Family Dynamics in Nursing

The Family

• Definition:
  • Traditional: Two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption who live together.
  • Modern: Two or more people who have chosen to live together and share interests, roles, and resources.
  • Each family is unique, with attachment and commitment binding members together.

Traditional vs. Modern Family

• Traditional Family:
  • Related by blood
  • Related by adoption
  • Related by marriage
• Modern Family:
  • Share interests
  • Share roles
  • Share resources

Family Functions

• Basic needs:
  • Physical Maintenance
    • Providing food, shelter, and clothing to ensure the physical well-being of family members.
  • Protection:
    • Protection against inherited and acquired illnesses (internal forces) and injury (external forces).
  • Nurturance:
    • Providing loving care and attention to foster emotional and psychological well-being.
  • Socialization and Education:
    • Families are the primary source of socialization, teaching children about the world and how to respond to it.
  • Reproduction:
    • Ensuring the survival of the family unit by passing on genes to succeeding generations.
  • Recreation:
    • Sharing fun time, work, and other roles to promote cohesiveness and create positive experiences.

Types of Families

• Nuclear or Dyad:
  • Adult married partners with or without children.
• Extended:
  • Adult partners, children, and grandparents or other family members.
• Single Parent:
  • Mother or father and children.
• Blended or Reconstituted:
  • Mother(s) or father(s), stepparent, child, siblings, stepsiblings, half-siblings.
• Cohabitative:
  • Adult unmarried partners with or without children.
• Communal:
  • Individuals with their mates and children where all adults are responsible for all the children.
• Foster or Adoptive:
  • Parents or caregivers and children.
• LGBTQ+:
  • Adult married or unmarried partners with or without children.
• Transnational/Transitional:
  • One partner in one country, the other partner in another country, with or without children.

Family Loss and Breakdown

• Factors leading to family loss and breakdown:
  • Illness
  • Death
  • Divorce
  • Military deployment
  • Incarceration

Family Stages

• Couple stage:
  • Establish bonds between individuals.
  • Adjust to new routines.
  • Define roles and responsibilities.
• Childbearing stage:
  • Integrate baby into the family unit.
  • Adjust to new roles; extend relations to extended family.
  • Explore and establish child-care philosophy.
• Grown-child stage:
  • Adjust to new roles and “empty nest.”
  • Focus on reestablishing marital relationship.
  • Develop new roles, interests, and accomplishments.
• Older-family stage:
  • Adjust to retirement living.
  • Adjust to decline in income.
  • Adjust to changing health and reduced energy.
  • Maintain rewarding relationships with children and grandchildren.
  • Establish pleasurable activities to build self-esteem.

How Birth Order Shapes Personality

• First Borns:
  • Authoritative
• Middle Borns:
  • Competitive
• Last Borns:
  • Attention Center
• The Only Child:
  • Matured
  • Important Note: Birth order alone is NOT a determinant of behavior.

Family Patterns

• Authoritarian or Autocratic Family:
  • Authoritarian parents usually make all decisions.
• Authoritative or Democratic Family:
  • Authoritative families offer their members choices and encourage participation and individual responsibility.
• Permissive or Laissez-Faire Family:
  • Permissive families offer their members complete freedom.

Functional and Dysfunctional Families

• Functional Families:
  • Problems are solved together as a family unit.
  • Open to other member’s point of view.
  • Seek outside help if not able to cope with conflicts.
  • Members feel secure and safe.
• Dysfunctional Families:
  • Conflicts handled separately from one another.
  • Differences between members are not accepted.
  • Display antisocial behaviors if not able to cope with conflict.
  • Unable to offer stability and security.