(Taken from Scott Plunkett's FES 432 Course Pack)
·
Family developmental theory is an approach to
studying families, which is useful in explaining patterned change, the dynamic
nature of the family, and how change occurs in the family life cycle.
·
The roots of family developmental theory date
back to the 1930s from works of sociologists, economists, and demographers who
established family categories (which were the precursors to the stages of
development
·
From the mid 1940s to the early 1950s,
theorists such as Paul Glick, Evelyn Duvall, Reuben Hill, and Rachel Ann
Edwards contributed to a more sophisticated developmental approach.
·
Since the 1950s, family developmental theory
has been used to explain the processes observed in families over time.
Phase
I – Theorists Focused on The Family Life Cycle
·
Process of birth, growth, maintenance,
shrinkage and death
Phase II - contemporary theory – Theorists Focused on
Roles and Relationships within
the family
·
Family
is composed of social roles and relationships that change with each stage of
the family
Phase III – Theorists critique the theory
·
Look at
the limitations and strengths of the framework.
·
One
criticism is that the framework is biassed towards intact nuclear families,
only one of many different types of family structures
·
Family
developmental theory includes two basic concepts
1.
the life
cycle
§
The
family life cycle divides the family experiences into stages over the life span
and describes changes in family structure and roles during each stage.
2.
developmental
task.
§
Developmental
tasks are the growth responsibilities that arise at certain stages in the life
of the family.
·
To be
successful, family members need to adapt to changing needs and demands and to
attend to tasks that are necessary to ensure family survival.
·
Family
life cycle – Set of predictable steps or patterns and
developmental tasks families experience over time.
o
The
family life cycle concept facilitates studying the family from beginning to
end.
·
Family
stage – A time period in the life of a family that has a
unique structure.
·
Transition – The shift from one family stage to another
o
Consider
the Intact Family Life Cycle.
The transition, for example, from Families
with Adolescence to Launching Children is what occurs in the family as all members
make the adjustment.
·
Not age
that matters, but the stage in family development
·
Individual
Development is important, but development of group of interacting individuals
is most important
·
Developmental
processes are inevitable and important in
understanding families
o
Growth from one stage to another is going to
happen.
o
Families
and individuals change over a period of time. They progress through a series of
similar developmental stages and face similar transition points and
developmental tasks.
o
To understand the family we must consider the
challenges they face in each stage, how well they resolve them, but how well
they transition to the next stage.
o
The
success or difficulty of achieving the developmental tasks in each stage leads
to readiness for the next stage or difficulty in later stages.
o
The family is dynamic and we analyze how well they
master tasks at each stage of development.
·
The ability to view the dynamic nature of the
family over long periods of time
·
The ease of understanding the stages and
developmental tasks and the challenges families have to face
·
Lack of
ability to account for different family forms, and gender, ethnic and cultural
differences.
·
It isn’t culturally relavent or sensitive to
other life style choices
·
Stage
1: Married couples
o
(without children)
·
Stage
2: Childbearing families
o
(oldest child, birth-30 months)
·
Stage
3: Families with pre-school children
o
(oldest child, 2 1/2-6years)
·
Stage
4: Families with schoolchildren
o
(oldest child, 6-13 years)
·
Stage
5: Families with teenagers
o
(oldest child, 13-20 years)
·
Stage
6: Families as launching centers
o
(first child gone to last child leaving home)
·
Stage
7: Middle-age parents
o
(“empty nest” to retirement)
·
Stage
8: Aging family members
o
(retirement to death of both spouses)