My Family Based Off The Main Principles Of Family Resilience

According to the author McCubbin in Karen Seccombe’s article “‘Beating the Odds’ Versus ‘Changing the Odds’: Poverty, Resilience, and Family Policy” he says that “It can be defined as the capacity to rebound from adversity, misfortune, trauma, or other transitional crises strengthened and more resourceful” (385). McCubbins point is that resiliency is to bounce back from any “crises” or “misfortune” in a person’s life. Being resilient is to keep moving forward from any bad events. For example some factor work with a person’s resiliency such as a good parental bond, good community, and a role model.

However, Amanda’s family has potential to thrive despite these challenges if they are resilient (Black & Krishnakumar, 1998). African American families commonly show resiliency by having a strong kinship bonds, central role in religion, racial biculturalism, and enforcing positive self esteem (Black & Krishnakumar, 1998). Amanda’s father can continue to protect her from negative consequences of communities by providing structured activities, like sports, or involvement at recreational centers (Black & Krishnakumar,

The presentations opened my eyes to how diverse today’s family unit can be and provided me with an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the diversity of the family unit in contemporary society. Often people have an image built on assumptions of the ideal family, however families are dynamic and for health professionals it is important to always reevaluate what is considered family and to challenge any assumptions made (Barnes & Rowe 2013). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) found that in Australia, 15.9% of families were one parent families while 44.6% were couple families with children. On the contrary 37.8% were couple families without children. As a result of such diversity in the family unit, family strengths are continually growing and changing. It is important for nurses to be able to understand this in order to successfully undertake a comprehensive family assessment and identify and help develop those identified strengths to increase family resilience and facilitate change in family functioning (Smith & Ford

Leon Dash’s book, Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America, follows the life of a mother whom is affected by poverty, drugs, and abuse while trying to provide for her 8 children and grandchildren. I will be creating a family assessment on this family. According to Anna Mcphatter, there are five crucial areas in a comprehensive family assessment: problem identification, family structure, family functioning, family strengths and resources, and intervention plan and method of evaluation. All of which will be analyzed throughout this family assessment.

In this paper I will be describing how the first two session of the Brice family went. I will talk about what systems approach to therapy was used, and will include how Whitaker and Napier conceptualized the family’s difficulties. I will also describe how this differs from an individual understanding, and will talk about what specific interventions they used to support their systemic understanding of this family.

     The African-American family is defined as networks of households related by blood, marriage, or function that provide basic instrumental and expressive functions of the family to the members of those networks (Hill, 1999). It is one of the strongest institutions throughout history, and still today. Family strengths are considered to be cultural assets that are transmitted through socialization from generation to generation and not merely adaptations or coping responses to contemporary racial or economic oppression (McDaniel 1994; Hill 1999). This definition is contrary to the belief that the Black family is an adaptation to harsh conditions, instead of an ongoing establishment. Hill (1999) discusses

The greatest and most prominent strength of the family is their ability to adapt to differences in culture and expectation. Although they are having their struggles in America, they are still ultimately successful in making a living for themselves in a different world. Along with the stress, the parents are still in conjunction with one another with regards to family values and it is clear that each member deeply cares for one another. This aspect of resilience is crucial because it has positive implications as to their willingness to change as a family unit for the better. Additionally, it is clear that the family is a set of very hardworking individuals, who have hope for a better life despite all the obstacles faced, and the very definition of resilience is the ability to see have hope in situations that others (non-resilient individuals) would not. Again, this particular set of strengths is important in allowing and assisting in the family altering their problems. With hope, it will help the family work towards their goals if they truly believe that their family can change

Resilience is a term that is often applied to those who have faced hardship and viewed the experience in a positive light as an opportunity to grow and change for the better (Wagnild & Collins, 2009). The definition however seems to vary from place to place. Ungar et al. (2008) stated “definitions of resilience are ambiguous when viewed across cultures" (p.174) which is why the understanding of resilience may be difficult to capture (as cited in Windle, Bennett & Noyes, 2011). Although the literature agrees on several common themes about resilience there are many varying opinions on how to define the concept or the attributing factors. Earvolino-Ramirez (2007) and

