Transcript Family Facts and Forecasts

What is a family?
• For some, the family is blood-related kin
• For some, the family is psychologically connected.
• For some, the family is composed of people living in the
same house or neighborhood
• For some, the family is a group of 2 or more people related
by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together in a
household.
• The family is more than a collection of individuals but
instead it is a whole larger than (and different from) the
sum of its parts!!!
Family Facts and Forecasts
• Half the marriages this year in the U.S. will probably end
in divorce
• Divorce rates are likely to be higher when a marriage is
preceded by a premarital pregnancy
• Age of the spouses at the time of first marriage is highly
related to the divorce rate (those under 20 are two to three
times more likely to divorce than those who marry in their
20s.
• Married couples are divorcing earlier than ever before
(38% within four years of marriage, 50% within seven
years)
• Because of early divorces, younger children are more and
more likely to be affected by divorce.
Family Facts and Forecasts
• More than one out of four children in the U.S. is now born
to an unwed mother. The number of teenage unwed
mothers in the US is at an all time high.
• Today’s unwed teenage mother is opting increasingly to
keep her child.
• Never-married single women--especially those over 35,
educated, and economically self-sufficient--are having
children out of wedlock at an increasing rate
• About one in four children live with a single parent.
• More than two of every three children under 6 has a
mother who is employed outside the home.
• More than half the people in the US have belonged or will
belong to a stepfamily at some period in their lives.
Family Tasks (Harvey & Wexler, 1996)
• Daily living tasks: obtaining and preparing food; cleaning,
repairing, improving family possessions; child care and
socialization of dependent children; care for the sick and
elderly
• Family leadership functions: giving direction to family
development; held by one person or shared over time
• Cohesiveness-building functions: developing family
rituals and traditions, stories, secrets, and rules for
everyday living and coping with crises.
• Development of a family value system: setting
expectations for family member behavior--a hierarchy of
goals.
• From a contemporary perspective, it no longer makes
sense to refer to a typical American family. We must
consider various types of families, with diverse
organizational patterns, styles of living, and living
arrangements. The idealized American nuclear family
depicts a carefree, white family with a suburban residence,
sole provider father, and homemaker mother. Both parents
are dedicated to child rearing and remain together for life;
children are educated at a neighborhood school and attend
church with their family on Sunday; plenty of money and
supportive grandparents are available…….of course this is
stuff of TELEVISION!!!
• Counselors working from a systemsperspective view clients’ disturbed
behavior as representative of a system that
is faulty and not due to individual deficit
or deficiency. The client’s difficulties
might then be viewed more accurately as
signaling a social system in
disequilibrium!!!
Systems Theory
• Family members are studied in terms of their interactions
and not merely their intrinsic personal characteristics.
• Every event within a family is multiply determined by all
the forces operating within that system.
• Circular causality emphasizes that problems are not the
result of a linear, cause-and-effect process brought about
by some primary factor. Rather, problematic behavior
results from mistaken or dysfunctional interaction patterns
that develop between people in a mutually reinforcing
manner and, thereby, serve to maintain the problem rather
than change it.
• Family theories provide tools for expanding
school counselors and other counselors
expand their default thinking to include a
family based framework.
Systems Theory
• Family members are studied in terms of their interactions
and not merely their intrinsic personal characteristics.
• Every event within a family is multiply determined by all
the forces operating within that system.
• Circular causality emphasizes that problems are not the
result of a linear, cause-and-effect process brought about
by some primary factor. Rather, problematic behavior
results from mistaken or dysfunctional interaction patterns
that develop between people in a mutually reinforcing
manner and, thereby, serve to maintain the problem rather
than change it.
Systems Theory Example
• A female client indicated that her problem
with shyness is that she simply is not
attractive. At first the counselor decided to
intervene with this client by implementing
“typical” self-esteem exercises. However,
upon further exploration the counselor
realized that the client’s parents have
repeatedly indicated that she is not “as
pretty as her older sister.”
