Unit 5 FAMILY PDF

Unit Four: The family and society: sociological and psychological perspective. 1 What is the family? The family has been defined in a variety of ways.  The family unit as a group consisting of an adult or adults, and living...

Unit Four: The family and society: sociological and psychological perspective. 1 What is the family? The family has been defined in a variety of ways.  The family unit as a group consisting of an adult or adults, and living and unborn children linked by kinship or social bonds whose function is to provide for the physical, psychological, and cultural needs of its members. Family units are estimated to provide 75% of all the health care received by family members, including health promotion, disease prevention, early intervention, and rehabilitation (Duffy, 1988). In cross-cultural studies of health care, Kleimann (1980), an anthropologist, found that the family was consistently the key in determining health-related behaviors. Midwives/ Nurses provide care to the family unit to maintain or enhance the family’s ability to provide for the needs of its members.  U.S. Census Bureau’s definition, a family is a group of two or more persons who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption and are residing together.  Other authors have defined the family as a system of roles or as a unit of interacting personalities who may not necessarily be sanctioned by law but have some commitment to each other.  The family is a group of two or more persons who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share a common residence for some part of their lives, assume shared rights and obligations with regard to one another, and are the principal source of socialization of its members. 2   Family as a system of roles or as a unit of interacting personalities who may not necessarily be authorized by law but have some commitment to each other.  A social unit living together.  Primary social group; parents and children. No matter how it’s defined, family provides:  The basic support structure for its members.  Guides the future of a society by nurturing its young.  Is the building block upon which all nations rely. Functions of the family  Generating affection: love is a product of family living. In the ideal situation, both parents and children grow in a climate of mutual affection that contributes to a healthy development of all concerned.  Ensuring continuity of companionship: the family unit provides a continuing presence of sympathetic companions who encourage family members to share both disappointments and successes.  Providing personal security and acceptance: within the family’s protective security that the members can make mistakes, learn from them. And form complementary rather than competitive relationships. These relationships allow the members to develop naturally and at their own pace.  Giving satisfaction and a sense of purpose: the family, at its best, can give its members a basic sense of satisfaction and worth that the other arenas in a person’s life often do not fulfill. Family rituals, celebrations, gatherings, and the like serve to act as cohesive factors to dilute the frustrations and problems found in the larger society.  Providing social placement and socialization: at birth, the child automatically acquires a rich heritage by virtue of his family,s attributes and position in society. These include such things as genetic, physical, national, ethnic, cultural, economic, political, religious, and educational attributes. Families act as the transmitter of their personal as well as societal values, goals, and sentiments to the child. Thus, the child becomes socialized to the expectations of both the family and society.  Inculcating controls and a sense of what is right: within the family unit, the child first learns the rules, obligations, responsibilities, rights, and privileges of the larger society to 3  which he or she belongs. The kinds of rewards and punishments that the child experiences influence his sense of right and wrong, and these carry into adulthood as moral values. Thus, the family becomes the primary source of transmitting human values that radiate into the society as a whole. Family Structures: 1) Traditional Families: - Individuals united by birth, marriage or adoption who reside together. There are a variety of traditional family forms extent. The most prominent among these are the following: -  Nuclear Family: - (husband, wife, and children live in a common household.  Nuclear- Dyad Family: - consists of a husband and wife living together who have no children or who have grown children living outside the home.  Single-Adult Families: - In which one adult is living alone either by choice to remain single or because of separation from spouse and/or children because of divorce, death, or distance from children.  Three-Generation family: - or extended Family (multigenerational families). In which several generations or age groups live together in the same household.  Kin network: - in which several nuclear families live in the same household, or near on another, and share goods and services.  Blended Family: - in this structure, divorced or widowed parents marry and raise the children from each of their previous marriages.  Commutor Family: - in which both partners work but their jobs are in different cities. The pattern is usually for one partner to live and work and perhaps raise children in the “home” city while the second partner generally lives in the other city and commutes home for weekends or less frequent visits, depending on the distance. 2) Non-Traditional Family: - Two or more emotionally involved individuals, who live in the same household or are in close proximity and identify themselves as family. Nontraditional family structures include a variety of family forms: -  Cohabitating couples: - range from young adults living together to an elderly couple sharing their lives outside of marriage. 