Normal Family Processes: Growing Diversity and Complexity - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1462525482 ISBN 13: 9781462525485

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 2015

Synopsis

Widely adopted, this valued course text and practitioner guide has expanded the understanding of family normality and healthy functioning in our increasingly diverse society. The editor and contributors are at the forefront of research and clinical training. They describe the challenges facing contemporary families and ways in which clinicians can promote resilience. With consideration of sociocultural and developmental influences, chapters identify key family processes that nurture and sustain strong bonds in couples; dual-earner, divorced, single-parent, remarried, adoptive, and kinship care families; gay and lesbian families; culturally diverse families; and those coping with adversity, such as trauma,  poverty, and chronic illness.

New to This Edition

• Reflects important research advances and the changing contexts of family life.
• Additional chapter topics: kinship care, family rituals, evidence-based assessment, and neurobiology.
• All chapters have been fully updated.

About this title

About the Author

Froma Walsh, MSW, PhD, is the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Family Health. Dr. Walsh is an internationally respected clinical scholar and a foremost authority on family resilience. Integrating developmental, relational, sociocultural, and spiritual perspectives, her resilience-oriented systemic approach with individuals, couples, and families fosters healing and positive adaptation. She is past editor of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and past president of the American Family Therapy Academy. Dr. Walsh is the recipient of many honors for distinguished contributions to theory, research, and practice, including the Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association and awards from the American Family Therapy Academy, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and the Society for Pastoral Counseling Research. She is a frequent speaker and consultant internationally, and her books have been translated into many languages.

From the Back Cover

Widely adopted, this valued course text and practitioner guide has expanded our understanding of the diversity and complexity of “normal” families today. Froma Walsh and her contributing authors are at the forefront of family systems research and clinical training. They describe the challenges facing contemporary families and ways in which clinicians can promote well-being and resilience. Thoroughly revised and updated to reflect important research advances and the changing contexts of family life, the fourth edition covers new topics including evidence-based assessment, neurobiology, kinship care, and family rituals.

 

The introductory section by Walsh surveys emerging trends in family life; critically examines views of family normality, health, and dysfunction; and provides a strengths-based framework for clinical practice. Subsequent sections present cutting-edge research on varied family structures and sociocultural and developmental contexts, highlighting implications for assessment and intervention. The book identifies processes that nurture and sustain strong bonds in couples; dual-earner, divorced, single-parent, and remarried families; gay and lesbian families; and adoptive and kinship care families. It discusses how families are influenced  by social and economic constraints, changing gender norms, immigration experiences, and spirituality. It examines the multigenerational family life cycle and describes key family processes for coping and resilience, with attention to the normative strains of childrearing as well as major stressors such as trauma, loss, and chronic illness or disability. Rounding out the volume, the final section reviews the state of the science of family assessment and probes genetic and neurobiological interactions with family processes.

 

Shifting the focus from how families fail to how they can succeed, this book is essential reading for therapists and counselors, as well as instructors and graduate students in family therapy, psychology, social work, counseling, nursing, and related fields. It is a uniquely informative and authoritative text for graduate-level courses.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Normal Family Processes

Growing Diversity and Complexity

By Froma Walsh

The Guilford Press

Copyright © 2012 The Guilford Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4625-2548-5

