Family Values

Family Values

Family as a System in Promoting the Health of Its Members

A family is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as two or more individuals that have a relationship among them either through blood, adoption or marriage residing in the similar house (Cherlin, 1981). In the promotion of health and well being, family is the principal social agent. (WHO, 1976)

On family arrangements and situations, health or sickness depends. Health and sickness, obviously happens within the family unit. But family behaves as a system in promoting the health of its members. Within a social context, family exists and in itself, family is a social context. Patterns of health, both physically and mentally, objects that explicate the patterns, and things that become a cause of their modification, all fall from the structural system wherein people are rooted (Pearlin, 1989).

According to a research conducted by Mc Daniel, Hepworth and Doherty, (1992) on the association of family and health, which entail the following findings: a critical role is played by in health practices of its family members, the physical and emotional well being of family members is influenced by the illness stressors, originating inside and outside the family system, for successful treatment outcomes, much significance is held by family beliefs regarding well being and ill being, predictable stages are gone through by families with the confrontation of family members with illnesses of family members, the adaptation of a family to illness imparts an indispensable impact on the roles of family and generally the family system.

The role of family is in the promotion of health and reduction of risk for the family and its components. (Roth & Simanello, 2004) The environment is created by family in which the behavioral patterns are developed by family members that promote health or result in risk for illness and injury. Families are known to have a significant effect on behaviors that influence individual health, these include diet, exercise, substance use (alcohol, cigarette smoking, and drugs, McDaniel et. al. 2003)

According to Pearlin et. al. (1981), as people undertake their different social positions, for example economic, occupational, family, and parental roles, they have long-lasting, structured experiences. Variations in well-being are generated and regulated through these durable, structured experiences. Two types of patterns are sought through the paradigm of structural analysis. Patterns of well-being are explained through intermediate links in causal chains. The overall correlation between family and health is ...