living with them (Bachman, 1989), in 1992 and 2002 the number of extended families remained constant (NRIS, 1992, 2002). Multigenerational families are still more frequent than in the rest of European countries because of economical factors and traditions (Ghebrea, 2003).

The nuclear family shows a slow and steady increase in Romania, being represented by 68.2% of families in 1992, and 79.55% in 2002 (NRIS, 1992, 2002). The distribution of population between urban and rural areas has remained constant in the last decade (NRIS, 2008). In the last few years in Romanian towns the nuclear family seems to be more frequent, but the role of the extended family remains still important, especially in rural areas and for populations aged more than 50 years (Table I).

Table I. Data concerning family types in Romania, data collected from the National Census, 2002 (NRIS, 2002).

	No. of families		Types of families
	Number	%	Nuclear families	Extended families
Urban area	3,144,920	54.15%	92.9%	7.71%
Rural area	2,662,115	45.84%	87.96%	12.03%
Total	5,807,035	100%	79.55%	20.44%

A close relationship continues to exist between the family of origin and the new family created by the marriage of children. The happiness of children is an important family value. Sustaining children economically and psychologically and housing them, even after they marry, remains an important task for most families. The new family may be accepted to live with the origin family until they can move into their own house. The relation between kinship still exists even when parents and their children live in separate households. In recent years many Romanians have gone abroad to work, and the role of extended family has become more prominent especially in looking after children remaining in Romania. The extended families use strategies which help to maximize the resources. There are strong ties between households helping them to avoid poverty. This process leads to jointly owned property, joint cultivation of gardens and shared material comforts from salaried work (Bachman, 1989).

In Romania, there is a high preference for marriage and for the legalization of relationships. The lowest crude marriage rate of 5.9 per 1000 in 2002 still remains higher than other western European countries (Eurostat, 2011; Robila, 2003). Men can marry at 18 years and women at 16, and they have equal rights in the marriage (Family Code, 1954, 1999). The average age of marriage in Romania was 26.9 (in 2000) and 25.7 (in 2003) years old for men, and 22–23.6 years old for women (Ghebrea, 2003; NRIS, 2002). The marital age was the lowest in Europe, similar to Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine; 80% of marriages were first marriages, and, on average, the duration of marriage is 22 years, indicating a high level of marital stability (Ghebrea, 2003).

The Orthodox Church rituals for marriage remain important for the Romanian population. Even in the communist regime marriage had to be legalized in a civil ceremony at the local registry prior to, or preferably instead of, the customary church wedding. Most rural people viewed the civil marriage ceremony required by the state as a mere formality and lived together only after a church wedding. In addition, divorce was much less common in rural parts (Bachman, 1989).

The main role of the Romanian family, like families elsewhere, remains procreative in function and couples without children are often pitied if they cannot have children, or criticized if they do not want children (Dunareanu, 2000b). The average number of individuals per family is 3.39 and the average number of children is 1.21 per family (NRIS, 1992, 2002). To prevent the decline in birth rate in 1966 abortion became illegal. This law was abrogated in 1989 after the Romanian Revolution. In the last few years the government has approved different laws concerning the mother's rights and to stimulate the birth rate (Leon, 2009).

After 1989, Romania experienced multiple waves of migration (Oteanu, 2007). Alexandrescu (2007), citing official data, notes that, as consequences of parental migration, 82,464 children in Romania live without one or both parents. Soros (2007) notes that around 170,000 students at secondary school are living alone, leading to higher rates of depression, especially in adolescents who are in practice for replacing their parents by taking responsibility of the house, little brothers, alone or with the remaining parent (Alexandrescu, 2007).

Children's rights protection national statistics performed by National Agency for Protection of Children Rights show to the end of June 2011 decreasing numbers of children in public and private residential services. There were 43,518 children protected, 1,404 less than the same period in 2010. There were 19,795 (45.48%) in foster care, 17,699 (40.67%) entrusted to fourth degree relatives (first degree: parents; second degree: grandparents, brothers, sisters; third degree: nephews, uncles, grand-grandparents and, fourth degree: cousins), 4,011 (9.22%) entrusted to their family or other persons and 2,013 (4.63%) in tutorial services (NAPCR, 2009).

In the last few years a new problem has emerged due to socio-economic factors – children left behind, with the parents working in different countries, mostly in European Community. These children seldom meet their parents – once or twice a year. In 2009 there were 350,000 children with parents working abroad, and 100,000 of them had both parents abroad (Alexandrescu et al., 2007; NAPCR, 2009).

A project was initiated by the Transport Minister in 2009 emphasizing that parents who want to work abroad must notify the municipality 40 days before leaving the country and they must nominate a carer who is not necessarily a member of the family or even extended family. The caregiver must be at least 18 years old, have an income at least equal to the gross minimum wage in the economy, no motor disability, be familiar with a child’s growth, not having more than three minor children and to pass a psychological test on protection and welfare at the City Hall. Without meeting these conditions, parents cannot leave the country (Marinescu, 2011).

