Definition of family

The primary SYSTEM responsible for the transmission of social values, psychological growth, and spiritual strengh of members who reside within the system.

These functions are transmitted through bonds developed by the interrelationships and communication of individual members. 

1. It determines who is on health insurance policies.
2. Whos has access to a child's school records?
3. Who can file joint tax returns?
4. Eligibility for sick-leave benefits or Public programs.

Family shapes early health beliefs and values

System theory

How much contact do family members have with each other and with the environment?

1. How is the family organized?
2. Who is included in the family?
3. Who performs which tasks/roles?
4. What are the boundaries?

1. Meeting BASIC NEEDS of the members: protection (SAFETY), food,clothing, and health care services
2. Helping members understand their roles
3. Enabling members to learn control and to solve the conflicts of dominance vs submission and of autonomy vs dependence
4. Graining acceptance within and outside the family
5. Developing a support system in the kin network and extended family
6. Resolving the conflict of flexibility vs rigidity
7. Allocating the family resources
8. Socializing among family members
9. Producing new members (children)
10. Adding members of the family by marriage or by choice
11. Releasing family members to start new families
12. Placing family members into society

Family Developmental Theory

Unattached young adults

Constant flow of verbal and nonverbal messages.

Effective communication play a key role in development of self esteem

Role: the set of expectations about how a person occupying a specific position behaves

Family Strengths

Relationship that foster problem solving and management of conflict

Celebrations of special events

Good $$$$ mgmt

Assessing Family Coping

1. Resources available (internal)
2. Knowledge
3. Skills

Developmental crisis, such as marriage

Entry of children into the system (Affects NLD)

• Interrupted Family Processes
• Disabled Family Coping
• Caregiver Role Strain

Interrupted Family Processes

1. Difficulty in performing caregiver role
2. Also: Risk for caregiver role strains
3. Caregiver is vulnerable for felt difficulty in performing the family caregiver role 

1. An innate or acquired way of responding to a changing environment or specific problem or situation
2. The basic function that helps the family meet demands imposed from within nadn from outside the family
3. A greater variety of coping mechanisms STRENGTHENS THE LINES OF DEFENSE
4. Insurance
5. Social services 

1. Overprotective or distant parent through work, alcohol, or physical absence
2. Over functioning or super parent or under functioning and passive ( dependent or compliant parent)
3. Spouse who "maintains peace at any price" denies marital problems but feels wronged and self-righteous
4. Children who exhibit poor peer relationships at school
5. A child may attempt to parent younger siblings to compensate for ineffective or emotionally overwhelmed parents
6. *Families in which lines of authority and generational identity are poorly defined 
7. The child acts out due to lack of effective limit setting
8. * Common in multigenerational families
9. Substance abusing members
10. Physical, emotional or sexual abuse perpetrated by one (or more) of the family members

1. It completes important LIFE TASKS
2. It has the capacity to tolerate conflict and adapt to adverse circunstances without long term dysfunction or disintegration of family cohesion
3. Emotional contact is maintained across generations and between family members without blurring necessary levels of authority
4. Over closeness or fusion is avoided and distance is not used to solve problems
5. Each twosome is expected to resolve problems between themselves
6. Bringing in a third person to settle disputes or take sides is discorage (triangulation)
7. Differences between family members are ENCOURAGED to promote personal growth and creativity
8. Children are expected to achieve age appropriate privileges negotiated with their parents
9. The preservation of a positive emotional climate is more highly valued than doing what "should" be done or what is "right"
10. Within each spouse there is a balance of effective expression, careful rational thought, relationship focus, and care taking; each spouse can selectively function in their respective roles
    
    

^{Family functions}

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Communication:

the nurse should observe for:

Traditions that carry over from one generation to another

a. Nursing is eclectic

Assessing Family Coping

EXTERNAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Extended family

Friends

Religious Affiliations

Health Care Professionals

Assessing Family Coping

Effective communication

Sense of mutuality & purpose

Use of problems solving process 

Family Stresors

Substance abuse,

Chronic Physical/Mental Illnesses

Divorce (Affects the lines of resistance)

Disasters

Death

Marriage difficulties (penetrates FLD/NLD)

Unemployment

Acute physical illness of a member 

• Traditional
• Nuclear (nuclear dyad- Prof. said... center is theparents)
• Family of origin

• Intergenerational family

• Single parent family

• Grandparents