Family Life Cycle Of A Traditional Family

The traditional family consisted of a household of a mother, father, and siblings. However, according to Zastrow & Kirt-Ashman (2013), today that has changed, many families also consist of single-parent families in which one parent lives with the children, stepfamilies in which the children from a prior relationship lives with one or both parents, and blended families which is a group of individuals whom are living and functioning together as a group and these families are in committed relationships, obligated to each other, and live together (p.167-168). Family systems make changes and confront new challenges throughout their life span. The family life cycle consist of seven phases of life that families go through as a family unit. Emerging young adults, joining of …show more content…
Zastrow & Kirt-Ashman (2013) writes, “Cultural values significantly affect how children are socialized, what values they acquire, and what behaviors they learn” (p. 177). Parents teach their children according to their culture and children also learn from their environment. Young girls who are raised among strong, loving and hard working women and frequently interact with these types of women she will more than likely take on those values. The fourth phase, families with adolescents, is where adolescents want to be more independent and create their own identities apart from their families, which causes problems in the parent child relationship. Many times, “Ethnic diversity and cultural values can add to the difficulties that parents have trying to maintain control while adolescents resist it,” (Zastrow et al., 2013, p. 178). The fifth phase, launching children and midlife, relationships between adult children and parents are developed and aging in-laws are given the necessary help. Zastrow et al., (2013) states there is considerable diversity in this phase such as, people who are single, married, divorced or remarried (p. 178). Socioeconomic status affects the lives of