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This paper investigates ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural northeastern Thailand. Qualitative methodological approach was implemented in the study. In-depth interview was used as research instrument to collect data from two groups of key informant including 1) community leaders, community seniors, and community committees, totally seven persons, and 2) skipped-generation families living in rural north-eastern region of Thailand, totally 7 families. Data analysis was done by content analysis method.
SKIPPED - GENERATION FAMILIES: RURAL LIFE IN THE NORTHEAST OF THAILAND1 Wattanachai Kwalamthan wat_lamthan@hotmail.com2 Assoc Prof Dr Dusadee Ayuwat dusayu@yahoo.com3 Dr Wanichcha Narongchai wanich.treel3or@gmail.com4 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand Abstract This paper investigates ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural northeastern Thailand Qualitative methodological approach was implemented in the study In-depth interview was used as research instrument to collect data from two groups of key informant including 1) community leaders, community seniors, and community committees, totally seven persons, and 2) skipped-generation families living in rural north-eastern region of Thailand, totally families Data analysis was done by content analysis method Research results found that coexistence of skipped-generation families occurred due to migration of family member When labour-aged member migrated to work outside community, grandparents and grandchildren stayed together with different attitudes of living Some grandparents thought that raising grandchildren was a hard task especially in families with many grandchildren, and it negatively affected health condition However, the study indicated division of roles within skipped-generation families Each family member had own roles clearly, and it resulted in they were able to maintain internal relationship smoothly In addition, most skipped-generation families sometimes needed support from neighbours to sustain their livings Keywords: Skipped-generation families, migrant workers, community, rural life THIS PAPER IS A PART OF THE MASTER'S THESIS ENTITLED ―HAPPINESS OF SKIPPEDGENERATION FAMILIES WITH INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS‖, WHICH IS FUNDED BY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES KHON KAEN UNIVERSITY, KHON KAEN, THAILAND M.A Student (Sociology), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University 431 Introduction "Grandparents raising grandchildren" has currently become a phenomenon that can be found in rural north-eastern region of Thailand Children‘s parents have migrated for jobs in other areas for long time, and have left children with their grandparents Thai scholars consider this type of family as "skipped-generation families" (Pothisita, 2009) It is generally found different attitudes of living between grandparents and grandchildren in skipped-generation families due to life experiences Grandparents have more experienced than the younger ones, and it results in different thoughts and attitudes among them (Champaklay, 2013) However, the differences among two-generation family members might cause some family problems The misunderstanding between grandparents and grandchildren probably provides negative impact to child development Children who grow up with such families might cause social problems (Sri-Reungla, 2006) Moreover, it was found that the division of family role in skipped-generation families, that have grandparents who have lived in pair, mostly rely on gender role Male grandparents mostly are represented as the family heads who are responsible for socioeconomic roles of family, while female grandparents have been given the role of raising their grandchildren Sometimes female grandparents urge that raising grandchildren is a hard situation, which obstruct them to other family tasks A full-time children caregiving task affects health condition of the caregiver because caregivers have to focus on their grandchildren for several consecutive hours, so they have no time to rest Those grandparents with serious diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, and heart disease, might be in trouble if they have hard time to raise grandchildren (Jiyuan, 2008) In addition, skipped-generation families probably has coped with economic issue within family, since they have to bear migration expenses for those who work abroad The family have to live with a debt in hardly situation, and it results in low economic security of the family (Boonkwang, 2016) According to situation in skipped-generation families above, research question is set up on how does skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand live? Concept of status and role (Parsons, 1968) has been implemented in the study Talcott Parsons (1902 - 1979) has introduced his idea about "system of action" in term of socially context Society is the context in which action and status of individual are determined by social structure Status and role of individual are interrelated each other within a single unit of society Parsons named this interaction as the social system (Parsons, 1968) Parsons‘s social system presents four basic functions including 1) behavioural organism that is the varieties and processes of biological activity, 2) personality system is actions of individuals in a systematic manner, 3) social system is a system determining actions of individuals who have different social status, and it is regulated by cultural framework Lastly, 4) cultural system which regulates social regulations (Chantavanich, 2009) Individual value can be constructed by two patterns which are 1) social norm that oversees individual‘s behavior to reflect common values and 2) the belief systems of culture Values and other related elements may become part of personality system which 432 response the needs of the system, and it determines the willingness of individual to serve their social roles and status Thus, it can be concluded that institutionalization is the process that constructs social structures Roles of individual would be grouped, and become the sub-system within a large social structure Therefore, it can be concluded that human society is a large system which consists of many institutions It is important to concern cultural framework and interrelationship among personality system when analysing social system This paper investigates ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural northeastern Thailand based on a framework which interrelates among skipped-generation families, migrants, and community Implication of research was expected to enlighten ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand, and to recommend a proper guideline which supports the coexistence of skipped-generation people within family The research conceptual framework is as follows a figure Community Skipped-generation Families Coexistence Division of roles Economic role Physical aspect Economic aspect Sociocultural aspect Migrant Workers Economic role Communication (Figure Research Conceptual Framework) The conceptual framework of the study indicates interrelates among skippedgeneration families, migrants, and community based on Parsons‘s System of Action (1968) Social context is the context in which individuals who have own roles, and their actions would be performed according to the status quo The status and roles are interrelated each other and become sub-system within a large social system Therefore, society and community are responsible for determining individual‘s status and role Family is one of the social unit which contains sub-element, which is family member and their migrants Community, skipped-generation families, and migrants have systemically interrelated to each other, and are able to determine roles and status among family members For instance, the community has its own social system in order to care for grandparents or the elderly This pattern becomes social norm which determine that children shall take care of their parents or grandparents when they are getting old According to Globalization context, however, some unpleasant circumstances force children who are labour-aged to work outside their home for a long time, and leave their grandparents alone or stay with their grandchildren This results in value of the elderly care has been reduced 433 Method This research is a qualitative research Research area is Olo Village in Phu Kwiew District, Chaiyaphum Province due to the fact that this area is one of the largest migrant population city in north-eastern Thailand, and there are a great number of skippedgeneration families Unit of analysis is family and community Key informants consisted of seven skipped-generation families which had international migrants In-depth interview and non-participatory observation were applied as research instrument Interview guideline contained several questions in regard to coexistence, roles and functions within family, interrelationship with migrants, and interrelationship with community While communitybased informants consisted of two community seniors, three community leaders, and two community committees, totally persons Interviews were conducted to access the community contexts such as socio-cultural context, economic context, community history, and dynamic of family structure that might affect ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand The content analysis method was used to analyse data The analysis considered three elements (Miles and Huberman, 1994) included 1) data organizing is a process of organizing data in easily store and use, and categorize data content into groups systemically 2) Data display is the process of presenting research findings The process concern validity of data which in line with social phenomenon 3) Conclusion, interpretation, and verification is a process of concluding research findings based on interpretation and data verification to consider relationship with social phenomenon These analysis processes would explore ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand, and it would be a guideline for enhancing sustainable happiness among family Results Results of the study were divided into two parts including 1) community background; which consisted of physical background, economic background, and sociocultural background, and 2) ways of life of skipped-generation families; which consisted of coexistence of the family, division of roles and status within family, economic roles of skipped-generation families, and roles of migrants and community toward skippedgeneration families 3.1 Community background According to community senior‘s narratives about the history of Olo Village, the community has established in 1801 or about 217 years ago The community was settled up by a couple named Mr.O and Mrs.Lo, the travelers, who stopped by at this area They observed a variety of natural resource in the area, for example, creek wild plant, and a hundred of cattle They agreed to settle community here, and then they convinced neighbors and relatives to settle home at Olo area Years later, the community was expanding, since more people immigrated to Olo community Olo Village then was separated into three communities included Olo Moo 1, Olo Moo 10, and Olo Moo 11 Olo Village nowadays has been established as a Sub-district in Phu Kiew District, Chaiyaphum Province 434 Landscape of Olo Village is a flat plain surrounded by sparse forests and mountains Landscape character is sandy loam, which is suitable for crop cultivation A big pond named ―Nong Haew‖ located nearby community It is a vital water resource for people in Olo Village and communities nearby in terms of agricultural activity and daily consumption In addition, ―Prom‖ River, which flows from Chulabhorn Dam into Olo Village, is another water source that supports agricultural activity in Olo Village throughout the year Regarding community economy, the community has originally conducted agriculture In 1957, people in community started growing sunhemp (kenaf) since it was very popular among farmers over northeastern region The circumstance caused a change of production mode from subsistence production to commercial production Later, in 1987, the sugar mill set up at Phu Kiew District Farmers decided turning their rice farms into sugarcane farm in order to support production capacity of the sugar mill Sugarcane nowadays becomes economic crop which provides cash and career opportunity to the community In 2005, a number of farmers brought rubber to grow in Olo area due to high rubber price at that time However, there are few rubber farms in the area due to low rubber price issue, and farmers turned back to grow sugarcane Socio-cultural background of Olo Village is based on locally northeastern tradition named ―Heed Sib Song Kong Sib See‖ People has set up religious events every months throughout the year However, more people in Olo Village have been moving out of the village