Vol. 7 2 / 2002	Soá baùo Xuaân ñaëc bieät
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DEFINE A FAMILY

Nguyeãn vieát Ñöùc

Researcher

USA California Los Angeles

Family is a basic unit of social structure, the exact definition of which can vary greatly from time to time and from culture to culture. “The definition of a family varies across culture settings and often changes” (Gullotta, Adams & Alexander, 1985). How a society defines family as a primary group, and the functions it asks families to perform, are by no means constant. There has been much recent discussion of the nuclear family, which consists only of parents and children, but the nuclear family is by no means universal. The nuclear family (a core unit of husband, wife, and children) has traditionally been seen as the main provider of socialization for the young and a preserver of cultural traditions.

In pre-industrial societies, the ties of kinship bind the individual both to the family of orientation, into which one is born, and to the family of procreation, which one founds at marriage and which often includes relatives of one's spouse. The nuclear family also may be extended through the acquisition of more than one spouse (polygamy and polygyny), or through the common residence of two or more married couples and their children or of several generations connected in the male or female line. This is called the extended family; it is widespread in many parts of the world, by no means exclusively in pastoral and agricultural economies. The primary functions of the family are reproductive, economic, social, and educational; it is through kin—It-self variously defined—that the child first absorbs the culture of his group.

Evolution of the Western Family

Vovinam Master Tien Vo and his happy family in Germany

The patriarchal family, which prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, is often associated with polygamy. In Rome, the paterfamilias was the only person recognized as an independent individual under the law. He possessed all religious rights as priest of the family ancestor cult, all economic rights as sole owner of the family property, and power of life and death over the members of the family. At his death, his name, property, and authority descended to his male heirs. The Roman system was transferred in many of its details into both the canon and secular law of Western Europe. In the 19th century, when the Western nations began to grant women equal rights with men with respect to the ownership of property, the control of children, divorce, and the like, basic changes took place in the structure of the family, and the rights and protections associated with it. The state has also intervened to modify the authority of parents over their children. At the same time, education has shifted increasingly from the household to the school. The effect has been to loosen traditional family ties.

Another factor affecting the modern Euro-American family was the Industrial Revolution, which removed from the home to the factory many economic tasks, such as baking, spinning, and weaving. Economic and social conditions have discouraged the presence of the husband and father in the home; in industrial communities the wife and mother also is often employed outside the home, leaving the children to be cared for by others.

Sociologists and psychologists find in these changed relations of the members of the family to each other and of the family to the community at large the source of many problems such as divorce, mental illness, and juvenile delinquency.

Family is a blood-related kin. For others, those who are psychologically connected. The others, the family is composed of people living together in the same house. It varies according to cultural groups.

The US Bureau of the Census (1991): A family as a group of two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together in a household.

The early Egyptians considered the royal family so important that they encouraged marriages among kin. Similar attitudes prevailed in Chinese dynasties, with family life deemed to be crucial to the survival of power and empires. Consequently marriages were arranged. In medieval Europe powerful families interviewed in order to rule and maintain wealth.

Overall families are characterized by economic, physical, social and emotional functions. There is a dual emphasis on fostering the development of individuals within families while simultaneously offering family members stability, protection, and preservation of the family unit structure.

I. INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT

There are three different time dimensions in human life: Individual time, social time, and historical time.

Individual time: It is defined as the span of life between one’s birth and death.

Social time: It is characterized by landmark social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

Historical time: It is the era in which people live.

This includes the memories of time which affect these persons’ present life styles such as Vietnam Veteran or World War Two Veteran…

Every one is influenced by these dimensions of time. These life events are called “Life cycle”. Life cycle is an active way to conceptually picture time in human development. It denotes the continuous development of persons’ overtime. Life cycles have been formulated for both individuals and families. Neither people nor families develop or interact in isolation from each other. The choice of career and professional development is frequently connected with one’s family life and history.

Intimacy, productivity, and integration that increase in maturity are also important factors in family formation.

II. FAMILY LIFE DEVELOPMENT

Family life cycle is generally the term used to describe developmental trends within the family over time. Regarding this family type, Carter and McGoldrick (1988) outlined a six-stage cycle that begins with the unattached adult and continues through retirement as listed above:

Single Young Adults: Leaving home.

The New couple.

Families with young children.

Families with adolescents.

Families launching children and moving on.

Families in later life.

Family life cycle with the other cultures:

In China: In population, male can marry at age of 16 and female at age of 13. Grand parents want to make sure to see their grand children growing up, and producing the next generation. Boy is more important than girl is the family who carries the root of family from generation to generation is. At age of fifty, parents can be retired, and they can live with one of their sons (Most the oldest son). Cambodian, Laos, Viet Nam…have the same family life cycle as Chinese. In the past they arranged married for their children.

III. MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPY

Marriage and family therapists work with individuals and couples, as well as children and entire families. The specialty of marriage and family therapy then, is less about whether we treat individuals, or families and groups than it is about a way of thinking about treatment and treatment styles. The field of family therapy itself is comprised of many different theoretical perspectives. The different perspectives within the field of family therapy have in common however, a way of thinking about the individual interacting in a dynamic system of family and others. Thus, marriage and family therapy is described as a "systemic" approach to therapy.

Marriage and Family therapy is the only mental health discipline that provides specialized training for working with individuals, couples, and families.

Marriage and Family Therapy is the youngest and most rapidly growing of the mental health disciplines. It is unique because it emphasizes the role of intimate relationships in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. Rather than identifying, labeling, and treating the problems of individuals a family therapist emphasizes treatment of the whole family. Marital therapy likewise emphasizes for maximum treatment effectiveness, the importance of seeing a couple together.

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