Main challenges of Vietnamese families nowadays and in the coming years

ABSTRACT

The Vietnamese government has always considered family development as one of the decisive factors for the success of the country. Over the past few decades, socio-economic changes stemming from international integration have significantly impacted Vietnamese families in different ways. Favourable conditions and opportunities for families to access knowledge and positive cultural values have been created. On the other hand, socio-economic changes have also produced or deepened challenges for Vietnamese families. Based on new survey data, this paper outlines some of the main challenges facing Vietnamese families in the current and coming years. These challenges can be listed as the status of women in the family, which has not significantly improved; childcare and education, with many difficulties in terms of time and methods; and elderly care in the family, including new challenges in the context of an ageing society. This article offers an analysis to address the need to overcome these challenges in the coming years.

KEYWORDS:

• Spousal relationship
• childcare
• elderly care
• family
• Vietnam

Notes

1 In December 1986, the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam announced a new policy called “Doi Moi” (Renovation), shifting Vietnam’s economy from a centralised and subsidy-based structure, strictly dependent on public and collective ownership, to a socialist-oriented, multi-sector commodity economy under state management. Small and medium-sized private businesses have received stimulus from the state (T.A. Vu 1995). With this policy, the role of the household economy has increased and this would affect the status and function of each family member.

2 The Project “Change in Trends of Vietnamese Family Characteristics in the International Integration Process” by Prof. Nguyen Xuan Thang, conducted in 2017–2018, with 2,007 household representatives answering quantitative questionnaires and participating in 168 in-depth interviews and 42 focus group discussions, in seven provinces of Vietnam.

3 Survey conducted in Can Tho City (in the South of Vietnam) by the Institute for Family and Gender Studies (IFGS, Vietnam) in 2017, funded by the Kyoto University and belonging to the Comparative Asian Family Survey (CAFS). Total sample is 1,205 respondents aged 18 and older, among them 86.6% ever married. The author was the Principal Investigator.

4 Since the Independence Declaration of 2 September 1945, Vietnam has experienced 30 years of continuous war, from 9 years of resistance to the French 1945 to 1954, culminating in the victory at Điện Biên Phủ, then the American war from 1954 to 1975.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Huu Minh NGUYEN

NGUYEN Huu Minh is the President of Vietnam Sociological Association. His publications include (as author or co-author): Vietnamese Marriage Patterns in the Red River Delta: Tradition and Change (2009); Estimating the Costs of Domestic Violence Against Women in Viet Nam (2012); Gia đình Việt Nam trong quá trình công nghiệp hóa, hiện đại hóa và hội nhập quốc tế từ cách tiếp cận so sánh [Vietnamese Family in the Context of Industrialisation, Modernisation and Integration from Comparative Approaches] (2014); and Hôn nhân trong xã hội Việt Nam đương đại [Marriage in Contemporary Vietnamese Society] (2016).