for works The events, therefore, occur in some months In addition, Loy Kra Tong traditional event is another major event in Olo Village There is a beauty contest by recruiting the elderly or girls instead of the adult to join the contest This is an opportunity for groups of people to participate in community activities 3.2 Ways of life of kipped-generation family Skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand consisted of two generations of family member, grandparents and grandchildren Two generation-family members lived together since the labour-aged parents of grandchildren migrated out of community to find jobs in major cities or overseas Migrants would send remittance back to their family at origin area, while grandparents took responsibility to raise grandchildren It can be said that this was an internal agreement within family and, it was a remuneration for skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand Coexistence of skipped-generation families Coexistence of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand were similar in living styles There were generations of family member stayed together Grandparents, who lived in pair, would normally raise grandchildren except some of them died or divorced Most of the family had more than one grandchild When parents had a second child, they decided working outside community because they did not have money enough to spend for living expenses Parents needed to migrate to work elsewhere to make money However, raising grandchildren by grandparents might cause some problems 435 within family especially on attitudes and ways of life between grandfather, grandmother, and grandchildren Grandmothers often had a simple lifestyle They were not ambitious, and were not extravagant While grandfathers, who acted as family head, would sometime showed the leader's behavior For instance, they bought some luxurious objects such as cars or agricultural vehicles When their grandchildren wanted to buy mobile phone, motorcycle, some electronic devices, grandmother often denied responding grandchildren‘s need because grandmother thought it was unnecessary and extravagant If grandchildren were still stubborn to buy it, grandmothers might punish grandchildren in order to stop them to think about buying the item On the other hand, grandfathers usually supported grandchildren‘s need because they thought it was necessary to buy Everyone should have mobile phone or others to use in daily life In addition, grandparents and grandchildren often had different views of the time of learn and play It was found that a number of grandchildren usually played mobile phones all the time They played games, and watched videos from YouTube Grandparents considered that these activities were not beneficial to their grandchildren It was just a recreational activity, so grandparents often allowed their grandchildren using mobile phones 2-3 hours a day However, grandchildren thought playing mobile phones encouraged them to access news or information, and to make friends on the online communities Sometimes them used mobile phones to search knowledge during they were doing homework Due to different views among two generations, it caused misunderstanding among them sometimes It was one of family‘s ways that contributed family members of skipped-generation families understood each other Division of roles in skipped-generation family The division of roles among skipped-generation families was often divided base on gender aspect For instance, male was expected to work hard such as agricultural activity, while female was expected to housekeeping works such as cooking or handcrafting However, some skipped-generation families had different pattern of role division Roles within family were based on ability and skill which embedded in each family members Some families, with male grandchildren, were skilled in handicrafts, so male grandchildren were influenced by their grandparents, and were able to handicraft tasks However, some thought that handicraft works should belong to female members Most people in community still did not accept such roles Men should not work a female task Those who worked a female task sometime were stigmatized as ―the transgender‖, so some abilities and skills that embedded in skipped-generation families were hidden In addition, there was negative effect on role division among skipped-generation families Health problem became a challenge for elderly grandparents Many grandparents, with diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and leprosy, had difficult situation in living with grandchildren Severity of disease would be increasing when grandparents did several jobs at the same time For instance, some of grandparents raised their baby grandchildren and did housekeeping works at the same time It was too much for grandparents with disease, so some grandparents thought that raising baby grandchildren was a "burden" of the elderly‘s practice 436 Economic role of skipped-generation family The study found that most skipped-generation families had a main occupation, farmers, while some of them did trading Most of the farmers were sugarcane farmers because there was a sugar mill located in nearby community, and sugarcane was easy to grow These reasons made people in Phu Khiew District to change their ways of life and agricultural forms into commercial agriculture Sugarcane farming also produced good income to the families May of skipped-generation families had a large amount of annual income They were able to buy more lands or rent lands for expanding their sugarcane farms, and became ―a broker‖ to manage sugarcane quota in community However, it was found that some skipped-generation families did trading because the lands they owned were not suitable for growing sugarcane, and patterns of daily consumption among local people have been changing Therefore, trading became an option for skipped-generation families to sustain economic status of family In addition, although skipped-generation families would have occupations to in community, they still required remittance from migrants The selling price of sugarcane currently is decreasing, and many families are dealing with uncertain economic conditions They could not rely on one income source anymore, so they have to find more income sources, for instance, become labour in community, or receive remittance from their migrants In case skipped-generation families needed money urgently, they sometimes decided making a loan from both legal source and illegal