The divorce rate was 1.57 per 1000 in 1996 (Ghebrea, 2003) and 1 per 1000 in 1974. (Eurostat, 1992) The main causes were alcohol addiction and domestic violence. In the last decade the divorce rate has remained relatively steady, at around 1.3 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, in the European context, this level is below average (NRIS, 2002). Individuals aged between 30 and 39 years old and couples without children or with only one child are at higher risk for divorce. Having more than three children is noted to be a protective factor, the divorce rate being in these case lower than 0.2 per 1000 (Calmacu, 2007). The divorce rate differs from region to region, the highest rate being in Bucharest (double than in rest of country), Timis, Brasov, Galati, Prahova, Arad, Hunedoara, and the lowest in Botosani, Olt, Ialomita, Buzau, Salaj, Tulcea, Vaslui (Mihailescu, 1999).

The reconstructed family seems to be more frequent in modern times because of the increasing rate of divorce. Natality is decreasing from 16/1,000 people in 1989 to 10.5/1,000 in 2000 (NRIS, 2002).

The single parent family appears usually after divorce, or the death of one of the marital partners; 12% of families in urban areas and 9.68% in rural areas are represented by single parent families (NRIS, 2002). Traditional society does not support this type of family and recommends family reconstruction for the well-being of the children and remaining parent. Economic difficulties and the absence of one parent are the issues for this type of family.

The concubinage type of family where cohabitation between two partners with the same or different gender as a couple without being married, is still low compared with other countries (6% of all unions), and transitory (usually until partners are 30–35 years old) (NRIS, 2002; Popescu, 2009). The National Romanian Institute of Statistics declared in 2002, that 3.8% (828,000 people) of the Romanian population lived in consensual agreement – cohabitation; the majority in this group were not married, 73.6%, divorced, 17.9%, widowed, 7.1%, or married with one more consensual relationship, 1.4%. They were equally distributed between rural and urban regions (NRIS, 2002). The child birth rate outside marriage was 17% in 1993 (Csortan, 2010).

The Romanian population has a conservative view of the family, and 80% of Romanians consider homosexuality and prostitution as unjustifiable behaviours in any situation; 70% consider that extramarital relations are not to be accepted, but half of them agree with premarital sexual relations. Divorce is disapproved of by 39% of population and 43% remain neutral; only 18% maintain that divorce could be a good solution for conflicts (Soros Foundation, 2011).

Families with one single unmarried member (celibacy) are not very common in Romania and is usually accepted as a transitory period before marriage, especially if the young adult is economically independent (Dunareanu, 2000b). In Romania 17% of the population live alone compared with 51% in Sweden. The cultural model of living with grandparents is common for those who are still not married (NRIS, 1993).

Family therapies

In Romania, the faculties of psychology were closed in 1977 on ideological grounds by the then communist regime. After the Revolution in 1989, when the faculties opened their doors, there was a shortage of trainers for psychology and psychotherapy thus leading to a very slow and gradual progression in training and creating psychotherapy services.

The Romanian Federation of Psychotherapy sets out the regulations concerning the accreditation and certification of psychotherapists in accordance with formal standards required by the European Association of Psychotherapy. Through the grandparenting procedure those who had long experience in psychiatry were acknowledged as psychotherapists and trainers (Botezat-Antonescu, 2004). Currently in Romania among family therapists there are around 60 systemic family therapists and 30 trainers. A total of 12 associations have accreditation for different training programmes, the majority in family systemic therapy (COPSI, 2011).

Psychiatric trainees express high levels of desire for training in psychotherapy (Mihai & Nirestean, 2002, Mihai et al., 2009a, 2009b). Since 2009 one year of training in psychotherapy has been included in core curricula for training in psychiatry. This training offers minimal theoretical and clinical knowledge in at least two types of psychotherapy.

Family therapy training standards are similar to European standards. Training programmes should have the accreditation of the Romanian College of Psychologists and the Romanian Federation of Psychotherapy, which is member of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA). Romanian schools in family therapy demand a minimum 1000 hours of training over 4 years: theory, practical exercises, supervision and self-knowing (COPSI, 2011). Training in psychotherapy can be followed by doctors as well as psychologists, but the number of places is limited because of the high cost and long duration of training. The number of qualified trainers still remains very low and training takes place only in a few centres in Romania: Bucuresti, Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj, Brasov and Targu Mures.

The access of patients to psychotherapy is limited because of financial cost and lack of qualified therapists. Insurance companies only support a low amount of cost (€4 per hour of psychotherapy per month). Non-governmental associations try to support this cost at least partially, and to improve the access of psychiatric patients to psychotherapy (IPPD, 2009). In psychiatric hospitals the psychotherapeutic treatment depends upon availability and the personal interest of each psychiatrist or psychologist.

The psychotherapeutic approach of families which have members working abroad offers images of a restructured extended families with new hierarchies and new roles for those remaining home. The new equilibrium should offer to the children the possibility of studying, socializing with their colleagues and functioning as children in this situation.

The systemic family therapy approach is widely used in Europe but in Romania is just at the beginning, but the community interest in this approach represents strength of future development.

Conclusions

The nuclear family remains dominant over other alternatives, the age of marriage is earlier than in western European countries, and celibate and consensual living remain exception or only for transitional period before marriage.

The role of marriage and child birth is still important. The model of the single child appears as a way of increasing financial resources and better living conditions. The relations with family of origin remain tied. The problems of children with parents working in different countries should be paid attention by the extended family, educators and psychotherapists and mental health providers.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.