Properties of Systems
• Movement in one component of a system has an effect on
all other components of the system
• Systems have subsystems or microsystems that are affected
by the larger system and vice versa.
• Subsystems refer to groupings of people who are within
the system yet who have relational boundaries that set
them apart.
• An element of a system may be affected, or changed, by
beginning with any component of a system. This means
that individual problems have various pathways along
which a solution may be sought. This process is often
referred to as equifinality.
Properties of Systems
• The boundaries within systems and
subsystems are either enmeshed or
disengaged. Boundaries determine who
participates and how, and where the
authority lies. Enmeshment and
disengagement are not healthy but are
merely relationship styles
Enmeshment and Disengagement
• Enmeshment is when the boundaries are too
permeable and family members become overinvolved and entwined in one another’s lives
(opening each other’s mail, knowing each other’s
secrets, being continually attuned to each other
feelings)
• Disengagement involves overly rigid boundaries,
with family members sharing a home but
operating as separate units, with little interaction,
exchange of feelings, or sense of connection to
one another. Little support, concern, or family
loyalty is evident in disengaged families.
Counselors who work from a “family counseling or systems
perspective” explore dysfunctional family relationships and
attempt to shift the balance so that new forms of relating
become possible, with the goal of problem resolution.
Counselors, then, help families get “unstuck.”
Systems Theory and School Counseling
A family is in crisis. Bonnie is a 14 year old girl who is
referred to the school counselor because she is refusing to eat.
The school counselor finds out that Bonnie is also having
trouble with her peers (even though her grades are very
good). Her mom has just been promoted and now earns more
than her husband, who is a truck driver. Husband and wife
are fighting a great deal. Bonnie’s mom reports that she has
come home with “pot” on her breath. The parents scolded
her. The parents are very upset, however, that she is not
eating. In this Italian family, food is very important. The
counselor concludes that the more the parents focus on
Bonnie, the less tension is felt by the parents’ fighting. Thus,
the symptom (Bonnie’s eating) emerges as the point of family
crisis and is maintained by the system.
Bowen believed that changes in the
family system impact the individual, and
that changes in the individual influence
the family.
Types of Families
• Nuclear Family represents a two generation
system consisting of a marital couple (i.e., parental
subsystem) or a single parent/grandparent and
their children (i.e., the sibling subsystem).
• Extended Family is an extended system which
includes other generations extended in at least two
directions, upward or downward in the “family
tree.” Extended families can include aunts,
uncles, cousins, great aunts, and second cousins.
• Blended Family is one in which two different
nuclear family systems join to form a new family
system.
Carter and McGoldrick’s (1988)
Six Stages of Family Life Development
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Single young adults--leaving home
The new couple
Families with young children
Families with adolescents
Launching children and moving on
Families in later life
• There are developmental models for
understanding how family units change over
time. Although most development models
have significant cultural and heterosexual
biases, it is generally understood that
families develop from a couple relationship
to a family system that involves children.
Single Young Adults--Leaving
Home
• Disconnection and reconnection with one’s
family on a different level while
simultaneously establishing one’s self as a
person.
• Striking a balance between a career and/or
marriage ambitions
• Desire for personal autonomy
• Overcoming internal and external pressures
to marry
The New Couple
• Idealization
• Adjustment and adaptation
• Most likely stage of divorce due to an
inability of individuals to resolve
differences
• Greatest amount of satisfaction, too!
• Financial and time constraints are the two
main limitations.
Families with Young Children
• Change (e.g., physical, psychological,
emotional) associated with the arrival of
child.
• The family becomes unbalanced, at least
temporarily.
• Relationships with extended family are
adjusted.
• Work/career and leisure demands are
adjusted.
Families with Adolescents
• “Sandwich generation”: adults in these families often are
“squeezed” in between taking care of themselves, their
teenagers, and aging parents.