4   Commune family: - a group of unrelated, monogamous (married or committed to one person) couples living together and collectively rearing their children.  A group-network Family: - not related by birth or marriage, but bound by a common set of values such as a religious system who live close to each other and share goods, services and child-rearing responsibilities.  Homeless Families: - due to their lack of marketable skills, negative economic changes/ or chronic mental health problems, including substance abuse, they find themselves without permanent shelter.  Gangs: - are formed by young people searching for the emotional ties of family as a substitute for an absent or dysfunctional family, obviously gangs are a dysfunctional and destructive form of family often drawing members in to drugs and violence. Eight Stages of Family: Development with Tasks 1. Beginning Family: This stage spans the start of the marriage to the birth of the first child, including establishment of a new household and the beginning of the nuclear family. The following tasks are important for the new couple to perform:  Establishing a mutually satisfying marriage.  Planning for the possibility of having children.  Relating harmoniously to kin. 2. Childbearing Family: This stage begins with the birth of the first child and lasts until the child is 30 months of age. The tasks are the following:  Having, adjusting to, and encouraging development of the infant.  Establishing a satisfying home for parents and infant.  Expanding kinship roles to include the grandparents of the child. 3. Family with Preschool Children: This period covers the years from the time the oldest child is 2.5 years old until the youngest child is 5 years old. The tasks are the following:  Adapting to critical needs and interests of preschool children.  Meeting the needs of additional children while continuing to meet those of the firstborn.  Coping with energy depletion and lack of privacy. 4. Family with School-Aged Children: The time from when the oldest child is 6 years of age until the child turns 13 years of age is considered the school-aged stage. The tasks are the following:  Constructively fitting into the community of families with school-aged children.  Encouraging the child’s educational achievement. 5   Meeting the physical health needs of all family members.  Maintaining a satisfying marital relationship. 5. Family with Teenagers: This time period begins when the oldest child is 13 years of age and ends when the youngest child is 20 years of age or leaves home. The tasks are the following:  Balancing teenagers’ freedom with responsibility as they mature and emancipate from the family.  Establishing post parenting interests and careers. 6. Launching Center Family: This period covers the years between the time the first child leaves home and the last child leaves home. The tasks are the following:  Releasing young adults into lives of their own with appropriate rituals and assistance.  Maintaining a supportive home base.  Building a new life together as a couple.  Assisting with aging or ill parents. 7. Middle-Aged Family: This phase refers to the years from the time the last child leaves home to the retirement or death of one of the spouses. The tasks are the following:  Rebuilding the marriage relationship.  Maintaining ties with older and younger generations. 8. Aging Family: This period lasts from the retirement of one or both members of the couple through the death of one of the spouses, ending with the death of the remaining spouse. The tasks are the following:  Adjusting to retirement.  Closing the family home, or adapting it for the physical limitations associated with aging.  Coping with bereavement and living alone. Characteristics of Families:- 1) Every family is a small social system.  Families are interdependent.  Families maintain boundaries.  Families exchange energy with their environment.  Families are adaptive.  Families are goal oriented. 2) Every Family has its own certain values that affect family behavior.  Certain roles are prescribed and defined for family members.  A family’s culture determines its distribution and use of power. 6  3) Every family has structure: -  Nuclear, single parent, multigenerational etc. 4) Every family has certain basic functions: -  Affection.  Provides security and acceptance- (physical needs, food cloths, home, etc).  Instills identity and satisfaction.  Provides affiliation and companionship.  Provides socialization.  Reproduction.  Family coping_ Stability.  Economic.  Control/ orders. 5) Every family moves through stages in its life cycle.  There is division of labor.  Set of roles, and network of interpersonal relationships change with the passage of time. Effects of Family Health on Individual Health: -  The health of each family member affects the other members and contributes to the total family’s level of health.  Level of family functions_ the way to solve problems and the way to help members reaching their potential_ significantly affects the individual’s level of health.  A healthy family will foster individual growth and resistance to ill health and sustain its members during times of crisis such as serious illness, emotional dilemmas, divorce, or death of a family member.  A family with limited capacity for problem solving and self-management is often unable to promote the potential of its members or assist them in times of need.  Family values influence decisions about health services such as whether or not a child receives immunizations or uses preventive measures such as regular visits to the doctor or birth control.  Family health patterns dictate whether members participate in their health care and follow through and comply with professional advice. 