The Family Life Cycle - Essay Example

Family Assessment Demographic Data Family Andersons Cultural background: Black Religious background: Christian Family composition Name/Initials Age Sex Relationship Education/occupation Mark 40 Male Father Banker Lillian 38 Female Mother Marketer Vivian 16 Female Daughter High School Environmental Data Housing The two parents are both busy individuals who spend very little time back at home. Their career paths leave them with little or no time back at home. They leave very early in the morning and return late in the evening. They both work every Saturday up to midday. They therefore have approximately 10 hours per day during weekdays at home and around 30 hours during the weekends. The Andersons are staying in a house with a mortgage plan hence a plan of eventual home ownership. The house is in good condition with an adequate water supply and well-maintained sewerage system. Moreover, the house is adequately spacious with every member of the family enjoying his/her own personal space. The family owns a dog. The house has a solar water-heating panel with fixed air conditioners. Safety Issues The family does not own any firearm. The house is equipped with smoke detector equipment in virtually all rooms. There are three fire extinguishers in the house. One is located in the living room, one in the corridor downstairs, and the other one in the corridor upstairs. All the medication is kept in the bathroom shelves while other chemicals and cleaning agents are safely kept in the store located in the garage. The windows and doors of the house are firmly protected with system locks that are synced with a sophisticated security system. The house has one emergency exit at the rear end of the building. The Andersons own a family van that aids in their transportation. They exercise road safety by emphasizing on good practices like fastening of seatbelts. All the family members are satisfied with the level of security in their homes. Environmental Problems Every family faces a number of challenges. These challenges arise from the complex nature of relationships within the family setting (Duvall, 1962). The Andersons are a very small family comprising of two parents, father and mother, and a daughter. Both parents are employed and have day jobs and subsequently provide for the needs of the family. A number of roles exist that either mutually shared by each family member or left exclusively to another member. Nurturing Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are responsible for catering to the emotional needs of their daughter Vivian. They are tasked with the objective of providing counseling sessions and emotional support to their daughter in order to prevent instances of emotional stress. Moreover, both parents provide each other with emotional support in times of emotional stress resulting from various undertakings. No overlap in the emotional needs existed where one family member’s emotional needs was not catered for. The parents however had to focus constantly on the emotional needs of their teenage daughter due to her stage in life, teenage hood. This was despite the limited time they had as family. Sexual Relationships The family has an open policy to discuss amongst themselves matters that deal with sexuality. This resolve is meant to reduce incidences that may arise due to reckless sexual behavior. Vivian for instance is not forbidden to be in a relationship. However, she is counseled by both parents on the importance of abstaining from sexual behavior until she becomes a responsible adult. The challenged faced in this scenario is that their daughter is in the teenage phase hence exhibits traces of rebellion and the need for autonomy. This is typical to any teenager. Economic Aspect Both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are employed. Therefore, they provide economic support to the family’s financial needs. Having taken a mortgage, they both contribute to the payment of the mortgage. Other needs like shopping for the family, vacations, and school fees are adequately catered for by both parents due to their financial abilities. Stress Management Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life (Hill, 1951). The Andersons are not immune to different stressors in life. These stressors range from work commitments and deadlines, school assignment and deadlines, financial requirements and other social life stressors. Both parents have however made it their initiative to provide stress management avenues by enlisting services of a family psychiatrist who enables them to vent out their frustrations. Moreover, they engage in various stress releasing programs like jogging and other sports like basketball. The parents encourage their daughter Vivian to engage in co-curricular activities since this provide her with an outlet of releasing stress. Child Socialization and Care Both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are responsible for providing educational needs to their daughter. They are also charged with the responsibility of fostering discipline in their child. They are expected to provide the child with an enhanced level of safety and general well-being. The Anderson’s stress the importance and value of discipline in life and they act as role models to their child. Home Maintenance Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are responsible for carrying out general activities to aid in the maintenance of the home. The family assists each other in conducting routine domestic tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Mr. Anderson fixes the house when certain aspects breakdown for instance clogging of the sinks and other drainage systems. This makes the house more habitable and safe for the family members. However, due to their tight work schedules and school commitments they find it difficult in managing every aspect of the house. Kin and Community Resources The Anderson family is part of a large extended family. The family has occasional get-togethers with other members of the family. These meetings are initiated during a number of festivities like thanksgiving and other holidays. Relatives from both ends of the extended family are responsible for organizing these kinds of meetings. The Andersons receive substantial social support from the community. Moreover, the family is part of the immediate community and thus receives great support from friends and other members of the society. Power Structure