Chapter 13: Family

Structures and Legacies

Presented by: Group 8

 Objectives
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to:

 Appraise one’s family structure and the type of care he or she

gives and receives, which may help in understanding himself or
herself better;

 Make a personal genogram and trace certain physical, personality,

or behavioral attributes through your family’s generations; and

 Prepare a plan on how to make the family members firmer and

gentler with each other.
 What are family structures?
The definition of a family structures has changed and continue to change as
lifestyle, social norms, and standards are also shifting

According to Merriam Webster

• A group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.

According to Filipino sociologist Belen T. G. Medina

• Family defined 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."
• Medina's definition of a family encompasses all kinds of family relational
variations such as the nuclear family, the single parent family, the extended
family, and the childless family
 Four essential types of family structure

The Nuclear or Traditional Family

• The nuclear or traditional family comprised of a father, a mother, and

their offspring/s.

• The father in the traditional family plays the role of the breadwinner
and the mother stays at home to manage the house and the children.

• Another variation of traditional family is where both husband and

wife are working and earning a living for the family while entrusting
their growing child or children to hired caregivers or relatives.
 Four essential types of family structure

The single parent Family

• The single parent family may be supported by relatives or hired

caregivers to take care of the growing children , which is now a
common occurrence in many Asian countries such as Singapore
and Hong Kong.

• A Filipino single parent may be assisted financially by the

parents or relatives.
 Four essential types of family structure

The extended family

• Is a very common family arrangement found in many parts of the world

and most particularly in Asia.

• The extended family is the nuclear family plus the parents of either the
husband or the wife, or both their parents, depending on the arrangements
they make.

• Sometimes, a single brother or sister of either one of the couple may also
be part of the extended family.
 Four essential types of family structure

The childless family

• Is just the couple without any child or children, and who may
be living all by themselves.
 
 Influence of Family Structure on the Adolescent

• The family considered the first place where growing children

learn their basic social skills.

• Family influences may vary based on the family structure

present in the home.
 For the Nuclear Family

• The values, social skills, and behaviour are directly learned

from the parent (and/or primary caregivers)

• These are expressed in their unique parent styles, the nature of

parental authority they practice, and the general atmosphere at
home.
 For a Single Parent Family

• The absence of one parent (either the father or the mother) may
create an ipact on the growing child who would normally look
up to authority as role models

• Oftentimes, single parents try to become both the mother and

the father.
 For Extended Family

• Extended families have both positive and negative influences

on the child.

• The presence of different generations within a home provides

the child a sense of stability in relationships as he or she
witnesses firsthand how relationships can wrok and endure
challenges, and to see a continum in the family line.
 PARENTAL AUTHORITY AND PARENTING STYLES

Authorative Parenting

• is a key factor in the psychosocial development of an adolescent, and it is

believed a foster a healthy and positive impact on the adoloscent’s
development (Papalia and Feldman 2012: quoting Baumrind 1991, 2005)

• Authorative parenting is about exercising control over a child’s behaviour

but not the child’s emotions, beliefs, and self-concept

• The psychological control imposed by a parent on a child thorugh

emotional manipulations or the withdrawal of love and caring can harm
the child’s psychosocail development and mental health.
 ALBERT BANDURATHEORY OF SOCIAL LEARNING

• Learning takes place through observations (or modeling)

• Mental states are important to learning
• Not all learning can lead to changes in behavior

Parents of adolescents need to understand the chalenges involved

in their development, such as their struggle for independce and
self-autonomy, the formation of their identiy and roles, and
learnin the values of fidelity in the process

Parents can serve as the models their adolescents can emulate

while at the same time supporting their development otward
young adult
 FAMILY HEREDITY

Intelligence

• Intelligence is a thing that is passesd on through heredity, but in

also influenced by other factors, such as 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 (Bouchard, 2014 as cited in Papalia & Feldman,
2012) such as temperament, which is the characteristic manner by
which an individual looks at situations and how they react to them
 GENOGRAM

A genogram is a graphical map of a family’s history that traces

and illustrates pattern in its structure and characteristics using
specail symbols to describe relationships, major events, diseases,
traditions, socail and personal beleifs and rituals, cultural heritage,
religious beliefs, values system, philosophies about life, and the
dynamics of a family over several generations.
 There are possible traits you may want to trace in your family,
Here are some suggestions:

• Physical characteristics such as skin tone, shapes of eyes, nose, and ears, hair
type, baldness, and disease tendencies,a mong others.

• Genetic or external factors such as artistic, musical, or literary abilities, sports

abilities, and personality traits like being reserved and introverted, being
friendly, and being spedthrift, among the others.

• Social and economic backgrounds such as occupation or carrers, educational

level, club membreships, school affliations, political affliations, and others.

• Religious values including religious affliation, religions practices, and religious

beliefs.
There are possible traits you may want to trace in your family,
Here are some suggestions:

• Family values like family cohesion, exclusivity, educational

attainment, and respect for eldersm among others.

• Cultural background such as provincial origins, langauges or

dialects spoken, social skill table manners, family traditions,
how family members got their names, favored cuisness and
specail food served, worldviews suchctice of feng shui, karma,
and superstitions, among others.
 How to Make a Genogram

Here are the steps in creating your family genogram. Remember tha making a
genogram can ve fyn, or it can be something seriousm too.

Step 1: Ask yourself this first question: What is my purpose of creating a

genogram? If this ar with you, then you can start creating a lisr of persons in your
family that will be part of the genogram.

Step 2: The next decision that you have to make is todetermine the number of
generation would you like to be represented in your genogram.

Step 3: You may start your research by asking your parents and gradparents (if
they are stilll lving) from which members or sides of their families did they inherit
their tallness or height from,
 How to Make a Genogram

Step 4: Now, you can desging your genogram. There are plenty of genogram
templates available online, or you may want to do the diagram free hand.

Step 5: Connect the symbols with lines. Using the illustration given, you may now
connect rent symbols used.

Step 6: Use representative symbols for the different height categories you made.

Step 7: Look at your chart and identify if there are patterns.

 Here are some helpful tips in making your genogram:

• Remember that there are some people, even if they are your relatives, who may
be sensitive about a certain physical trait, like height.

• Clarify with your family members that the genogram you are making is to help
you understand ceartain family traits, characterisitcs, events, martial situations,
diseases, and other sensitive topics, and explain to them that you are not
judging thme about the situations.

• Consider talking to a professional when making a genogram on hereditary

problems.

• Be careful with your conclusions after you have done your genogram.

• Keep your genogram hidden and shown to only a few selected groups of
relatives.