Definition of family
Family is “the primary social agent in the promotion of health and wellbeing”
Many family theorists suggest that a family consists of two or more individuals who share a residence or live
near one another; possess some common emotional bond; engage in interrelated social positions, roles, and
tasks; and share cultural ties and a sense of affection and belonging.
The family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single
household; interacting and communicating with each other in their respective social roles of husband and
wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and sister; and creating and maintaining a common culture.
family as “two or more individuals who depend on one another for emotional, physical, and economical
support.
Families share universal characteristics with every other family. These characteristics provide an important
key to understanding each family’s uniqueness. Five of the most important family characteristics for
community health nurses to recognize are as follows:
1. Every family is a small social system.
2. Every family moves through stages in its life cycle.
3. Every family has its own cultural values and rules.
4. Every family has structure.
5. Every family has certain basic functions.
There are five attributes of open systems that help explain how families function:
(1) families are interdependent:
All the members of a family are interdependent; each member’s actions affect the other members, and what
affects the family system affects each family member.
For example, consider the changes a father might make to reduce his risk of coronary heart disease. If he cuts
back on working overtime, the family’s income will be reduced. If he begins to eat different foods, food
preparation and eating patterns in the family will be altered. If he starts a new exercise program three evenings
a week, this may upset other family routines. Even his ability to carry out his usual roles as husband and father
may be affected if, for instance, he has less time to help his children with their homework or share household
chores with his wife.
(2) families maintain boundaries:
Families as systems set and maintain boundaries that can include outside influences (permeable) or not
(limiting) . These boundaries result from shared experiences and expectations and link family
members together in a bond that excludes the rest of the world. Also a greater concentration of energy exists
within the family than between the family and its external environment, thereby creating a family system
boundary.
(3)families exchange energy with their environments:
Family boundaries are semipermeable; although they protect and preserve the family unit, they also allow
selective linkage with the outside world. To function adequately as open systems, families exchange materials
or information with their environment. This process is called energy exchange. This exchange promotes a
healthy ecologic balance between the family system and the environment that is its immediate community.
(4)families are adaptive:
Families are adaptive, equilibrium-seeking systems. Families never stay the same. They shift and change in
response to internal and external forces. The family composition changes as new members are added. Roles
and relationships change as members advance in age and experience. With each new set of pressures, the
family shifts and accommodates to regain balance and maintain a normal lifestyle.
(5) families are goal oriented:
Families as social systems are goal directed. Families exist for a purpose—to establish and maintain a milieu
that promotes the development of their members. To fulfill this purpose, a family must perform
basic functions, such as providing love, security, identity, a sense of belonging; assisting with preparation for
adult roles in society; and maintaining order and control. In addition to these functions, each family member
engages in tasks to maintain the family as a viable unit.
FAMILY TYPE
Nuclear dyad: Married couple, no children
Nuclear: Husband, wife, children (may or may not be legally married)
Binuclear: Two post-divorce families with children as members of both
Extended: Nuclear family plus blood relatives
Blended Husband: wife, and children of previous relationships
Single Parent: One parent and child(ren)
Commune Group of men, women, and children
Single person (adult) One person in a household
FAMILY ROLES:
1. The provider role:
Many families need more than one income to meet basic needs. Factors that contribute to the need for
increased income are an increase in number of families with no wage earners, and an increased number of
families being solely supported by someone other than a male householder.
2. Housekeeper and child care roles:
many women experience significant role strain in balancing provider and other familial roles. Women who
work continue to be responsible for most housekeeping and child care responsibilities
3. Socialization role:
Socialization includes things such as the ways children learn to interact with others, care for themselves,
create boundaries for relationships with extended family, peers, or others, and act as citizens of the larger
society. Parents assume the major socialization roles through teaching, guiding, directing, disciplining, and
counseling children. Although involvement of both parents promotes the healthy development of children, the
father-child relationship is qualitatively different than the mother-child relationship. Mothers assume the
larger share of the responsibility for children’s socialization.
4. Sick role:
Individuals learn health and illness behaviors in their family of origin. Health behaviors are related to the
primary prevention of disease, and include health promotion activities to reduce susceptibility to disease and
actions to reduce the effects of chronic disease. Once a family member becomes ill, he or she demonstrates
various illness behaviors or enacts the “sick role.”