The Anderson family is typical family structure comprising of two parents and a child. Since they are Christians, their faith dictates that the father is the head of the family. Ultimately, decision-making is the prerogative of the father. However, the decisions made are not imposed on other family members but rather made through consensus and consultations. Power in this regard is not dominated by one person in the family. Family Developmental Stage The family unit undergoes various life cycle changes. The family goes through various phases hence experiencing a number of milestones and changes various phases (McGoldrick & Carter, 1982). The Anderson family is at that phase in the family life cycle where they have a teenage child. This is a challenging time for the parents because of the complexities that come with children at this stage. Parents are meant to restructure their family settings to allow an aspect of flexibility in order to enhance independence of their child. This approach will enable their daughter Vivian to get opportunities of growth. Health Concerns and Problems The family has not faced substantial health threats recently. The Andersons pride themselves with engaging and promoting a healthy lifestyle. The family pays close attention to the health of individual members. The Andersons should however engage in other activities that promote healthy living. For instance, eating healthy foods and engaging enrolling in fitness programs. The health status of the family is not bad; however, they could do a lot to improve their current situation. Management of Health Concerns and Problems The Andersons family perception of appropriate healthcare and treatment is based on preventive strategies. That is, they engage proactively in activities that will ultimately prevent the occurrence of health related complications. The family has a history of using home-based health care approaches to solve health issues that they regard trivial. Either parent within the home usually dispenses these services. The family, as stated earlier, has a number of preventive measures that it engages in in trying to mitigate occurrence of health complications. For instance, the family has occasional exercising like jogging and sporting activities. The family also has occasional visits to their family doctor for medical checkups and prognosis. The Andersons dietary patterns could be further enhanced to enable a healthier living lifestyle. Their dietary pattern is characterized by the intake of food bought from shops and food vendors. Substantial amounts of these foods are not freshly prepared homemade foods. Moreover, due to their complex work schedules, the parents have very little time for rest. They also get little time for exercising and engaging in their preferred sporting activities like jogging and playing basketball. They however squeeze in jogging in the little time that they have which is not sufficient. Family Resources The Anderson family is a unit that is well managed and has adequate resources needed to undertake and manage their health issues. Since both parents are employed, they enjoy both personal and family insurance policies provided by their employers. They therefore face minimal challenges in obtaining health care. From the foregoing illustrations of the Anderson family, they have unique problems and challenges that any family could face. These problems are rooted on their quest to attain good health and ultimately lead a healthy lifestyle. The challenge of nurturing and support has been identified in the Anderson household. The family ought to find more time to cater to the emotional needs of their teenage daughter. That is, the teenage period is a challenging period that requires close attention and counseling. The parents should schedule their duties at work to give them more time to solve this problem. Moreover, this will enable them spend more time as family. Moreover, the challenge of sexuality should be keenly addressed. Vivian is a teenage girl who is at a unique phase in her life. Absence of counseling and mentorship from both parents might be destructive in the end. The resource that the parents need to tap into is time. They should make time to provide mentorship to their daughter. Moreover, the family is faced with a number of stressors. These stress issues arise due to the nature of their work and other commitments like school. The parents should take occasional work leaves in order to spend quality time with their family. These will inhibit the occurrence of stress. For their child, she should be actively involved in other co-curriculum activities that will provide an avenue for her to vent out her frustrations. Management of health related problems is a challenge that the Anderson household faces. The Andersons dietary patterns could be enhanced to enable a healthier living lifestyle. Their dietary pattern is characterized by the intake of food bought from shops and food vendors. Substantial amounts of these foods are not freshly prepared homemade foods. They should endeavor to change their eating habits and subsequently accommodate homemade foods that are rich in the specified nutrients. Moreover, due to their complex work schedules, the parents have very little time for rest. They also get little time for exercising and engaging in their preferred sporting activities like jogging and playing basketball. They however squeeze in jogging in the little time that they have which is not sufficient. They need to get more time to enhance their working out habits. This will tremendously improve their health status as a family. The community health officer should prescribe the prerequisite conditions that promote healthy living to the Anderson family. Moreover, the health officer should conduct a follow up to ascertain whether the family is following the recommended practices of healthy living. The community health officer could also provide training and insights on appropriate and healthcare treatment that can be dispensed at home. These approaches will add to the bulk of proactive medical measures that the family should take combatting unhealthy living standards. References Duvall, E. (1962). Family Development, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Hill, R. (1951). Families under stress: New York: Harper & Brothers. McGoldrick, M., & Carter, E. (1982). The family life cycle. In F.Walsh (ed), Normal family Processes. Pp 167-195. New York: The Guilford Press. Read More