• Most active and exciting times in the family cycle.
• Families often have trouble setting limits, defining
relationships, and taking adequate care of one another.
• Tension between parents and adolescents is common.
Reasons for tensions: distinction between what parents
want for their youngsters and what youngsters want for
themselves, desire for autonomy (adolescent); influence of
peer groups; parental influence decreases
• Parents too are experiencing change due to the aging
process.
Children Leave Home
• “Empty nest syndrome”: couples without child rearing
responsbilities.
• The number of couples in this stage is increasing in the
U.S.
• Couples must rediscover each other and fun together.
Some are unsuccessful and marriages end.
• Women who have mainly defined themselves as mothers
may experience depression, despondency, and divorce may
occur.
• Men may focus on their physical bodies, marriages, and
occupational aspirations. Research has not focused much
on men during this period and therefore little data is
available.
The Family Later in Life
• These families are composed of a couple who are
in the final years of employment or who are in
retirement (65 years and up)
• Major concerns are finances, health,mental illness,
and loss of spouse.
• Psychopathology increases with age, particularly
organic brain disease and functional disorders
such as depression, anxiety, and paranoid states.
Suicide also rises with age, with the highest rate
among elderly white men.
• Grandparenting is an advantage of the aging
Variables that Affect Life Cycle
• Ethnicity: culture and ethnic background can influence the
life cycle and important milestones in a family’s
development. For instance, transitions from childhood to
adulthood are symbolized differently among cultures.
• Illness and/or Disability: the onset, duration and outcome
of illness or disability can disrupt a family’s cycle.
• Substance Abuse: families of addicts are often stuck in a
life cycle that promotes dependency of the young and a
false sense of identity. They become competent within a
framework of incompetence.
• Poverty: families in poverty are more dependent on kin
and are maternal-headed. Continuing poverty some times
pushes fathers away from their children.
Defining the Healthy Family
• Family roles are known to all in the family and may
change over the course of time.
• Degree of elasticity and adaptability in family roles.
• Healthy families are mature families (Satir). Mature
families consist of parents/guardians who communicate
clearly, directly, and honestly.
• Healthy families develop flexible rules which govern
family behavior, but are subject to change (Satir)
• Healthy families have well-defined hierarchies of power
and status (Minuchin)
• Healthy families consist of strong and satisfying
marriages/adult relationships.
Family’s Provide Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs
• Physical and life sustaining needs (need for food,
water, air, warmth, sexual gratification,
elimination of body wastes, and so on)
• Physical Safety (need for protection from physical
attack and disease)
• Love (need to be cherished, supported, aided by
others)
• Self-Esteem (need to have a sense of personal
worth and value, to respect and value one’s self)
• Self-Actualization (need to be creative and
productive and to attain worthwhile objectives)
Levels of Family Needs
• Level I:
– Families who need essential requisites for
survival and well-being (food, shelter,
protection from danger, health care, and
minimums of nurturance)
– Families at this level have experienced crises
(e.g., job loss, major illness)
– Families at this level lack leadership and
structure.
– Families at this level have indistinct boundaries
among members
Level I Intervention
• Build on basic strengths and resilience
• Focus on resources
• Mobilize support for the parental system
(e.g., church groups, community agencies,
extended family)
• Reframe and highlight meanings in stress
and distress (“survivor’s pride”)
• Be an advocate, role model, convener!
Cassie, a sixth grader, came to the attention of the
school counselor after she was identified for
extensive absences. Cassie has missed 20 of the last
40 days of school. Through the counselor’s
discussions with teachers and Cassie, she discovers
that Cassie’s family is homeless and lives out of a
station wagon parked at a nearby park. Cassie’s
father is an alcoholic and her mother is disabled.
What would your first intervention be?
Second intervention?
Third?
