Family Structure and Dynamics - Term Paper Example

?Family Structure and Dynamics Structure The family under discussion is a nuclear family with roots from Pakistan (South East Asia) settled in Deland, Florida. The male, Mahmood Razzaq was born and raised in England and acquired a Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering from Leeds University in the United Kingdom; followed by a Master’s Degree in Information Technology from MMU (Manchester Metropolitan University). However, he decided to pursue freelancing by forming first a currency exchange business and then a transportation business. His wife Nighat Mahmood was born and raised in Pakistan where she earned her MBA (Masters in Business Administration) from Kotli University after which she was married off to Mahmood. After being married, Mahmood came to the United States, settled in Central Florida, and opened one and eventually three local convenience stores. After the long process required, Mahmood became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and eventually returned to Pakistan to pursue Nighat’s immigration process. Nighat bore a son Sheryar after immigrating to Deland and her, the bay and Mahmood lived with relatives for a year after which the family moved over to their own house. The family lives in a predominantly South East Asian and African American neighborhood while Mahmood’s parents live very close by. Nighat bore a daughter who had congenital muscular dystrophy at birth in 2006. The child was able to live for around 3.5 years before she died. The couple had another son Muhammad Usman in 2010 who has congenital muscular dystrophy. The child is undergoing treatment now but there are little chances for survival. Appendix ‘A’ shows the family’s genogram for reference. Roles Mahmood and Nighat share the primary roles in the family because the children are too small to share any responsibilities yet. Mahmood is responsible for providing for the family, as the family setup is somewhat patriarchal in nature. The South East Asian culture promotes a strongly patriarchal family and this family reflects it strongly with Mahmood being the father figure. Although Nighat is educated but her role is restricted more to caring for the household than anything else and provides the mother figure role around the house. However, this does not mean that Nighat is restricted to the house alone but instead she can leave the house for shopping or visiting the doctor etc. This is in contrast to most South East Asian families, as women cannot leave the house without an accompanying male member. Nighat is also responsible for maintaining the house, shopping, attending the children’s school and for taking the children to the doctor. Nighat’s son Sheryar (who is the eldest) is responsible for shopping with his mother at times. Moreover, Sheryar buys small things such as calling cards when his mother needs them. In addition, Sheryar helps Nighat to look after the smaller sibling by playing with him while Nighat prepares baby food or changes a nappy. Hence, Sheryar is in the typical role of a child in the family under discussion. Assignment of family roles occurs based on a patriarchal family structure where the male is responsible for providing for the family while the female’s role is restricted to caring for children and the household. Another factor is assigning the roles is Mahmood’s work schedule. Mahmood goes to work in the middle of the day and returns late at night so it is hard for him to deal with various functions such as shopping. Therefore, Nighat assumes these roles instead of Mahmood. Sheryar has some small roles by assigned his mother indicating a strong and coherent family structure. Mahmood finds little time to interact with the children because of his working hours. Some Sundays are on as well so Mahmood has some time off during the weekdays. Generally, Mahmood picks up Sheryar from school just before he leaves for work. Family members interact with each other cordially using established family rules. When Nighat initially immigrated to the United States, there was some violence from Mahmood’s end due to problems created by the extended family but this has since subsided totally. Communication between Nighat and her children is extremely strong. However, communication between Nighat and Mahmood is lacking in part due to Mahmood’s work schedule and in part due to his uptight attitude. On the other hand, communication between Mahmood and Sheryar is open and frank whenever they find a chance for it. Assets and Strengths The family’s greatest strength is the individual composure and patience displayed by both Mahmood and Nighat. Initially, when Nighat immigrated to the United States after her marriage and childbirth, there were significant cultural differences between her and Mahmood that led to a host of problems for both. The problems exacerbated by the involvement of Mahmood’s extended family that lives close by. Constant negative feedback from Mahmood’s parents about Nighat also created myriad problems for the couple. A few violent incidents also occurred with Mahmood beating Nighat in his confusion on what to do. However, with positive intervention and patience the family managed to move beyond those roadblocks largely due to the patience and resolve displayed by both Nighat and Mahmood. Sheryar displays good discipline and maturity for his age that reflects on his patience. Moreover, one of the family’s relatively great assets is a high degree of education available to both the mother and the father. Possessing education means that both Nighat and Mahmood are meticulous in raising their children and caring for them. Moreover, problems such as personal hygiene or food hygiene are also absent in this family. The family acknowledges patience and resolve as strengths but they fail to see education as a relative asset when compared to the people living around them. Unique Functions The functions of individual family members are in line with the roles of each family member. Mahmood is responsible for providing for the family while Nighat is responsible for taking care of the household and children. Sheryar has no major function except for studying at school and at the local religious seminary in the evening. One of the unique aspects of the family is that their children Hadia and Usman were born affected with congenital muscular dystrophy. Hadia was born affected in 2006. Nighat and Mahmood managed to care for the child for around 3.5 years in their house as well as in the local hospital but the child failed to recover, as this is a genetic condition without any known solutions. The child deteriorated progressively until she was unable to move any limbs at all resulting to her eventual demise. The birth of a disabled child has helped to cement the relationship between Nighat and Mahmood over the years that is contrary to the norms in South East Asian families in the region. Generally, when a disabled child is born to a couple, the mother is given blame for carelessness or for being cursed in some respect. Although Mahmood’s extended family tried to blame Nighat, but Mahmood stood by Nighat. He increased his cooperation to Nighat given the debilitating condition of the