Types of families

Types of families |NUCLEAR FAMILY|JOINT FAMILY|THREE GENERATION FAMILY |Functions of the family |FAMILY IN HEALTH AND DISEASE |SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS| COMMUNITY MEDICINE

1. Types of families Dr . k. Archana MBBS, MD Assistant Professor Community Medicine Department

2. 1. NUCLEAR FAMILY The nuclear or elementary family is universal in all human societies. It consists of the married couple and their children while they are still regarded as dependents. They tend to occupy the same dwelling space. In the nuclear family, the husband usually plays a dominant role in the household.

3. NUCLEAR FAMILY Cont… The absence of grandparents, uncles, aunts and near relatives places a greater burden on the nuclear family in terms of responsibilities for child rearing . The husband-wife relationship is likely to be more intimate in the nuclear family than in the joint family. The term " new families " has come recently into vogue, it is applied to those under 10 years duration and consists of parents and children. The concept is important in view of studies relating to family planning.

4. 2. JOINT FAMILY The joint or extended family is a kind of family grouping which is common in India, Africa, the Far East and the Middle East. It is more common in agricultural areas than in urban areas. The orthodox Hindu family in India is a joint family. As a price for education, urbanization and industrialization, we are losing the joint family system.

5. JOINT FAMILY Cont… It consists of a number of married couples and their children who live together in the same household. All the men are related by blood and the women of the household are their wives, unmarried girls and widows of the family. All the property is held in common. All the authority is vested in the senior male member of the family. He is the most dominant member and controls the internal and external affairs of the family.

6. The merit of the joint family system is that it is based on the motto : "union is strength". There is a sharing of responsibilities practically in all matters which gives the family a greater economic and social security, It provides economic and social security to the old, the helpless and the unemployed. JOINT FAMILY Cont…

7. 3. THREE GENERATION FAMILY The three generation family is confused with the joint family. It is fairly common in the west. This tends to be a household where there are representatives of three generations. It occurs usually when young couples are unable to . find separate housing accommodation and continue to live with their parents and have their own children.

8. Functions of the family Residence Division of labour Reproduction and bringing up of children Socialization Economic functions Social care

9. FAMILY IN HEALTH AND DISEASE There are certain functions which are relevant to health and health behaviour, and are important from the medical-sociology point of view.

10. 1. CHILD REARING The way in which child rearing is undertaken differs enormously from society to society, and from time to time, depending upon factors such as capital resources, level of knowledge, state of technology and system of values. It is important to note that patterns of child care (e.g., feeding, nutrition, hygiene, sleep, clothing, discipline, habit training) are passed on from one generation to another. In many societies, child care is socially determined by tradition.

11. 2. SOCIALIZATION By socialization is meant teaching the young the values of society and transmitting information, culture, beliefs, general codes of conduct, by example and precept, in order to make them fit for membership in the wider society of which the family is a part. Organizations such as schools and religious places perform cultural functions for the introduction of the young into adult society. The young are persuaded, given punishments, rewards for good behaviour - all these vary from time to time.

12. 3. PERSONALITY FORMATION This is even a more latent function. It is an area in which sociology comes closest to psychology. The capacity of an individual to withstand stress and strain and the way in which he interacts with other people is to a large extent determined by his early experience in the family, mainly with the father, mother and siblings who provide the earliest and most immediate component of the child's external environment. The family acts as a " placenta " excluding various influences, modifying others that pass through it and contributes some of its own in laying the foundation of physical, mental and social health of the child.

13. 4. CARE OF DEPENDANT ADULTS (a) Care of the sick and injured (b) Care of women during pregnancy and child birth (c) Care of the aged and handicapped

14. 5. STABILIZATION OF ADULT PERSONALITY The family is like a " shock absorber " to the stress and strains of life. The stress could be injury, illness, births, deaths, tension, emotional upsets, worry, anxiety, economic insecurity and the like. In such situations, the family provides an opportunity, both for adults and children, for release of tension so that the individual can attain mental equilibrium and strive to maintain a stable relationship with other people.

15. 6. FAMILIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DISEASE Certain diseases such as hemophilia, color blindness, diabetes and mental illness are known to run through families. Schizophrenia, psychoneurosis and some forms of mental deficiency are also known to have a familial incidence. The family is often the playground also for such communicable diseases as tuberculosis, common cold, scabies, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, dysentery, diarrhea, and enteric fever. These diseases are known to spread rapidly in families because of the common environment which the family members share.

16. 7. BROKEN FAMILY A broken family is one where the parents have separated, or where death has occurred of one or both the parents. Separation of the child from its father (paternal separation) and separation of the child from both of its parents (dual-parental separation) are important factors in child development. Children who are victims of broken families early in their childhood have been found sometimes to display in later years psychopathic behaviour, immature personality and even retardation of growth, speech and intellect.

17. 8. PROBLEM FAMILIES Problem families are those which lag behind the rest of the community. In these families, the standards of life are generally far below the accepted minimum and parents are unable to meet the physical and emotional needs of their children. The home life is utterly unsatisfactory. The underlying factors in most problem families are usually those of personality and of relationship, backwardness, poverty, illness, mental and emotional instability, character defects and marital disharmony. These families are recognized as problems in social pathology.

18. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS It is now widely recognized that cultural factors are deeply involved in all the affairs of man, including health and sickness. Not all customs and beliefs are bad. Some are based on centuries of trial and error and have positive values, while others may be useless or positively harmful. Some of these cultural factors, hallowed by centuries of practice, have stood in the way of implementing health programmes. Where a change of behaviour was involved, the resistance of the people was maximum in accepting new programmes. Information about these factors, i.e., customs, cultural mores, habits, beliefs and superstitions is still woefully lacking. A brief account of the cultural factors relating to health and sickness, as observed in India.

19. Reference: K Park. Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine. 23rd edition. Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India : Banarsidas Bhanot ; 2015

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