7 Effects of Family Health on Community Health  Healthy families influence community health positively_ assist others in finding employment, encourage neighborhood safety and beautification, many families are regularly involved in church, various civic activities, all of which work toward the common good.  Families with a low level of health have a negative influence on community health; frequently they create problems and even health hazards for others.  Garbage left to accumulate in the back yard, for example, attracts rats; abandoned appliances may be come death traps for playing children.  Poorly functioning family becomes a drain on community resources and a threat to community health. E.g. large proportion of tax dollars and private funds that go into remedial programs for children with learning and behavior difficulties caused by problems at home, for adults with mental health problems, and for victims of family violence.  Family health affects the health of other families, groups, and communities nurses who help families develop and positive health pattern. Characteristics of Healthy Families:-  It is difficult to define a normal family; studies have given some standards to determine if a family is healthy.  Some researchers believe if couples have a healthy relationship they are likely to have healthy families.  Becvar and Becvar (1988) found characteristics of: -  A legitimate source of authority that is supported and consistent over time.  A stable and consistent system of rules.  Consistent and regular nurturing behaviors.  Effective child rearing practices.  A set of agreed-upon goals toward which the family and individual work.  Sufficient flexibility to change in the face of both expected and unexpected stressors. 8  Other researchers have identified various characteristics, such as: -  Showing respect and appreciation for one another.  Spending time together.  Having a strong religious orientation.  Dealing with crises positively.  Having a since of unity and commitment to one another.  Having good communication patterns.  The recent literature on families concludes that healthy families have the following six important characteristics:-  There is a facilitative process of interaction among family members.  They enhance individual member development.  Their role relationships are structured effectively.  They actively attempt to cope with problems.  They have a healthy home environment and lifestyle.  They establish regular links with the broader community.  Health interaction among members: -  Healthy families communicate. Adults communicate with adult, children with children, and adult with children. These interactions are frequent and assume many forms. They discuss problems, confront each other when angry, share ideas and concerns, and write or call each other when separated. Embracing warmly, frowning disapprovingly, and being available with drawing for privacy, giving a gift to convey feelings and thoughts without words.  Study showed that healthy families were more likely than unhealthy families to negotiate topics for discussion, use humor, show respect for differences of opinion, and clarify the meaning of each other’s, (communications).  Enhancement of individual development: -  Healthy families are responsive to their individual members needs and provide the freedom and support necessary to promote each member’s growth. If a father in a healthy 9  family loses his job, his family will work to support his ego and help him use his energy constrictively to adjust and find new work.  The healthy family recognizes the growing Childs need for independence, and fosters it through increasing opportunities for the child to try new things alone.  Effective structuring of relationships:-  In a technologically advanced industrial society such as the united states has most families must adapt their roles to be consistent with changing family needs created by external forces. As women enter the workforce, for instance, family roles, relationships and must change to meet the demands of the new situation.  Many husbands assume more home making responsibilities, fathers engage in child rearing, children, along with the adult in their families, share decision-making and a more equal distribution of power.  Active coping effort: -  Coping skills are needed for families to deal with emotional tragedies such as substance abuse problems, serious illness or death.  If a family member is seriously ill, the family will ask for and accept assistance from external family members or community health care workers.  In the event of a death in the family, receiving consolation and support from one another and from relatives and friends is an important step in the healing process after a loss.  The healthy family recognizes the need for assistance, accepts help, or decreases the stressors, which affect them.  Healthy families actively seek and use a variety of resources to solve problems.  Healthy environment and life-style: -  Healthy families create safe and hygienic living condition for their members. E.g. removing the potential hazards of exposed electric outlets and cleaning solvents out of a child’s reach. Good lighting handrails.  A healthy family life-style encourages appropriate balance in the lives of its members. There is activity and rest sufficient for the energy needs of daily living, the diet offered is varied and nutritionally sound, physical activity maintains ideal weight.  The emotional climate of a healthy family is positive and supportive of member growth.  Regular links with the broader community:- 10  Healthy families maintain dynamic ties with the broader community. They participate regularly in external groups and activities, join in local politics, and participate in a church bazaar.  Healthy families also know what is going on in the world around them. They show an interest in current events and attempt to understand significant social, economic, and political issues. 11