Level of Family Need
• Level II:
– Issues related to maintaining authority and setting limits
are prominent
– Parental subsystem is unable to set and maintain
sufficient limits for one or more family members
– There is either a lack of clear expectations or a lack of
power to enforce expectations
– Children are often out of control, acting out
– Parents might be involved in substance abuse
– Violence in the family may be present
Level II Intervention
• Focus on strengths, resilience, and resources.
• Structure meetings with families, particularly
parents; Modeling “structure” for parents is
important.
• Meet with parents consistently in order to develop
a coalition of those in charge versus those in need
of control.
• Parent education (e.g., social learning skills,
behavioral topics) and support groups could be
helpful for these families (e.g., parents)
Joel is a 10-year old 4th grader who was referred to
the counselor for disruptive classroom behavior (e.g.,
not raising his hand to speak, pushing children, not
completing class work). Joel has also been
suspended from riding the bus because of his
misbehavior. Joel’s mother is single and works in
D.C. The mother’s boyfriend is living temporarily
with Joel and his mother. After school, Joel is not
supervised and the mother has refused to attend
parent teacher conferences.
How should the counselor intervene?
Level III
• Rich mixture of coping mechanisms are
present, but are often faulty or “unhealthy.”
• Control in these families might be absolute,
with little or no negotiation.
• Issues related to clear and appropriate
boundaries are prevalent.
Level III Interventions
• Reshaping the internal processes of the family
• Challenging the existing family structure and
confront the family’s tendency to remain in
current patterns of behavior.
• Examination of communication and power
structures around the presenting problem may be
useful.
• Family counseling and therapy are “real” options
for these families
George and Hilary have two children, George Jr. (17) and Tasha (12).
George Jr has become very negative at home and his grades are low. His
parents fear that he is involved with drugs and a violent group of boys.
There are no concerns about Tasha at this time. Hilary (the mom) is quiet
and is overly involved with Tasha, but appears to be bonded with George
Jr. George Sr. (dad) is a firefighter and is rarely at home and when he is at
home, he has little contact with the children. George Sr. and Hilary’s
relationship is tension-ridden and George uses an authoritarian style of
parenting.
George Sr.’s father and mother are overly involved with their son’s family.
George Sr.’s parents live next door and use an authoritarian style of
communication with their son and daughter in law.
As a counselor working with this family, what might you do?
Level IV
• Desire for greater intimacy, greater sense of
self, or more autonomy.
• Goal is to live more fully and grow toward
actualization of each member’s potential.
• Issues such as inner conflicts, intimacy,
self-realization, insight, and spiritual
yearnings are the focus.
Level IV Interventions
• Genograms extending over three or four (or more)
generations are useful to highlight
transgenerational patterns.
• Family sculpting
• Narrative interventions and rewriting one’s story
• Object relations therapy (psychoanalytic) for those
who want more insight into patterns.
• Focus on values, meanings, and spirituality.
Referrals to church-related counseling centers
might be appropriate.
Kelly R., a married mother of 2 children (10th and
12 grade) at your school, comes to your office to
discuss her son’s college aspirations. During your
conference with the mother, she reports that her
mother passed away last year and she has not been
“herself.” Reading between the lines, you realize
that she seems despondent and depressed. She
admits that she is afraid of her son leaving home
for college and that she is in need of
“restructuring” her life.
Discuss this client in terms of
intervention strategies.
Intervention Choic e Points
Cont exts
Orientations
Beh avioral/Interactional
Experiential
Historical
Family/
Com munit y
Coupl e/
Parents
Indiv idual /
Studen t
Focus on strengths rather than deficits and
focus on solutions rather than problems!!!
Intervention Choices
• Behavioral/Interactional Choices: what people do,
their actions, etc. Social skills training and
strategic/structural activities may be used.
• Experiential Choices: makes use of cognition,
affect, communication, and interpersonal
relationships. Individual, group, or family
counseling may be used.
• Historical Choices: what happened in the past.
Family of origin work and psychodynamic
methods are used. Psychotherapy may be used.
