Student Resources: Guiding Questions, Chapter Outline, Website & Article Resources

1 Defining Family Communication and

Family Functioning

Student Resources: Guiding Questions, Chapter Outline, Website & Article Resources

Guiding Questions

After reading the chapter, the student should be able to answer the following questions:

· What does the word “family” mean?

· What is a useful definition of family?

· What are the advantages, disadvantages, and implications of various definitions of family?

· What tasks and resources are family members expected to perform and provide for one another?

· What kind of interaction defines “family?”

· How is family interaction different from interaction in other relationships?

· What are demographic trends in family form?

· What makes for optimal family functioning?

· How do issues of family diversity affect family interaction?

Chapter Outline

1. Examining Definitions of Family

a. Defining Family by Form: Structural Definitions

i. Examining Family Forms from a Structural Perspective

b. Defining Family by Function: Task-Oriented Definitions

i. Common Family Tasks/Functions

c. Defining Family by Interaction: Transactional Definitions

d. Implications of Family Definitions: Legal, Political, and Scientific Perspectives

e. Implications of Family Definitions: Lay Perspectives

2. Family Trends and Demographics

a. Family Size Trends

b. Marriage Trends

c. Death, Divorce, Remarriage Trends

3. Defining Communication and Its Characteristics

4. Models of Family Functioning

a. Olson’s Circumplex Model

b. The McMaster Model of Family Functioning

5. Family Diversity

a. Diversity in Family Form

b. Diversity in Cultural Values

c. Diversity in Experiences

6. Conclusion

Website and Article Resources

Family Demographics

United States Census Bureau

http://www.census.gov/

Center for Disease Control

http://www.cdc.gov/

National Center for Health Statistics

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Media Influence on Portrayals and Definitions of Family

Mazur, M., & Emmers-Sommer, T. (2002). The effect of movie portrayals on audience attitudes about nontraditional families and sexual orientation. Journal of Homosexuality, 44, 157-178.

Robinson, J.D., & Skill, T. (2001). Five decades of families on television: From the 1950s through the 1990s. In J. Bryant & J.A. Bryant (Eds.), Television and the American Family, 2nd ed., (pp. 139-162). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Tanner, L.T., Haddock, S.A., Schinder-Zimmerman, T., & Lund, L.K. (2003). Images of couples and families in Disney feature-length animated films. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 31, 355-373.

Reflections on TV portrayals of family from Robinson and Skill (2001)

· “Since first appearing in 1968, the number of African American families has increased to 14% in the 1990s. During that same time, families of other races have been nearly nonexistent” (p. 158).

· “The divorce rate of TV families has jumped from 2.9% during the 1970s to 15% in the 1990s” (p. 158).

· “Whereas the percentage of nuclear families was higher during the 1950s, the percentage of nuclear families has been fairly stable at about 25% for the past 35 years” (p. 158).

· “Single parents have been and remain significant factors in leading families on television, accounting for 24% in the 1950s, 32% in the 1960s, 24% in the 1970s, 34% in the 1980s, and 31% in the 1990s” (p. 159).

What can we discern from these descriptive data regarding portrayals of television families? Robinson and Skill argue that the slowly growing diversity in television families reflects the public’s increasing acknowledgement and validation of such families. The benefit for viewers, according to Robinson and Skill, is that they will come to understand the family systems concept of equifinality. Recall that the principle of equifinality suggests that multiple paths, or in this case, multiple family configurations and cultures, can be functional and satisfying. Yet, television still appears to be out of touch with the way families look and act in the real world. Regarding portrayals of racial and ethnic diversity, television families still do not proportionally reflect the diversity of race and ethnicity reflective of families in America today. Regarding diversity in family roles and lifestyles, Robinson and Skill (2001) write, “Although some voices in the popular media consider many televised family portrayals to be uninvited role models for atypical or dysfunctional family configurations or lifestyles, numerous studies confirm that television is at best a ‘close follower’ of real-world trends and lifestyles” (p. 140). Do you think television family portrayals have become any closer to real-world families from the 1990s to now? To what extent are non-White families or gay or lesbian families being portrayed in TV now? Finally, is it important for TV families to reflect real families?