Child Development and Family

Studies
HSM 200 / HSM Department

Temitayo Olurin

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 Child Development and Family Studies

• Family Life Cycle

• Stages of family life cycle

17-06-2021
 FAMILY LIFE CYCLE
• Family life cycle can be described as stages that occur throughout the life of
a family unit.
• Family life is synonymous to the stage of an individual in human
development stages.
• There are about eight stages that a normal family should go through .

Truncated family life cycle due to:

• Abnormality sets in when the family is dysfunctional including divorce,
single parenting, marriage dissolution, remarriage.
• Widowed /polygamous family cycle cannot follow the normal cycle

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Importance of Family Life Cycle Stages
• It prepares the family to recognise what lies ahead
• It serves as cushion for every member of the family to know the
characteristics and change peculiar to each phase

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Stages of Family Life Cycle
• There are six stages:

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 Stage 1 (Leaving Home) Single, Young Adults,
Independence
•Change from reliance on family to acceptance of emotional and financial
responsibility for ourselves
•Begin to separate emotionally from immediate family
•Begin to develop unique qualities and characteristics that define individual
identity
•Develop intimate peer relationships
•Explore interests and career goals
•Begin to be responsible for your own health
•Take decisions

Key principle – accepting emotional and financial responsibility for self

 Stage 2- Coupling/ Marrying

•Explore ability to commit to a new family and a new way of life

•Formation of a new family system. – your ideas about family combine with
your partners ideas about family
•Goal is to achieve interdependence
•The relationship skills you learn in coupling serve as a foundation for other
relationships such as parent-child, teacher-student or physician-patient.
•Realignment of relationships with extended families and friends to include
spouse

Key principle – commitment to new system

Parenting (from infancy to the onset of Adolescence stages 3 & 4)

•Introducing a child into your family results in a major change in roles for you
and your partner.
•Each parent has 3 distinct and demanding roles: as an individual, a partner, and
a parent.
•Relationships with extended families may also change, as it opens to include
grandparents etc.
 Stage 3 - Families with young children

• . adjusting marital system to make space for child(ren)

• . Joining in child rearing, financial and household tasks
• . Realignment of relationships with extended family to include
parenting and grand parenting roles.

Key principle – Accepting new members into the system

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 Stage 4 - Families with Adolescents
•This can be a difficult time in families. Families need to increase flexibility of
family boundaries with teens, yet take care of potential grandparent frailties.
(shifting of parent-child relationships to permit adolescent move in and out of
system
•Focus on midlife marital and career issues.
•This is a time when one or more family members may feel some level of
depression or other distress.
•You must make your own health a priority so you can care for both your
children and your parents

•Key principle – increasing flexibility of family boundaries to include

children’s independence and grandparents frailties
Stage 5 - Launching children and moving on
•Renegotiation of marital system as a dyad
•This can be one of the most emotionally difficult stages for parents, as they monitor
the exit of their children from the family; this is sometimes called empty nest
syndrome.

•Begins when the first child leaves the nest.

•There can be the development of adult-to-adult relationships between parents and
grown children
•Families usually deal with the death of grandparents during this stage
•Free from the everyday demands of parenting, you may choose to rekindle your own
marriage and possibly career goals
•Realignment of relationships to include in-laws and grandchildren

Key principle – accepting a multitude of exits from and entries into the family
 Launching cont.’d
•Health issues related to midlife may begin to occur and can include:
•High blood pressure
•Weight problems
•Arthritis
•Menopause
•Osteoporosis
•Heart disease
•Depression
Stage 6 – Families in later life (Retirement)
•Individual can reach this stage and either review of their lives with
acceptance and a sense of accomplishment or with bitterness and regret.
•Support our children as they launch their own children.
•Sometimes it deals with the death of spouses, siblings, and other peers
•Start to prepare for one’s own death as well.
Retirement cont.’d
•This stage can also be a great adventure where you are free from the
responsibilities of raising your children and can simply enjoy life
•The quality of your life at this stage depends on how well you adjusted
to the changes in the earlier stages. It often also depends on how well
you have cared for your own health up to this point. Normal aging will
affect your body, resulting in loss of bone density, wrinkles, aches, and
pains. The chances of having a mental, or chronic physical illness does
increase with age however, aging does not mean you will automatically
experience poor health.
Retirement cont.’d
•Becoming a grandparent can bring you great joy without the
responsibility of raising a child.
•You may now have a lot of time on your hands to do things you would
like to do such as travel, take up new hobbies or spend time with family.

•Key principle – accepting the shifting of generational roles

References
• Carter, B. and McGoldrick, M. (1989). The changing family life cycle.
A framework for family therapy,. 2nd ed. Allyn and Bacon
• Rolland, J.S. (1987). Chronic illnesses and the life cycle: A conceptual
framework . Family process 26, 203-221
• CHIRP (2003). The family life cycle. Everymind
https://everymind.imgix.net/assets/Uploads/chirp-the-family-life-
cycle.pdf

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• Questions and Answers
THANK YOU