Even in places where the minority population is small the amount of children removed from their families was still large, in fact about three times as high as their proportion in the general population. “Bremner (1974) states, “Although the rate of child welfare services to Negro children was higher…behavioral and emotional problems were reported for a considerably smaller proportion of Negro children… This raised the question for some professionals that whether placement of minority-group children is precipitated by poverty and lack of supportive resources, rather than disruptive family relationships or perceived habits of the child” (p. 8). The removal rate of Native American children was high as well. Like African American children there were obvious overlaps between removal from the home and poverty. As well during that time most social workers were Caucasian and tended to have different cultural standards in terms of family life therefore creating convolution. Like the circumstances of Native American children being taken from their home in the turn of the century, Native American children, when taken from their home often lost their culture and

Tracey’s mental disturbance onset and frequency are correlated with family change or family crises. Thus, the most effective and “best fit” modality is the structural family therapy. Supported by our readings Walsh and class PowerPoint and (SOMETHING ELSE), utilizing a strength-based perspective can allow Tracey to safely uncover unhealthy and healthy patterns in her biological family and new foster family. Once this is accomplished, this modality will guide the social worker through the family’s subsystem and the cohesiveness and adaptability of each family member characteristics. The social worker could explore parental authority and leadership in African American families and explore how that may be similar or different to what Tracey may

The Bowen family systems theory can utilize to understand the Gillison’s family dynamics. According to the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family (2016) the Bowen family system theory views family as an emotional unit that utilizes systems thinking to comprehend the complexity of the interactions within the unit. The theory describes families as having a major influence on their member’s thoughts, feelings and actions, which leads them to feel as if they are composed of the same “emotional skin”. The members of families, according to this theory, are driven by each other’s attention, approval, and support. The members therefore, react to each other’s expectations and wants and needs. The family is therefore interdependent. One change in one member’s function leads to a change in the functioning of the others. This is evidence in the case of the Gillison family.

Introduction According to Bowen’s (2013) family systems theory, individuals in a family unit are all interconnected and the system is comprised of interlocking connections (Bowen, 2013). Consequently, whenever an individual in a family system is experiencing a stressor or problem the other individuals in the system will be affected by the stressor and will experience a change in the family system (Bowen, 2013). Bowen (2013) suggests that this family system can be used to understand the dynamics of the family unit and explains that an individual’s behavior has a specific function in his or her own family system (Bowen, 2013). By taking into consideration this theory when looking at a family struggling with an incarcerated parent, it is

Developed by Carter and McGoldrick (1988), the family life cycle views dysfunction in relation to normal functioning, It frames problems within the course of the family as a system moving through time. The individual life cycle takes place within the family life cycle (Carter & McGoldrick, 1988, p. 4). The foundation of the theory assumes that all families go through predictable change precipitated by life events and sometimes-unpredictable events (Azar, 2017b, 6). As these changes are occurring, the family must be able to adapt accordingly in order to avoid dysfunction. This may involve tasks that must be negotiated as they become more complex, and new roles and operations.

My family of origin has given me a lot of strengths. They taught me to be a strong individual who does not crumble when faced with obstacles. My parents faced a lot of obstacles and struggled to feed seven children, but no matter how bad it got, they never showed us how much they worried and stayed strong. Also, they taught me to care for and help others as much as I could because someday I could be the one who needs help. By observing my mom, I have learned not to buy things that I do not need and that materialistic things come later in life when you are financially stable. Hard work and dedication to one’s job is something that my parents have emphasized on many occasions. However, I have also discovered many weaknesses of my origin family. Three of the weaknesses that I will be discussing are communication, body image and education issues.

My family is very close and dear to me. We are small in size; but appreciative to how united we are through the years. I have my mother whose name is Olga just as mine, my oldest brother Bobby and my youngest step brother Jorge as were bonded by father. We had a rough child hood growing up as my grandmother by mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was 5 years old. We all pitched in with helping her not get lost or leave the house abruptly as she usually wanted to find escape. The doctor said she was going to live a few years; but she passed when I was 15 years old. I will always remember her through all the difficulty she went through with carrying that disease. I also had to watch my grandfather grieve her lost. My grandfather and I were super close; he was like a father to me. He had always been the backbone to the family. My grandfather was like a father to me. My mother was the main provider in the house since she divorced my father in her early twenties. We were the kids to are family. Therefore now that my brother and I are older we begin to expand are small family. The highlight of my life is the birth of my nephew. My little Matthew has brought such a joy to all of us.