Contents

PART I. OVERVIEW, 
CHAPTER 1. The New Normal: Diversity and Complexity in 21st-Century Families Froma Walsh, 3, 
CHAPTER 2. Clinical Views of Family Normality, Health, and Dysfunction: From a Deficits to a Strengths Perspective Froma Walsh, 28, 
PART II. VARYING FAMILY FORMS AND CHALLENGES, 
CHAPTER 3. Couple Interaction in Happy and UNHAPPY MARRIAGES: Gottman Laboratory Studies Janice Driver, Amber Tabares, Alyson F. Shapiro, and John M. Gottman, 57, 
CHAPTER 4. Contemporary Two-Parent Families: Navigating Work and Family Challenges Peter Fraenkel and Carrie Capstick, 78, 
CHAPTER 5. Risk and Resilience After Divorce Shannon M. Greene, Edward R. Anderson, Marion S. Forgatch, David S. DeGarmo, and E. Mavis Hetherington, 102, 
CHAPTER 6. The Diversity, Strengths, and Challenges of Single-Parent Households Carol M. Anderson, 128, 
CHAPTER 7. Remarriage and Stepfamily Life Kay Pasley and Chelsea Garneau, 149, 
CHAPTER 8. Gay and Lesbian Family Life: Risk, Resilience, and Rising Expectations Robert-Jay Green, 172, 
CHAPTER 9. Family Processes in Kinship Care Malitta Engstrom, 196, 
CHAPTER 10. Adoptive Families Cheryl Rampage, Marina Eovaldi, Cassandra Ma, Catherine Weigel Foy, Gina Miranda Samuels, and Leah Bloom, 122, 
PART III. CULTURAL DIMENSIONS IN FAMILY FUNCTIONING, 
CHAPTER 11. Culture: A Challenge to Concepts of Normality Monica McGoldrick and Deidre Ashton, 249, 
CHAPTER 12. Intersections of Race, Class, and Poverty: Challenges and Resilience in African American Families Nancy Boyd-Franklin and Melanie Karger, 273, 
CHAPTER 13. Immigrant Family Processes: A Multidimensional Framework Celia Jaes Falicov, 297, 
CHAPTER 14. Changing Gender Norms in Families and Society: Toward Equality Amid Complexities Carmen Knudson-Martin, 324, 
CHAPTER 15. The Spiritual Dimension of Family Life Froma Walsh, 347, 
PART IV. DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY FUNCTIONING, 
CHAPTER 16. The Family Life Cycle Monica Mc Goldrick and Tazuko Shibusawa, 375, 
CHAPTER 17. Family Resilience: Strengths Forged Through Adversity Froma Walsh, 399, 
CHAPTER 18. Normative Family Transitions, Couple Relationship Quality, and Healthy Child Development Philip A. Cowan and Carolyn Pape Cowan, 428, 
CHAPTER 19. Mastering Family Challenges in Serious Illness and Disability John S. Rolland, 452, 
CHAPTER 20. The Value Of Rituals in Family Life Evan Imber-Black, 483, 
PART V. ADVANCING FAMILY SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, 
CHAPTER 21. Assessment of Effective Couple and Family Functioning: Prevailing Models and Instruments Jay Lebow and Catherine B. Stroud, 501, 
CHAPTER 22. Unraveling the Complexity of Gene-Environment Interplay and Family Processes Erica L. Spotts, 529, 
CHAPTER 23. Neurobiology and Family Processes Mona DeKoven Fishbane, 553, 
Index, 575, 

CHAPTER 1

The New Normal

Diversity and Complexity in 21st-Century Families

Froma Walsh

All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

— TolsToy

All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike.

— Nabokov

Families and the world around them have changed dramatically over recent decades. Many traditionalists, sharing Tolstoy's view, have contended that families must conform to one model — fitting a cultural standard of "the normal family" — to be happy and raise children well. As families have become increasingly varied over a lengthening life course, our conceptions of normality must be examined and our very definition of "family" must be expanded to encompass a broad spectrum and fluid reshaping of relational and household patterns. This is the "new normal." Supporting Nabokov's view of happy families, a substantial body of research attests to the potential for healthy functioning and well-being in a variety of family arrangements. In our turbulent times, family bonds are more vital than ever. It is important to understand the challenges families face and the family processes that can enable them to thrive.

This overview chapter seeks to advance our knowledge of the diversity and complexity of contemporary families. First, we consider the social construction of family normality and clarify four major perspectives from the clinical field and the social sciences. The value of a systems orientation is highlighted, to understand "normal" family processes in terms of average and optimal family functioning. Next, a sociohistorical lens is used to survey the emerging trends and challenges for today's families. Chapter 2 then examines the influence of assumptions about family normality and dysfunction in clinical training and practice.

