1. The Friedman Family
Assessment Model (Short Form)
Chelsea Zabala
Southwestern Adventist University
NURS 424 Community Health Nursing
Beverly Dabney, PhD, RN
4-20-2015

2. The Freidman Family Assessment Model (Short Form)
IDENTIFYING DATA
1. The family name is Riley & Holmes.
3. Family composition
FAMILY COMPOSITION FORM
Name
(Last,
First)
Gender Relationship Date and
Place of
Birth
Occupation Education
Holmes,
Casey
Male Boyfriend Currently
unemployed
Former
general
laborer for a
construction
company
(until loss of
job)
High school
dropout
Riley,
Jessica
Female Mother,
Girlfriend
Waitress at
a restaurant
earning
$2.75/hr
plus tips
GED, part-
time student
at the NBH
Community
college
studying
cosmetology
Riley, Ryan Male Son NBH
Hospital
Riley,
Carrie
Female Daughter NBH
Hospital
4. The type of family would be a cohabitating couple.
 The boyfriend, mother and children live in the same household; one child from
ex-boyfriend; second child from current boyfriend.
 Sometimes a dual-career family, where mother works as a waitress and boyfriend
works as a general laborer; boyfriend is unemployed most of the time though
5. Cultural (ethnic) background
 The stated ethnic background is Caucasian (white).
i. The mother and boyfriend are both Caucasian.
 The language spoken in the home is English, by all family members.
6. Religious Identifications
 Mother is a non-practicing Christian; attended the Neighborhood Christian
Church before having Ryan
 Boyfriend has no religious affiliation
7. Social class status
 About family lower class

3.  Family lives paycheck-to-paycheck with some support from the girlfriend’s
mother
 Boyfriend brought in money before he was fired. Most of the money comes from
the girlfriend.
 Some supplementary assistance from the mother.
 Girlfriend believes money is tight and wishes boyfriend would get a job to help,
but they are getting by.
8. Family’s Recreational or leisure-time activities
 Boyfriend (has no job) usually stays at home watching TV, while watching the
baby son. He likes to party a lot with friends.
 Girlfriend parties with boyfriend sometimes. She sometimes spends time with her
son, Ryan.
 Ryan, the son, usually spends time with his grandma or at the daycare center. He
sometimes spends time with his mom, Jessica.
 Carrie, the daughter from the boyfriend, mostly spends time with grandma and the
daycare center. Sometimes mom spends time with her.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE AND HISTORY OF FAMILY
9. Family’s present developmental stage
 Childbearing families with infants
10. Extent of developmental tasks fulfillment
 Couple is not married.
 Boyfriend does not take caring for child seriously, until Jessica becomes pregnant
with his child.
 Couple sometimes spends time together, but Casey is abusive of Jessica.
11. Nuclear family history
 Jessica gave birth to Ryan, but ex-boyfriend left her and gives no support.
 Jessica and Casey start dating and living together with Ryan.
 Jessica and Casey [still not married] have a child of their own Carrie—along with
Ryan—become a family of four.
12. History of family of origin of both parents
 Jessica’s mother lives near her and tried to raise her as a Christian, though Jessica
has become a non-practicing Christian after Ryan’s birth.
 Casey had a troubled youth. His parents were divorced when he was very young
and was bounced back and forth. Both parents are now remarried. Growing, up he
often saw his father hit his stepmother when he was angry.
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
13. Characteristics of Home
 A rented small 1-bedroom apartment with minimal furniture and appliances.
14. Characteristics of neighborhood and larger community
 It is the poorer section of the Neighborhood, located close to manufacturing
plants. Houses are small and old. Some run-down, some neat. Some yards are
fenced. There is a small grocery store in the area. Homeless people are found in
this area. There are sidewalks along most of the streets, but they are old and
showing signs of decay. The woman’s shelter is located outside of the city limits.
Southend has both low- and high-density residential and light industrial zoning.

4. 15. Family’s geographic mobility
 Family does not own a car.
 A health clinic is in the neighborhood.
 Women’s Health Services and Hospital are in a neighboring neighborhood.
 The public school is very far from the home.
16. Family’s associations and transactions with community
 Jessica works at a restaurant as a full-time waitress. She occasionally goes to the
hospital and clinic for check-ups during her 2nd pregnancy.
 Casey would work at construction sites until he was fired.
 Ryan and Carrie used the Daycare services when mom was at work.
17. Family’s social support network (ecomap)
 Jessica and the kids are usually supported by her mom at times.
 Jessica and Casey rely on their friends in certain situations.
FAMILY STRUCTURE
18. Communication Patterns
 Jessica’s feelings of need and love are sometimes met by Casey at times, but there
is no open communication. Casey exerts his influence and power over her, while
she does not talk back afraid to lose him. Jessica emotionally relies on Casey—
that Casey does not fully provide. Jessica interacts well with her children when
she leaves time open to be with them.
 Casey interacts more with Carrie (his child), than Ryan (Jessica’s son from an ex-
boyfriend)—who he thinks is annoying. Casey is possessive of Jessica and says
he loves her. When she does something that angers him, instead of talking about
it, he yells and sometimes hits her.
19. Power Structure
 Casey holds most of the power in the family. Whenever they argue, Jessica tries
to accommodate Casey in order not to anger him. If Jessica angered Casey too
much, he would yell and sometimes hit her, but the next day he would apologize
and say he loves her.
 There is usually no discussion between the two about how the money is spent.
Jessica usually gives Casey the money (and he buys mostly beer). She has
resorted to hiding some of her paycheck for herself to buy other necessary needs
and wants.
20. Role Structure
 Jessica carries out the roles of mother, girlfriend, daughter, employee, and friend.
As a mother, she tries her best to take care of Ryan and Carrie, but her strain as an
employee doesn’t give her many opportunities to take care of them. She tries to be
a good girlfriend to Casey, but sometimes he gets mad at her. Her relationship
with her mother is mostly strained—due to differing opinions on how to take care
of Ryan and Carrie. Friends like to invite her to party and hang out.
 Casey carries out the roles of boyfriend and father. As a boyfriend, he does not
really help Jessica carry the financial strain. He claims to love her and is sweet to
her, but when he is angry he tends to hit her and abuse her. Casey does not
completely embrace his role as a father or caretaker of Ryan, until Carrie (a child
of his own) is born where he starts to take some responsibility for the children.