Major Concepts of the Ecosystems Perspective
(Germain & Gitterman, 1995)
• Reciprocal Exchanges: transactions between the person and his/her
environment; these transactions shape and influence each other over
time
• Life Stress: positive or negative person-environment relationship
• Coping: special adaptations that are made in a response to stress.
• Habitat: where a person or family lives
• Niche: the result of one’s accommodation to the environment; refers to
the status that is occupied by a member of the community
• Relatedness: based on attachment theory; refers to emotional closeness
or isolation
• Adaptations: changing the environment to allow for meeting the
physical and psychological needs of an individual or family
Family Systems View: Key Assumptions
• Wholeness: change in one part of system will cause change in other
parts
• Feedback: families are regulated by feedback loops or inputs from
family members
• Equifinality: the same result may be reached from different
beginnings
• Circular Causality: systems are constantly modified by recursive
circular feedback from multiple sources within and outside of the
system.
Social Constructionist Metatheory
• Relativism regarding all meanings; there is no
“reality”;meanings are constructed by participants
• Emphasis is on meanings rather than actions; from
expertise to collaboration; from diagnosis to
problems to mutual creation of solutions
• Nonhierarchical relationships in family are OK.
Partnering with Families and
Communities
• Difference between professional learning
community and school learning community.
– Professional learning community emphasizes the
teamwork of principals, teachers, staff, (or agency
director, counselors, staff) to improve curriculum and
instruction, assess student progress and increase
effectiveness.
– School learning community includes educators,
students, parents, and community partners
(stakeholders) who work together to improve the school
and enhance students’ learning opportunities.
Partnering with Families and
Communities
• One component of a school learning
community is an organized program of
school, family, and community partnerships
with activities linked to school goals. These
programs, research shows, increase student
achievement, strengthen families, invigorate
community support, and improve schools.
Six Types of Involvement
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Parenting
Communicating
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision Making
Collaborating with the Community
Action Teams
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Create an Action Team
Obtain funding and other support
Identify starting points
Develop 3 year outline and a one year
action plan
• Continue planning and working
Community Partners
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Businesses/Corporations
Universities
Health Care Organizations
Government and Military Agencies
Volunteer Organizations
Faith Based Organizations
Senior Citizens Organizations
Cultural Institutions
Community Individuals
Mandatory Knowledge and Skills Necessary for
Culturally Competent Work With Families
(Pinderhughes, 1989)
• Knowledge of specific values, beliefs, and cultural practices of
families
• The ability to respect and appreciate the values, beliefs, and practices
of all families.
• The ability to be comfortable with difference in others and thus not to
be trapped in anxiety about difference or defensive behavior.
• The ability to control and even change false beliefs, assumptions, and
stereotypes.
• The ability to think flexibly and to recognize that one’s own way of
thinking and behaving is not the only way.
• The ability to behave flexibly. Be ready to engage in the extra steps
required to sort through general knowledge about a cultural group and
to see the specific ways in which knowledge applies or does not apply
to a given client.
Interventions for High Risk
Families
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Engagement
Support and Strengths Inventory
Nurturing the Family
Role Modeling
Conflict Resolution
Advocacy
Process of Family Intervention
• Pre-Planning Tasks: initial contact made by counselor; gather essential
information (e.g., name, address, phone number, email, statement of
problem); counselor should be supportive, caring, talks in a manner
that conveys respect and receptivity
• Initial Session:
– Join the family: establish a sense of trust
– Inquire about members’ perceptions of the family and its problems
– Observe family patterns (i.e., family dance) What is the outward
appearance of the family? What is the cognitive functioning in the
family? What repetitive, non-productive sequences do you notice?
What individual roles reinforce family resistances? What
subsystems are operative in this family? Who carries the power?
– Assess What Needs To Be Done
– Engender Hope for Change and Overcome Resistance
Types of Family Interventions
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Structural
Strategic
Solution-Focused
Narrative
Systemic