ABSTRACT
IT was the personal experience of the whole population of Great Britain whose lives were directly affected and disrupted by the conditions of war which rediscovered for the nation the value of the family. Up to this time, its importance, from the period of the industrial revolution, had been under mined by powerful economic and social factors, and this loss of status was reflected in its smaller size and the lack of support given to it in social legislation. When society had been agricultural the family had been able to work together as a productive unit, the oldest and the youngest could be found some work to do in the house or on the land near by, but the individual competition and struggle for survival which came with industrial conditions weakened its cohesive nature, and economic need sent even the very young children out from the home into long hours of unsupervised factory labour. Even the ameliorating legislation when it came, brought also problems to the poor, for the early factory and education acts prolonged the period of a child's dependency, and families were unable to make up the loss of wages. The family with young children became itself a cause of poverty and this is clearly shown in the study made by Rowntree in 1901. Children, once a financial asset, now became, during their long dependency, a liability. The smaller family with less mouths to feed had more chance of security, for it was less liable to the vicious circle of poverty and consequent hunger and ill health. It thus became more desirable economically and the large family began to disappear, even became a source of irritation to administrators because of its economic dependence; and with the going of the large family there also went the special protection to childhood offered by the kinship group of different members and generations.
