Term
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Definition
- emotional and intellectual stages from childhood to retirement as a member of a family are called the family life cycle
- In each stage, clients face challenges in family life that allow the building or gaining of new skills
- Situations such as severe illness, financial problems, or the death of a loved one can prevent individuals from passing through these phases slowly
- Mastering the skills and milestones of each stage allows successful movement from one stage of development to the next
- if not mastered, clients are more likely to have difficulty with relationships and future transitions
- Family life cycle theory suggests that successful transitioning may also help to prevent disease and emotional or stress-related disorders |
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Term
| Stage 1: Family of origin experiences |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Maintaining relationships with parents, siblings, and peers
- Completing education
- Developing the foundations of a family life |
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Term
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Differentiating self from family of origin and parents and developing adult-to-adult relationships with parents
- Developing intimate peer relationships
- Beginning work, developing work identity, and financial independence |
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Term
| Stage 3: Premarriage stage |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Selecting partners
- Developing a relationship
- Deciding to establish own home with someone |
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Term
| Stage 4: Childless couple stage |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Developing a way to live together both practically and emotionally
- Adjusting relationships with families of origin and peers to include partner |
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Term
| Stage 5: Family with young children |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Realigning family system to make space for children
- Adopting and developing parenting roles
- Realigning relationships with families of origin to include parenting and grandparenting roles
- Facilitating children to develop peer relationships |
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Term
| Stage 6: Family with adolescents |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Adjusting parent–child relationships to allow adolescents more autonomy
- Adjusting family relationships to focus on midlife relationship and career issues
- Taking on responsibility of caring for families of origin |
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Term
| Stage 7: Launching children |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Resolving midlife issues
- Negotiating adult-to-adult relationships with children
- Adjusting to living as a couple again
- Adjusting to including in-laws and grandchildren within the family circle
- Dealing with disabilities and death in the family of origin |
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Term
| Stage 8: Later family life |
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Definition
Main tasks:
- Coping with physiological decline in self and others
- Adjusting to children taking a more central role in family maintenance
- Valuing the wisdom and experience of the elderly
- Dealing with loss of spouse and peers
Preparing for death, life review, and reminiscence |
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Term
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Definition
- patterns of relating or interactions between family members
- Each family system and its dynamics are unique, although there are some common patterns
- Family dynamics often have a strong influence on the way individuals see themselves, others, and the world, and influence their relationships, their behaviors, and their well-being
- understanding of the impact of family dynamics on a client’s self-perception may help social workers pinpoint and respond to the driving forces behind her or his current needs |
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Term
Family dynamics
Healthy functioning |
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Definition
Treating each family member as an individual
Having regular routines and structure
Being connected to extended family, friends, and the community
Having realistic expectations
Spending quality time, which is characterized by fun, relaxed, and conflict-free interactions
Ensuring that members take care of their own needs and not just the family needs
Helping one another through example and direct assistance |
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Term
| family dynamic factors that have positive impact |
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Definition
- Social support from family positively impacts well-being
-Social relationships, such as those in close families, decrease the likelihood of negative outcomes, such as chronic disease, disability, mental illness, and death |
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Term
| family dynamic factors that have negative impact |
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Definition
- Problematic and nonsupportive familial interactions have a negative impact
- growing up in an unsupported, neglectful, or violent home is associated with poor physical health and development |
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Term
| Impact Of Physical Illness On Family Dynamics |
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Definition
- Physical illness and/or disability places a set of extra demands on the family system
- can consume a lot of a family’s resources of time, energy, and money, so that other individual and family needs may go unmet
- emotional strain, including worry, guilt, anxiety, anger, and uncertainty about the cause or prognosis of the disability, about the future, about the needs of other family members, and about whether the individual is getting enough assistance
- There can be a financial burden associated with getting health, education, and social services
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Term
| Impact Of Mental Illness On Family Dynamics |
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Definition
- When mental illness is first diagnosed, family members may deny that there is a continuing illness
- the desire to put the incident “behind them” often emerges
- Thus, family members may believe that the symptomatic behavior of the mental illness will never return
- Some family members often do understand the reality of the illness, whereas others do not, which can cause tension
- Isolation and loss of meaningful relationships with those who are not supportive of the illness is possible |
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Term
| Individual/family isolation due to mental illness |
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Definition
- Due to the stigma sometimes associated with mental illness, family members may often be reluctant to discuss it with others
- family members may be reluctant to invite anyone to the home for fear of the presence of unpredictable behavior
- This isolation causes families to withdraw from previous relationships to protect both themselves and their loved ones
- Without correct information, families may become very pessimistic about the future
- If the illness is not stable, families go from crisis to crisis, feeling that they have no control over what is happening |
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