WHAT IS A NORMAL FAMILY?

The Social Construction of Normality

Clinicians and family scholars have become increasingly aware that definitions of normality are socially constructed, influenced by subjective worldviews and by the larger culture (Hoffman, 1990). Most influential theory and research on the family were developed by white, middle-class scholars and professionals, predominantly male, and from a Euro-American cultural perspective. Family therapists have become wary of the term "normal," taking to heart Foucault's (1980) criticism that too often in history, theories of normality have been constructed by dominant groups, reified by religion or science, and used to pathologize those who do not fit prescribed standards. Notions of normality sanction and privilege certain family arrangements while stigmatizing and marginalizing others.

The very concept of the family has been undergoing redefinition as profound social, economic, and political changes of recent decades have altered the landscape of family life (Coontz, 1997). Amid the turmoil, individuals and their loved ones have been forging new and varied relationship patterns within and across households as they strive to build caring and committed bonds. These efforts are made more difficult by questions about their normality. Our understanding of family functioning — from healthy to average to dysfunctional — must take into account these challenges and changes in family life in our changing world.

Although some might argue that the growing diversity and complexity of families make it impossible or unwise even to address the topic of normality, the very subjectivity of constructions of "the normal family" makes it all the more imperative. They powerfully influence all clinical theory, practice, research, and policy. It is crucial to be aware of the explicit and implicit assumptions and biases about normal families that are embedded in our cultural, professional, and personal belief systems.

Varied Conceptions of Family Normality

Defining family normality is problematic in that the term "normal" is used to refer to quite different concepts and is influenced by the subjective position of the observer and the surrounding culture. The label may hold quite different meanings to a clinician, a researcher, or a family concerned about its own normality. Our language confounds understanding when such terms as "healthy," "typical," and "functional" are used interchangeably with the label "normal." In an overview of concepts of mental health in the clinical and social science literature, Offer and Sabshin (1974) were struck by the varied definitions of a "normal" person. Building on their synthesis of views of individual normality, four perspectives can be usefully distinguished to clarify conceptions of a normal family: (1) normal as problem-free (asymptomatic); (2) normal as average; (3) normal as healthy; and (4) normal in relation to basic transactional processes in family systems.

Normal Families as Problem-Free

From this clinical perspective grounded in the medical/psychiatric model, the judgment of normality is based on a negative criterion: the absence of pathology. A family would be regarded as normal — and healthy — if members and their relationships are asymptomatic. This perspective is limited by its deficit-based skew, focused on symptoms of distress and severity of problems, and inattention to positive attributes of family well-being. Healthy family functioning involves more than the absence of problems and can be found in the midst of problems, as in family resilience (Walsh, 2003; see also Walsh, Chapter 17, this volume). As Minuchin (1974) has emphasized, no families are problem-free; all families face ordinary problems in living. Thus, the presence of distress is not necessarily an indication of family pathology. Similarly, freedom from symptoms is rare: As Kleinman (1988) reported, at any given time, three out of four persons are "symptomatic," experiencing some physical or psychological distress. Most define it as part of normal life and do not seek treatment.

Further problems arise when therapy is used as the marker for family dysfunction, as in research comparing clinical and nonclinical families as disturbed and normal samples. "Nonclinical" families are a heterogeneous group spanning the entire range of functioning. What is defined as a problem, and whether help is sought, varies with different family and cultural norms. Worrisome conflict in one family might be considered a healthy airing of differences in another. Distressed families most often attempt to handle problems on their own, more frequently turning to their kin or spiritual resources than to mental health services (Walsh, 2009d). Moreover, as mental health professionals would avow, seeking help can be a sign of health.

