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FAMILY Exercise: Define “family” in one or two sentences Who are the members? Do there have to be children in a family? Does there have to be a biological (blood) connection among family members? Does there have to be a legal connection among family members? Does there have to be a geographical (proximity) connection among family members? FAMILY A group of people related by heredity, such as parents, children, and siblings The term is sometimes broadened to include persons related by marriage or those living in the same household, who are emotionally attached, interact regularly, and share concerns for the growth and development of the group and its individual members. FAMILY Two or more emotionally involved people living in close proximity and having reciprocal obligations with a sense of commonness, caring, and commitment. (Friedman, 1986) FAMILY What are the characteristics of healthy families? How do healthy families differ from dysfunctional families? FAMILY Healthy: Able to adapt to changes that occur in the family unit Open communication Role flexibility Basic agreement on values and principles Dysfunctional: Inability to resolve conflict Problems with open communication Inaccurate perceptions about nature and degree of conflict FAMILY Members volunteer assistance without waiting to be asked Inability to consider others, look at ways to resolve conflict, compromise FAMILY Developmental Transitions: Predictable, expected time line, throughout eight family stages (Duvall) Situational transitions: Events that signal a reorganization of family roles and trends Changes in personal relationships Roles and status FAMILY Environment Physical and mental capabilities Loss of possessions Nurses need to screen for transitional events; families may be at risk for health problems FAMILY Consider: Individual development of family members Health patterns: actual behaviors and health-promoting activities and attitudes Disease: abnormal patterns or pathology of physical, social-emotional, or family processes Illness: acute, chronic, life-threatening FAMILY Family Life Cycle Model (Duvall, 1979) Beginning family Childbearing family Family with preschool children Family with teenagers Launching center family Family with middle-aged parents Family with old age and retirement FAMILY Developmental Tasks of the Married Couple: Finding, furnishing, and settling into their first home as a married pair Establishing mutually satisfactory ways of supporting themselves Allocating responsibilities that each partner is willing and able to assume FAMILY Building foundations for satisfying marital relationships Controlling fertility and planning a family Starting a family Interacting with relatives on both sides of the family Maintaining couple motivation and morale FAMILY The Childbearing Family: (Beginning of first pregnancy until oldest child reaches 18 months) Developmental Tasks: Arranging space (territory) for a child Financing child-bearing and child-rearing Assuming mutual responsibility for chid care and nurturing FAMILY Facilitating role learning for family members Adjusting to changed communication patterns in the family to accommodate a newborn and young child Planning for subsequent children Re-aligning generational patterns Maintaining family members’ motivation and morale Establishing family rituals and routines FAMILY Family Developmental Tasks at the Preschool Stage: (Oldest child 2 ½ - 6 yrs) Supplying adequate space, facilities, and equipment for the expanding family Meeting predictable and unexpected costs of family life with small children Sharing responsibility for household management and care within the young family Maintaining mutually satisfying intimate communication with the family FAMILY Rearing children already present and planning future family size Relating to relatives on both sides of the family in creative ways Tapping resources outside the family in the wider community Maintaining morale in the face of life’s changes and dilemmas FAMILY Developmental Tasks of families with school-age children (Oldest child 6-13 yrs) Providing suitable housing and health care for the family Meeting family costs and making adjustments when the wife/mother works Allocating and monitoring responsibilities for maintaining the home Continuing socialization through wider community participation FAMILY Encouraging husband-wife, parent-child, and child-child communication Rearing children with appropriate parenting skills in two-parent, one-parent, or reconstituted family households Demonstrating interest in children’s schooling and in their acquisition of basic skills and knowledge Recognizing achievement and worth of individual family members, and building solid values and morale in the family FAMILY Developmental Tasks of Families with Teenagers (oldest child 13-20 yrs) Providing for widely differing needs within the family Allocating the family’s resources according to each member’s needs Sharing responsibilities in the support, management, and care of the home Facing up to the premarital intercourse and adolescent marriage issue FAMILY Bridging the communication gaps in a family with teenagers Dealing with drugs, drinking, destructive driving, and delinquency Coping with outside influences impinging on families with teenagers Maintaining the ethical and moral stance the family holds dear FAMILY Family Developmental Tasks as Launching-Center Families: Adapting physical facilities and resources for releasing young adults Meeting launching center families’ costs Re-allocating responsibilities among grown and growing offspring and their parents Developing increasingly mature roles within the family FAMILY Interacting, communicating, and appropriately expressing affection, aggression, disappointment, success, sexuality, and so forth Releasing and incorporating family members satisfactorily Establishing patterns of relating to in-laws, relatives, guests, friends, community pressures, and impinging world pressures FAMILY Setting attainable goals, rewarding achievement, and encouraging family loyalties within a context of personal freedom FAMILY Family developmental tasks of the middle-aged couple (empty nest to retirement) Providing for comfortable, healthful well-being in a home appropriate for the later years of marriage Allocating resources (time, money, facilities, etc) for present and future needs of the husband, wife, and their loved ones FAMILY Determining who does what in the support, management, and care of the household, with mutually agreed-upon patterns of husband/ wife complementarity Encouraging both husband’s and wife’s development of increasingly mature roles in the family and beyond Ensuring husband/ wife interaction, communication, and expression of real feelings (love, sex, anger, disappointment, success, etc) necessary for marital satisfaction FAMILY Enlarging the family circle through incorporation of sons- and daughters-in-law, their relatives, and children, with appropriate kin-keeping care for members of the extended family Participating in life beyond the home in satisfying ways and establishing mutually agreed-upon policies for entertaining other people, ideas, philosophies, sports, art forms, and so on within the home FAMILY Affirming life’s central values, meeting personal and family crises, setting reasonable goals, and developing family loyalties in ways that maintain morale and encourage achievement FAMILY Family Developmental Tasks of the Aging Couple: (retirement to death of both spouses) Making satisfying living arrangements as aging progresses Adjusting to a retirement income Establishing comfortable routines Safeguarding physical and mental health Maintaining love, sex, and marital relations FAMILY Remaining in touch with other family members Keeping active and involved Finding meaning in life FAMILY What constitutes good parenting?
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