Lifespan Changes And Families Flashcards
Define family
Married or co-habiting adults, couple or single adult
With or without children
Including childless couples or lone parent together with never married children
Grandparents with grandchildren without parents
Household does not equal a household
Types of family
Lone parent Nuclear traditional Nuclear adopted Nuclear same sex Extended Reconstituted/blended Postmodern family
Lone parent
Single adult, typically a mother and a child
92% are women single mums
Nuclear traditional
Mother and father and biological children
Only one generation
Nuclear adopted
Mother and father and adopted children
Extended
Parents, children, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles
Reconstituted/blended
At least one adult has children from a previous relationship
Step brothers and stepsisters
Post modern family
Inclusion of friends maybe ?
What is a household
Group of people who share living arrangements - relax together, eat together and share household chores
Not the same as a family
Single family may form a household but a single family may extend beyond a single household
If your family live in different households
Single household may contain multiple families
Family
Kinship and emotional/biological relations
Household
Spatial and temporal relations
Families and householders same not same
They may interact differently and should not be conflated. Should not be assumed that householders are family and vice versa
Changing family structures
More cohabiting couples with or without children
More lone parent families - they are more likely to live in poverty
Age distribution of women giving birth have changed - more common for women to be older than 30 when having their first child
Downward trend in divorces but more in the over 60s
More people living alone - risk of isolation, causes healthcare problems, more of these people are likely to be elderly
Less children in households with children and less children in households with children
Increased number of families - more cohabiting couple families, more lone parent families, less married couple families
Implications for healthcare
Late childbirth- must counsel women on risks of geriatric pregnancy
Ageing population- extra years are spent in ill health
Shrinking informal care and more formal care needed - since there are less families caring for the elderly and them needing more specialist care
Vulnerable people on support outside NHS/social care services - but funds for social care are decreasing
Family function
Facilitates the procreation of children
Provides social control and socialisation of children
Dictates the social placement of children and adults - education
Physically looks after its members - also financially and emotionally
Family’s role on health
Transmission of health risks via inherited disease - Huntingtons and sickle cell
Healthy/unhealthy lifestyle - family culture towards exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol
Attitudes to health and illness, healthcare professionals - influences consulting habits of other members of the family
Body image - dieting mothers are female role models and may encourage excess dieting
Diagnosis of symptoms - may be the first ones to notice the symptoms
Management of symptoms
Effect of illness on family functioning
Provision of healthcare - families may choose to provide private healthcare for family members
Tansella’s 3 ways in which the family comes to the doctors attention
The family fails in its patient care function
The family member has a physical or psychological break down
There is non compliance and friction between the parent, family and doctor that can interfere with what you recommend, especially language barriers
Family life cycle changes
Having children later
Later life starts later than it used to
Life cycle stage 1971
The unattached adult 18+ -parent offspring separation
Newly married couple 25/23 -commitment to new family system
The family with young children - 26/24-accepting a new generation
The family with adolescents - 41/39 -increasing flexibility of family boundaries to accommodate developing children independence
Launching children and moving on 46/44 - accepting the exiting family members
The family in later life 51/49 - accepting shifting generational roles
Family life cycle 2005/6
The unattached adult 18+ -parent offspring separation
Newly married couple 32/29 -commitment to new family system
The family with young children - 33/30-accepting a new generation
The family with adolescents - 46/43 -increasing flexibility of family boundaries to accommodate developing children independence
Launching children and moving on 53/50 - accepting the exiting family members
The family in later life 58/55 - accepting shifting generational roles
Family reactions to illness - acute
Sudden illness affects the family
Daily pattern of family life disturbed
Families tend to pull together becoming more cohesive and integrated - centripetal affect
Either the illness then becomes chronic
Or the patient recovers and family returns to normal
What happens in chronic illness
Family remains tightly bound together
- coping behaviour
- illness is ignored as far as possible
- family cuts down on its involvement with other people in the community to avoid confrontation with the effect of the handicap
Family pulls apart
- one parent cannot stand the stress - marital disruptions- divorce
- over attention devote to ill person - rest of family brothers and sisters are neglected lead to social deviance
- exclusion of the ill person from the family - institutionalise them returning the family back to normal
2 types of family - centripetal family
External world is perceived as a threat, capable of causing disruption
Members seek gratification from within the family
Harmony is see as the glue and must be maintained
Negative or hostile feeling are denied or hidden
Healthcare implications
- may distrust medical advice, prefer to deal with issues in house
- centripetal focus may be amplified by the disease
- autonomy is at risk
- illness offers an excuse
-may not share all infor with gps
Centrifugal family
Members seek gratification outside of the family
Marked distance between members
Little communication
Members are comfortable other negative and hostile feelings
Uncomfortable with warmth or caring
Healthcare implications
- may not off patient the support they need
- lack of understanding by family members
- resentment towards to family member
Family carers
Most do not access any other support services such as respite breaks or counselling
Have impact on working life mental health
And physical health from being a carer
Common effects on the health of carers
Stress/nervous tension Depression Anxiety Back injury High BP
Health burden on young carers
70% former young carers have suffered long term psychological effects
40% mental health problems
Psychological stress - difficulty making friends
Miss play time end up adopting parental role
Mental health - depression and stress to low self esteem - half of those interviewed had had some form of counselling