child. The aspect of education and proper awareness is undeniable in this respect, as traditional South East Asian families divorce women whose children are disabled. Nighat cared for the child in the best possible terms for some 3.5 years with Mahmood contributing as much time as possible. As related before, the child Hadia died because of congenital muscular dystrophy. Although the couple should have gone for genetic testing before conceiving another child but they did not use this option. The couple’s next child Muhammad Usman was also born with the same problem as Hadia. The birth of another disabled child posed social problems for Nighat but again Mahmood has been supportive to great extents. Local consultants and GPs told Nighat that the child was not curable. In order to find a cure, Nighat took the child to Pakistan to pursue traditional means of treatment, including shamanist medicine and other pseudo religious techniques. Mahmood financed these trips, as Nighat does not earn. Moreover, Mahmood undertook these trips despite opposition from his parents and family. Caring for two disabled children has brought the couple closer than before but this has had negative consequences for their first child Sheryar. As both Nighat and Mahmood’s attention is focused more on the disabled children so Sheryar does not receive his due share of parental attention. This does not indicate that Sheryar is neglected or otherwise at risk of abuse but merely indicates that his parents are more attentive to the disabled children’s care. Consequently, Sheryar has become shyer over the years but this situation is improving, as he is encouraged to interact with his cousins at his grandparent’s house. In addition, Sheryar’s community involvement increased as he goes to a religious seminary for religious education in the evening that presents him with a good chance to interact with more children his age. The family under discussion is a healthy family in terms of mental and physical health though the situation is changing. Nighat has acquired diabetes due to her constant worry for her disabled children. She acquired diabetes in the wake of Hadia’s death that dealt her a severe emotional blow but Mahmood was able to restore her balance with counseling as well as intervention by social workers. Other than this issue, the family is perfectly physically and mentally healthy with no signs of anxiety, depression, paranoia or other related mental issues. The condition of Usman is a genetic disorder so it cannot be counted into physical illnesses gained by inappropriate behavior such as STDs, alcohol or substance abuse etc. The family tends to view itself as healthy both in physical and mental terms and agrees in large part to the assessment of the social worker. This family is already under homeostasis given the various crises that they have had to face over the years. Initially, when Nighat migrated to the United States, a distance pursuer dyad disturbed the homeostatic equilibrium with Nighat being the pursuer and Mahmood being the distancer. However, faced with the crisis of disabled children in close succession has helped both Nighat and Mahmood to utilize their capabilities for synergy. The family faces a few cultural problems. Primarily the South East Asian culture relies on an extended family structure (consanguine families) that has assumed a distorted structure in the Untied States as these families live separately but in close proximity of each other. Consequently, the close proximity of these families allows for subtle interplays in the affairs of other relatives. Initially when Nighat migrated to the United States, Mahmood got a lot of negative feedback as to Nighat by Mahmood’s parents, sisters in law and other relatives who wanted to see someone else married off to Mahmood. I had some difficulty in dealing with this aspect of cultural influences as the nuclear family structure exists in the United States with little intervention from distant relatives and parents. Family Ecosystem, System, and Subsystems The ecomap in Appendix ‘B’ details the family’s boundaries. The most significant elements within the family’s ecomap are the presence of Mahmood’s parents and extended family nearby as well as the presence of Nighat’s parents and extended family in Pakistan. Overall Mahmood’s parents and extended family have been a destabilizing influence on the couple’s marital relationship. In contrast, Nighat’s parents and extended family are located too far away to have any significant difference. Moreover, Mahmood’s businesses are also a central element as they leave little time for him to socialize or go for recreation-based activities. The socialization in the family is also lope sided because of Mahmood’s busy schedule as Sheryar and Nighat socialize significantly more than Mahmood and Sheryar. However, even in the status quo there are no triangulation patterns even though the socialization patterns are lope sided. Potential for Treatment As it stands currently; the family is otherwise healthy except for the socialization pattern between Mahmood and his children. Moreover, Nighat’s spends most of her time in dealing with Usman who is suffering due to congenital muscular dystrophy thereby reducing her focus on Sheryar. The primary goal here would be to introduce activities where the family could socialize more and more such as going out together. However, there are cultural barriers to going out as South East Asian families rarely go out alone. Closely related families are expected to go out together. This may provide for good socialization with the extended family setup but it erodes the focus on intra family socialization. The best possible approach would be to convince Nighat and Mahmood to take the family out on a Sunday to a picnic or out to lunch. The secondary focus would be to talk to Mahmood to make his schedule more family friendly. Currently Mahmood’s businesses are in the developing stage so he needs to pay attention and spend most of his time at work but an acceptable solution can be derived by talking to Mahmood. The eventual goal would be to create a schedule that provides more time to Mahmood’s family during the day when Mahmood is generally asleep due to his late night work schedule. Subjective Reflection The family under discussion is highly different from my family of origin. In the beginning I had problems how the family dynamics functioned given also the fact that this family is Muslim. However, after talking to Nighat I was able to grasp most of the cultural peculiarities that I had to deal with. Working with families different from my family of origin might have some obstacles attached to it largely due to cultural barriers but these can easily be resolved. In order to deal with culturally different families it is best to use an objective approach when dealing with people. Moreover, the social worker must do their best to understand different cultural peculiarities without inculcating personal opinions or biases as to differing modes of behavior. In addition, it is best to understand how conflict resolution works in different cultures and to apply this understanding to culturally different families to obtain results. Appendix ‘A’ Appendix ‘B’ Read More