Family Systems and Healthy Development

Institution:

Student name:

Family Systems and Healthy Development

Family system refers to a domestic group of people that is typically affiliated by either marriage or birth or by legal relationships. Healthy family systems tend to bring forth relatively healthy family members. A family system that has family members who are caring, loving and supportive will often lead to healthy development of its members. Human tends to feel more loved when they are surrounded by their loved ones. They will develop a sense of belonging and this will help them in terms of emotional development. A family that prays together lasts. The spiritual nourishment helps the family members to grow spiritually. Studies show that prayer and meditation help relieve one from stress. When one is relieved from stress then they are more likely to be healthy since chances of complications such as HBP will be reduced.

Healthy families are those that value communication and use effective communication channels to solve disputes or simply to send a message (Feldman, 2014). The members show commitment to family. They would sacrifice anything for the sake of keeping the family united. A healthy family also has clear roles of every member identified and the members show responsibility when it comes to fulfilling their responsibilities. A healthy family is one that spends time together especially during celebrations and even during moments of grief. Additionally, there is no conflict when it comes to religious orientation. They either belong to the same religious groups or respect each other’s religion in case they belong to different religions. The members express appreciation when assisted and they encourage each other to scale to greater heights.

Strong families have a relatively higher marital happiness degree (Roehlkepartian, Eugene; King, Pamela; Wagener, Linda; and Benson, Peter, 2005). They got married to each other because they loved each other and could not survive without the other. Marital comfort is the root of all happiness. Strong families invest in the education of their so that the children can grow up to be economically independent and responsible members of the society. Strong families do not seek professional help because there are cases of alcoholism, schizophrenics among others. The family also has very satisfying child-parent relationships. The children do no lack parental attention especially when it comes to academic and emotional lives. The parents are always there ready, willing and able to assist them with their everyday needs. The family members also meet each other’s everyday needs by every means necessary as they are there for each other.

Unhealthy family systems negatively affect development. Children in such families will grow up to be very aggressive and violent in case they grew up in families that people fought all the time (Barnhill, 2009). The social lives of the youngsters may be affected as well due to the violent nature of some if not all of the members. Such families do not offer adequate parental supervision to the kids so they end up developing immoral behaviors and foul language. The children have access to media materials that are pervasive and are only helpful for ruining the innocent minds of the young lads.

Unhealthy families hinder spiritual development especially of the children since some families do not strive to maintain a good relationship with God as they hardly attend the churches. Such families also negatively affect social development. The family members will lack the necessary social cues in order to be able to make and keep friends. Some have no idea how to interact with others on a social level. The family will not have the kind of unity that would be needed to engage in physical activities such as sports. They will not support each other’s dream of becoming an athlete since they lack the motivation to. Such activities really require the support from friends and family for one to prosper.

References

Barnhill, L. R. (2009). Healthy family systems. Family Coordinator, 94-100.

Feldman, Robert S. Development acress the life span (2014)  chapters 4-6.

Roehlkepartian, Eugene; King, Pamela; Wagener, Linda; and Benson, Peter  (2005) The handbook of the spiritual development in childhood and adolescence chapters 14 & 16