Normal Families as Average

From this perspective, a family is viewed as normal if it fits patterns that are common or expectable in ordinary families. This approach disengages the concept of normality from health and absence of symptoms. Since stressful challenges are part of everyday life, family problems or distress would not necessarily signal family abnormality or pathology. Yet family patterns that are common are not necessarily healthy; some, such as violence, are destructive.

Social scientists have traditionally used statistical measures of frequency or central tendency in the "normal distribution," or bell-shaped curve, with the middle range on a continuum taken as normal and both extremes as deviant. Thus, by definition, families that are atypical are "abnormal," with negative connotations of deviance too often pathologizing difference. By this standard, an optimally functioning family at the high end of a continuum would be abnormal. Given the multiplicity of family arrangements in contemporary society, the normal distribution is no longer a bell-shaped curve, and no single predominant model is typical. Rather the curve has flattened, with many peaks along the broad spectrum, reflecting the many, varied ways that ordinary, average families organize and experience family life.

Normal Families as Healthy, Ideal

This perspective on normality defines a healthy family in terms of ideal traits for optimal functioning. However, many standards of healthy families are derived from clinical theory and based on inference from disturbed cases seen in clinical practice (see Walsh, Chapter 2, this volume). The pervasiveness of cultural ideals must also be considered. Social norms of the ideal family are culturally sanctioned values that prescribe how families ought to be. Particular family patterns and roles are deemed desirable, proper, or essential for marriage and childrearing, in accord with prevailing standards in the dominant society or particular ethnic or religious values.

It is crucial not to conflate concepts of normal as typical and ideal. In the 1950s, sociologist Talcott Parsons's influential study of "the normal family" made a theoretical leap from description of a sample of "typical" white, middle-class, suburban, nuclear families to the prescription of those patterns, such as "proper" gender roles, as universal and essential for healthy child development (Parsons & Bales, 1955). Leading social scientists and psychiatrists adhered to that model for decades, contending that deviation from those patterns damaged children and even contributed to schizophrenia (Lidz, 1963). Such pathologizing of differences from the norm — either typical or ideal — stigmatizes families that do not conform to the standard, such as working mothers, single-parent households, and gay- or lesbian-headed families (see chapters in Part II, this volume).

Normal Family Processes

The conceptualization of normal family processes, grounded in family systems theory, considers both average and optimal functioning in terms of basic processes in human systems, dependent on an interaction of biopsychosocial variables (von Bertalanffy, 1968; Grinker, 1967). Viewing functioning in sociocultural and developmental contexts, this transactional approach attends to dynamic processes over time and affirms varied coping styles and multiple adaptational pathways. This perspective contrasts sharply from an acontextual approach seeking to define universal or fixed traits of a so-called normal family, thought of as a static, timeless structure or institution.

Normal functioning is conceptualized in terms of basic patterns of interaction in relational systems (Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson, 1967). Such processes support the integration and maintenance of the family unit and its ability to carry out essential tasks for the growth and well-being of its members, such as the nurturance, care, and protection of children, elders, and other vulnerable members. Unconventional (atypical) family arrangements may be optimal for the functioning of a particular family, fitting its challenges, resources, and context.

Families develop their own internal norms, expressed through explicit and unspoken relationship rules (Jackson, 1965). A set of patterned and predictable rules, conveyed in family stories and ongoing transactions, regulates family processes and provides expectations about roles, actions, and consequences. Family belief systems are shared values and assumptions that guide family life, and provide meaning and organize experience in the social world (Reiss, 1981). Societal, ethnic, social class, and spiritual values strongly influence family norms (see McGoldrick & Ashton, Chapter 11; Falicov, Chapter 13; Walsh, Chapter 15, this volume).

A biopsychosocial systems orientation takes into account the multiple, recursive influences in individual and family functioning. From an ecosystemic perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), each family's capabilities and coping style are considered in relation to the needs of individual members and to the larger community and social systems in which the family is embedded. Family functioning is influenced by the fit, or compatibility, between individuals, their families, and larger social systems. The bidirectional influences of genetic/biological vulnerabilities and other social influences must be considered (D'Onofrio & Lahey, 2010; Spotts, Chapter 22, this volume). Family distress is viewed in context: It may be generated by internal stressors, such as the strain of coping with an illness, and complicated by external influences, such as inadequate health care (see Rolland, Chapter 19, this volume).

