Family Roles &

CONCEPT OF FAMILY Responsibilities

By: Dr. Rommel P. Merioles ●​ Family members working outside the
home
Family ●​ Household roles and responsibilities and
how tasks are distributed
●​ Characterized by birth, marriage, ●​ Child-rearing responsibilities are shared
adoption, or a choice. ●​ Major decision-maker and methods of
●​ Basic unit of society that consists of decision-making
individuals who are considered by
others to represent their significant
persons.
●​ Arena of interacting personalities.
●​ Small open social system composed of Family Structure
a set of highly interdependent parts and
by both internal structure and external ●​ Refers to the persons consisting of the
environment. family
●​ Composed of persons joined together ○​ Parents
by bonds of marriage, blood, or adoption ○​ Siblings (biological, adoption)
and residing in the same household. ○​ Blood Relatives
●​ Self-identified group of two or more
individuals whose association is
characterized by a special term, who
may be related by bloodlines or law.
●​ Two or more people joined together by
Types of Family
bonds of sharing, intimacy, or emotional
closeness and identify themselves as ●​ According to Decision-Making and
being part of the family. Authority:​

○​ Patriarchal
○​ Matriarchal
○​ Democratic
Function of a Family ●​ According to Structure:​

●​ Protect and socialize its members ○​ Nuclear

●​ Provides emotional support and security ○​ Extended
●​ Love, acceptance, concern, and ●​ According to Economic Resources:​
nurturing
●​ Sense of belonging, sense of kinship ○​ Traditional
●​ Physical protection and safety ○​ Dual-Career
●​ Meeting basic needs ●​ According to Form:​
●​ Nurture children to adulthood
●​ Knowledge, attitudes, and skills ○​ Single-Parent
○​ Intra-Generational
○​ Blended
○​ Foster
○​ Gay or Lesbian
 ○​ Cohabiting Stage 2: Coupling Stage
○​ Nuclear Dyad
●​ Some common areas of adjustment
include:
○​ Finances
○​ Lifestyle
Family Life Cycle ○​ Recreational activities or
hobbies
Stage 1: Independence Stage ○​ Relationships with in-laws
○​ Sexuality or sexual compatibility
●​ Learning to see oneself as a separate ○​ Friendships
person in relation to the original family ○​ Putting another person's needs
(parents, siblings, & extended members) before your own
●​ Establish oneself in your work or career
Stage 2: Coupling Stage
Stage 1: Independence Stage
●​ Within a couple, they learn:
●​ Develop intimate peer relationships ○​ Advanced interpersonal
outside the family communication.
○​ Commitment ○​ Problem-solving skills
○​ Commonality or similarity ○​ Common spiritual and emotional
○​ Compatibility development goals
○​ Attachment ○​ How to form boundaries in
○​ Dependence on another person relationships
who is not in your family ○​ When to place the needs or
○​ Shared emotion in a relationship importance of the other person
above one’s own
Stage 1: Independence Stage

●​ Other Important Qualities to Consider:

○​ Trust Stage 3: Parenting – Babies through
○​ Morals Adolescents
○​ Initiative and Guilt
○​ Work ethic ●​ Making the decision to have a baby
○​ Identity, or who you are in the ●​ Parenting young children
world ○​ Adjusting the marital system to
make space for children
○​ Taking on parenting roles
○​ Realigning the relationships with
Stage 2: Coupling Stage the extended family to include
parenting and grandparenting
●​ Transitioning into the new family system roles
●​ Including the spouse in relationships
with friends and family members. Stage 3: Parenting – Babies through
●​ Being committed to making the marriage Adolescents
work
●​ Putting the needs of another ahead of ●​ Parenting adolescents
one’s own ○​ Shifting parent-child
relationships to allow the child to
 move in and out of the family
system
Trends and Challenges
○​ Shifting focus back to midlife Facing the Contemporary
marital and career issues
○​ Beginning a shift toward Family
concern for older generations in
your extended family ●​ Poverty
●​ Abuse cases
●​ Alcoholic parents
●​ Teenage marriages
●​ Suicide cases
Stage 4: Empty Nest: Launching
●​ Cohabitation
Adult Children

●​ Begins when the first child leaves home

and ends with the "empty nest”
●​ Developing adult relationships with the Societal Changes Affecting
children
●​ Refocusing on the marriage without the Family
children
●​ Realigning relationships to include Economic Trends
in-laws and grandchildren when the
children have begun their own families ●​ Rising cost of living
●​ Growing disparity between rich and poor
●​ Increase in poverty rate

Stage 5: Retirement or Senior Stage Technological Advances

of Life
●​ Increased ability to prolong life
●​ Maintaining one’s own interests and ●​ Environmental protest
physical functioning, along with those of ●​ Use of nuclear energy
the spouse, as the body ages ●​ Automation in homes
●​ Exploring new family and social roles ●​ Working women spending lesser time in
●​ Providing emotional support for the adult homes
children and extended family members
Sociocultural Trends
Stage 5: Retirement or Senior Stage of Life
●​ Changing racial and ethnic composition
●​ Providing support for the older
generation without over-functioning for
Changes in the Family Structure
them
●​ Dealing with the loss of a spouse,
●​ Birth control advances – transforms the
siblings, and other peers, and preparing
family life cycle
for one’s own death
●​ Revolution in biotechnology
●​ Reviewing one’s life and reflecting on all
●​ Environmental pollution (air, water, food,
one has learned and experienced during
and noise)
the life cycle

Demographic Trends
●​ Accelerated population growth
●​ Aging population