The Family and Individual Social Participation

T HE HYPOTHESIS presented in this paper is that the participation of an individual is a considerable degree a function of the participation of the family. It says that if husbands participate, wives usually do, and if husbands and wives participate, children usually do, so that participation is chiefly a family trait. Such an hypothesis, if correct, is of considerable importance for sociology and for work. In a democratic society, participation is fundamental. Boodin has stated that to understand the conduct of human beings, we must understand their participation, consciously and unconsciously, in group beliefs and ideals, with the control that these have over them. Eliminate this factor in conduct and we no longer have human conduct.1 Queen and Gruener in their Social Pathology,2 have recognized this by relating their considerations of the social pathologies the basic question of their influence upon the participation of human beings, reasoning that participation through membership and roles in groups and activities that may be described as cultural is an expression of normal living. Likewise, this hypothesis is important practically. If the worker, the county agricultural agent, and the minister of religion, urban and rural, and others engaged in and individual reconstruction can be quite sure that participation is a family matter and that individuals take part at least a considerable degree because the family is a participating group, their approach and practice will be decidedly influenced. The 4-H club agent, for example, will realize that getting the farm boy into his organization is