A family developmental framework considers processes in the multi-generational system as it moves forward over time (McGoldrick, Carter, & Garcia-Preto, 2011; see McGoldrick & Shibusawa, Chapter 16, this volume). The traditional model of the family life cycle, with normative assumptions of an expectable trajectory and sequence of stages — marriage followed by childrearing, launching, retirement, and death/widowhood — tended to stigmatize those whose life course differed. For instance, women who remained single or "childless" were widely judged as having incomplete lives. In contemporary life, individuals, couples, and families forge increasingly varied and fluid life passages (Cherlin, 2010). A remarriage family comprised of a 50-year-old husband, his 35-year-old wife, their toddler twins, and his adolescent children, in shared custody with their mother, cannot be simply classified at a single particular life stage. Still, a flexible family developmental framework can be of value to identify salient issues and challenges that commonly arise with particular phases and transitions, as with parenthood and adolescence, and with divorce and stepfamily formation. Family development can usefully be conceptualized in terms of adaptational processes that involve mastery of challenges and transitional stresses. Optimal family processes may vary with different developmental demands. For instance, families need to shift from high cohesion in rearing small children to more autonomy with adolescents.

Normative stressors are those that are considered common and predictable (Boss, 2001). It is normal to experience disruption with major transitions, such as the birth of the first child (see Cowan & Cowan, Chapter 18, this volume). Non-normative stressors, which are uncommon, unexpected, or "off-time" in chronological or social expectations, such as death of a child or early widowhood (Neugarten, 1976), tend to be more difficult (Walsh, 2009a). Intense distress at such times is common (i.e., normal). Strains may be worsened by a pileup or cumulative impact of multiple stressors, both internal and external. How the family deals with stresses as a functional unit is critical. Many adaptational pathways are possible, with more resilient families using a larger variety of coping techniques, more effective problem-solving strategies, and more flexibility in dealing with internal and external life events (Walsh, 2003, 2006; see Walsh, Chapter 17, this volume).

In summary, the integration of systemic and developmental perspectives forms an overarching framework for considering normality. The assessment of average and optimal family processes is contingent on both social and developmental contexts. What is normal — either typical or optimal — varies, with different internal and external demands posing challenges for both continuity and change over the course of the family life cycle (Falicov, 1988). This developmental systems paradigm provides a common foundation for family therapy and family process research, and for the conceptual models by contributors to this volume.

It is important also to clarify the terms "functional" and "dysfunctional," which widely replaced more value-laden labels of "normal" and "pathological," yet have become value-laden themselves. "Functional" essentially means workable. It refers to the utility of family patterns in achieving family goals, including instrumental tasks and the socioemotional well-being of family members. Whether processes are functional is contingent on each family's aims, as well as situational and developmental demands, resources, and sociocultural influences.

"Dysfunctional," in a purely descriptive sense, simply refers to family patterns that are not working and are associated with symptoms of distress — regardless of a problem's source. However, the term "dysfunctional" has come to connote serious disturbance and causal attributions that tend to pathologize families and blame them for individual and social problems. Popular self-help and recovery movements abound for "survivors" of "dysfunctional families." Because individual problems are not necessarily caused by family pathology, caution is urged in labeling families, distinguishing those with serious disturbance, abuse, and neglect from most families that are struggling with ordinary problems in living or impacted by major stressors. It is preferable, and less stigmatizing, to identify particular family processes or relational patterns that are dysfunctional and not to label the family. For families struggling with many persistent life stressors, particularly low-income and minority families, the term "multistressed families" is preferable to the pejorative label "multi-problem families."

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1462525482
• ISBN 13: 9781462525485
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 592
• Editor: Walsh Froma