5.  Ryan and Carrie play the roles of siblings and children. As children, they enjoy
spending time more with grandma and at the daycare center than the house. Ryan
loves his sister and likes interacting with her and making her laugh. Carrie enjoys
the attention from her older brother, too.
21. Family values
 Jessica has good work ethic trying to earn money for her family, but Casey does
not hold the same values as shown by his lack of care for searching for a job when
he lacks one.
 Casey has no care for education, but Jessica wished to continue her education, but
because of the need to work for finances—she had to drop out of school. She does
allow Ryan (and later Carrie) attend Daycare services.
 Casey has no future time orientation and only cares about the now as evidenced
by his lack of responsibility in his jobs and lack of searching when he is out of
work. He also begins to steal from cars as he believes that this is a better way of
earning money—not considering the future consequences with the law. Casey
believes that partying and having fun is most important in life. Jessica a bit of
future time orientation as she works to keep up with finances, but has no clear
plan throughout the episodes.
 Overall, family health does not seem to take great importance as most of the
money is spent on beer and cheap food. This is further evidenced when Ryan is
taken to a check-up later and the doctor notices that he is behind in his growth and
development.
 There is a strain between Jessica and her mother to whether she should take care
of them or the children should move in with her mother. Her mother doesn’t
approve of the live-in boyfriend, but Jessica thinks it’s okay.
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
22. Affective Function
 Casey and Jessica are intimate, but emotionally they may not be that connected as
Jessica thinks they are. Jessica and her kids are pretty close that they acknowledge
her as mom, but they like it better when they are at grandma’s house. Casey is
initially not close to Ryan, but when Carrie is about to be born—he tries to be a
somewhat better father figure.
23. Socialization Function
 Since the family is of a lower economic class and neighborhood, the family is at
risk for child-rearing problems.
 Casey usually ignores Ryan and feeds him/changes him when necessary, but
spends most of his time watching TV—leaving Ryan to cry in his room.
 Ryan (and later Carrie) have confusion in care-taking experiences. They are
ignored at home, but at grandma’s house they are well-taken care of and love
being there.
 Jessica is busy at work usually and spends a little time with her kids when she
gets home, but she is usually tired. She has greater value for his kids than Casey
(though Casey later tries to be more involved when Carrie [his child] is born).
24. Health care function

6.  The family has no set mealtimes. Jessica and Casey eat when they can, but the
food is usually not nutritious because of the financial strain. Casey usually uses
the money to buy more beer to party and drink. He occasionally smokes too.
 Ryan and Carrie are formula-fed. Before Carrie was born, Casey would just leave
the bottle with Ryan—so if it would fall out, that would basically all he could eat.
They received good meals though whenever they stayed at their grandma’s house.
 The only use of health care services are for Jessica’s check-ups during her
pregnancy with Carrie and Ryan’s check-ups, too. They used the hospital’s
emergency services where Ryan was diagnosed with respiratory synctival virus
(RSV) and failure to thrive (FTT)—related to the lack of nutrition at home.
 There is no family meal-planning. Casey usually is given money by Jessica to
take care of groceries—which he mostly uses for beer.
 Casey and Jessica take care of themselves a bit, though have no practice of
healthy meals. Ryan does not get his needed nutrition at home [related to the ED
visit earlier]. When Carrie is born, nutrition is still a bit negligent at home, but
when Casey is thrown in jail, the family moves in with grandma for better meals.
FAMILY STRESS AND COPING
25. Short- and long-term familial stressors and strengths
 Stressors: Financial strain and instability; Child-rearing strain and insufficient
knowledge; Unknown future; differing expectations between family members;
Pregnancy and new member of family
 Strengths: Ability to thrive in current situation; Strong support from Jessica’s
family; some good work ethic
26. Extent of family’s ability to respond, based on objective appraisal of stress-producing
situations
 The family usually deals with stressors separately; or in pairs (Jessica and Casey)
27. Coping strategies utilized (present/past)
 Friend support; Familial support; Crying [Ryan/Carrie]; Rationalization [Jessica]
28. Dysfunctional adaptive strategies utilized (present/past, extent of usage)
 Casey resorts to hitting/yelling at Jessica when angry; Casey ignores Ryan when
he is crying; Denial/Rationalization [Jessica]; Projection/Displacement [Casey]