Family Structures and Legacies

CHAPTER 13
• What are family structures?
• Influence of family structure on the adolescent?
• Parental authority and parenting styles
• Family heredity
• Genogram
What are family structures?
 The family is considered the first place where growing
children learn their basic social skills. The interaction and
quality of relationship between parent and child are said to
determine the child’s future relationships as he or she
matures toward adulthood. (Papalia and Feldman 2012;
quoting Overbeek, Stattin, Vermulst, Ha, and Engels 2007.)
Different types of Families
NUCLEAR OR TRADITIONAL FAMILY
 Nuclear family refers to the core
members of a family, usually
parents and children.
SINGLE PARENT FAMILY
 Single parent families
are comprised of a
parent/caregiver and one or
more dependent children
without the presence and
support of a spouse or adult
partner who is sharing the
responsibility of parenting.
EXTENDED FAMILY
• Extended families consist of
several generations of people and
can include biological parents
and their children as well as in-
laws, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, and cousins.
INFLUENCE OF FAMILY STRUCTURE ON THE ADOLESCENT
Family as “two or more persons who share resources, share
responsibility for decisions, share values and goals, and have a
commitment to each other over time”. (Gregorio Alfonso C.
Andoyo, The Filipino Family and Filipino Values)
Medina’s definition of a family practically encompasses all
kinds of family relational variations, such as the nuclear
family, the single parent family, the extended family, and the
childless family (Toby Shelton, The four Essential Types of
Family Structures.)
PARENTAL AUTHORITY AND PARENTING STYLES
AUTHORITATIVE PARENTING
 In this parenting style, the parents
are nurturing, responsive, and
supportive, yet set firm limits for
their children. They attempt to
control children's behavior by
explaining rules, discussing, and
reasoning. They listen to a child's
viewpoint but don't always accept it.
 Authoritative parenting is a key
factor in the psychosocial
development of an adolescent’s
development (Papalia and Feldman
2012; quoting Baumrind 1991, 2005).
 Albert Bandura’s theory of social learning hinges on
three concepts: learning takes place through
observation (or modeling); mental states are
important to learning, which means that child’s
learning can be self reinforced or rewarded if there is
satisfaction or pride in what was learned; and not all
learning can lead to changes in behaviour.
FAMILY HEREDITY
 When you look around the members of your family,
you might have observed certain physical similarities
that exist among yourself, your siblings, and your
parents. There are some characteristics that are
influenced by heredity, and even by the environment.
 Obesity or leanness, where the predisposition toward
one or the other is often found throughout the
generations from either side of the family.
 Intelligence, is another thing that is passed on due to
heredity, but also due to other factors like brain size
and structure, and the compilation of many genes
resulting to intelligence.
 There is a 40% to 50% chance of personality traits
being passed on through heredity (Papalia and
Feldman 2012; quoting Bouchard 2014) such as
temperament, which is the characteristics manner by
which an individual looks at situations and how they
react to them.
GENOGRAM
 A genogram is a graphic representation of a family
tree that displays detailed data on relationships
among individuals. There are possible traits you may
want to trace in your family;
 Physical characteristics
 Genetic or external factors
 Social and economic backgrounds
 Religious values
 Family values
 Cultural background
How to Make a Genogram
Here are the steps in creating your family genogram.
Remember that making a genogram can be fun, or it
can be something serious too.
Step 1: Ask yourself this first question: What is my
purpose of creating a genogram? If this is clear with
you, then you can start creating list of persons in your
family that will be part of the genogram.
You may also start collecting relevant information that
are easily accessible to you like your parents, siblings,
close relatives, and friends. To serve as an example, let
us trace the height characteristics of your family.
Determine how to categorize heights, like 4.9 inches
to and below may be categorized as SHORT, 5.0 inches
to 5.6 inches may be categorized as MEDIUM, and 5.7
inches and up as TALL.
Step 2: Next decision that you have to make is to
determine the number of generations you would like
to be represented in your genogram. In our example,
let us trace up to your maternal and paternal
grandparents generation. So now, list down all the
persons who will form your genogram:
1. Grandparents on your mother’s side
2. Grandparents on your father’s side
3. Your parents
4. Your parent’s siblings
5. Your siblings
6. Your first cousins
Step 3: You may start your research by asking your
parents and grandparents (if they are still living)
where they took after with their heights.
Step 4: Now you can design your genogram. There are
plenty of genogram templates available online, or you
may want to do the diagram free- hand. If you are
using free-hand, there are diagrams you need to use
that will represent different things.
Here are some examples of these symbols:
1. Males are represented by a square. If you wish to
indicate a marriage, place the square symbol to left
side. Women are represented, place the circle to the
right side of the square.
2. The oldest child is usually placed below and to the
left of his or her family. The youngest, on the other
hand, is placed below and to the right side.
Step 5: Connect the symbols with lines. Using the
illustration given, you may now connect the different
symbols you used. Single lines indicate unions or
marriages. Double lines will indicate separation or
divorce.
Step 6: Use representative symbols for the different
height categories you made. Here is a simple
representation of these height categories:
a. S – for short
b. M – for medium
c. T – for tall
You may place these letters inside the squares and
boxes for easy identification.
Step 7: Look at your chart and identify if there are
patterns. Find out if there are consistent. If not, you
might have missed some information regarding a
person or a family.