source, and expected the remittance to be ―the help‖ to get rid of the debt Role of migrants toward skipped-generation family Interrelationship between skipped-generation families and migrants was another condition that affect ways of life among skipped-generation families Most of them had internal agreement each other Migrants would send remittances back to their families at origin areas, while grandparents took responsible for raising migrant‘s children However, migration to work outside community did not provide a good output to family Some families had to make a loan for migration expenses, and they had to bear a lot of debt Some families chose to make illegal loan to from one source to clear debt from another source In addition, it was fund that all skipped-generation families communicated with migrants almost every day through the online channel such as Facebook They normally sent photos, or had a video chat to each other to show their daily activities This communication form took a part to encourage skipped-generation families and migrants to interact with each other It can be said that the important role of the migrant is to provide economic support to the families, while skipped-generation family‘s role is to encourage migrants to success during they are working Role of community toward skipped-generation family It was found that the community played an important role in the ways of life of skipped-generation families The roles were divided into aspects including 1) physical aspect; showed that skipped-generation families relied on community resources to sustain 437 their livings such as the public land for cultivation or for daily consumption Skippedgeneration families used public lands because their own lands were used to grow sugarcane and rice, or some families did not have own lands Skipped-generation families used water sources from nearby areas for consumption They used water sources to find foods, and use in agriculture Water sources nearby community were sufficient to consumption throughout the year In addition, skipped-generation families sometimes collected wild plants or herbs at the forests nearby community 2) Economic aspect; showed that skippedgeneration families whose members have some specific skills were more likely to be hired in the community For example, those who were experts on traditional rituals would have more chance to conduct local rituals It was another way to build social relationship in community 3) Sociocultural aspect; it was found that pattern of house settlement in Olo Village was separated from center of the village, and most families were the extended family Almost villagers were relatives or close friends Skipped-generation families always participated in community activities together with neighbors Neighbors were the first choice when skipped-generation families needed helps In addition, sometimes skipped-generation families would ask the help from neighbors to raise grandchildren in case the grandparents were busy or had something to at other areas for a while Therefore, it was not surprising to find grandchildren in the Isan countryside calling their grandparents and neighbors as "father" or "mother" because they spent long time together Although they sometime had some misunderstanding issues, they still had a tied relationship In addition, community and neighbors were always looking after and supporting skipped-generation families These were the ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand Conclusion A study of ways of life of skipped-generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand based on Parsons‘s concept of status and role (1902-1979) found that status and roles of skipped-generation families were constructed by social structure; family Family automatically assigns parents have responsibility to raise children, while children have to be good manner and obedient to parents The findings indicate both status and role which are formed into system that relates to society‘s norm and value, and it becomes cultural framework to regulate actions of individual However, the social system can be flexible to meet different community contexts The findings are supported to suggest that when values of people in community changed, patterns or systems are always replaced by new ones For example, in the past father and mother have to raise children Currently, more people have worked outside their home Grandparents, thus, play an important role to raise grandchildren instead of children‘s father and mother As a result, the social system is a system that determines status and role of members of the society, and it is flexible and adaptable to maintain society References Potisita, C (2009) What Happen to Family?, in Potisita and Taweesit (editors), Population and Society 2009: Thai Family in the Social and Population Transitions Nakornpathom: IPSR Mahidol University 438 Sri-Reungla, C (2006) The Anti-social Behavior of the Teenagers Whose Parents Migrated for Careers: A Case Study in Nong Koongsri District, Kalasin Province MA Thesis (Social Development) Graduate School Khon Kaen: Khon Kaen University Jampaklay, A., Vapattnawong, P., Tangchonlatip, K., Richter, K., Ponpai, N., & Hayeeteh, C (2012) Children living apart from parents due to internal migration (CLAIM): Final report Nakornpathom: Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University Chantavanich, S (1997) International Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region : Drivers and Trends 1st Edition Bangkok: Asian Research Center for Migration, Chulalongkorn University Boonkwang, P (2017) Household Security of Isan Migrant Workers Working Abroad Nakhon Phanom University Journal 7(2), 108 – 115 Parsons, T (1968) The Structure of Social Action A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers, Vols I and II New York and London: The Free Press and Collier Macmillan 439 ... families These were the ways of life of skipped- generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand Conclusion A study of ways of life of skipped- generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand. .. ways of life of skipped- generation families in rural north-eastern Thailand, and to recommend a proper guideline which supports the coexistence of skipped- generation people within family The research... success during they are working Role of community toward skipped- generation family It was found that the community played an important role in the ways of life of skipped- generation families The roles