CFD 163 - Family Relationships MSU

1. Chapter 14
Stress, Abuse, and
Family Problems

2. 14-2
Intimacy involves sharing feelings that help people
when there is stress in life
Successfully facing crisis results in stronger marriages
and families
Diversity in cultures defines how people face difficulties

3. 14-3
Stressors begin or end in the family
Families from all cultural groups experience couple and
family stress
Families use internal resources before seeking external
resources to manage stress
In families with strong extended-family structures, the major
resources come from within the family
All couples and families have some internal strengths for
managing stress

4. 14-4
Daily pressure that everyone encounters
• Levels of stress
• Physiological: Body’s harmful reaction to whatever happens
• Psychological: Appraising the threat, resulting in an
emotional reaction
• Sociocultural: Disturbance of social systems

5. 14-5
Coping: Action taken when something is identified as
stressful or harmful
• Problem-focused: Trying to change the situation or
behaviors
• Emotion-focused: Managing emotional distress and seeking
help
Successful coping: Taking on life’s challenges with
personal control and hope

6. 14-6
Scale of life events that require change of behavior or
readjustment
• Personal events
• Family events
• Financial events or issues
• Occupational stressors
Physical and emotional problems occur when
individuals experience changes in life

7. 14-7
Breast cancer: Likely that the relationship between
negative life events and breast cancer is negligibly
small
• No conclusive studies found yet
Cardiovascular diseases: Mostly a result of stress
caused by jobs with high demand and low control
Influenza: Interpersonal conflicts and stressful life
events contribute to the common cold and influenza

8. 14-8
Dating couples Engaged couples Married couples
My job My job My spouse
Feeling emotionally
upset
Financial concerns My job
Inadequate income Costs of wedding Feeling emotionally
upset
Your partner Lack of exercise Inadequate income
Job security Lack of sleep House projects
undone
Source: Larson, P. J., & Olson, D. H., Top Five Stressors for Couples, 2012. Web site: http://www.prepareenrich.com/research.

9. 14-9
People are confused about who is in or out of their
family system
• When a loved one is physically absent but kept
psychologically present because there is no assurance of
death
• When someone who one cares about is present but absent
psychologically

10. 14-10
Share what is most stressing to each of you
Prioritize what stressor to tackle first
Develop a plan with specific goals to manage the stress
together
Use your communication and relationship skills
Support and praise each other for progress

11. 14-11
A: Stressor event
B: Family’s crisis-meeting resources
C: Definition the family gives to the event
X: Crisis
Helps understand:
• How severe a crisis will turn
out to be
• How some families survive
traumatic events

12. 14-12
People do not go back to normal life but find a new
normal life
The attacks on September 11, 2001, proved to be a
roller coaster for America
• Process of recovery took several months but was achieved
• In the long run, resulted in strengthening of areas that
were initially attacked

13. 14-13

14. 14-14
Families become more extreme on both flexibility and
cohesion
Increase in communication levels
Once the stress has abated, families return to a similar type
of system that was present before the stress
Families require minimum 6 months to a year to adjust to a
major stress
Family systems become unbalanced during stress and
return to another balanced system a year later

15. 14-15
Deployment: Time when a military person leaves the
family and engages in training or combat
Effects of deployment
• Deployed personnel may experience the lasting effects of
trauma
• Family members remaining at home experience effects of
separation, reunion, and other difficulties

16. 14-16
Couples
When one partner is deployed,
it creates mental and physical
health issues that interfere
with marital well-being
• Problems such as posttraumatic
stress disorder and traumatic
brain injury
• Higher divorce rates
Children
When a parent is deployed, it
results in depression, acting
out, poor academic
performance, and discipline
problems
• Ability to cope is dependent
upon the adjustment of the at-
home parent

17. 14-17
Local communities are creating their own formal and
informal support systems
• Help connect potentially isolated family members with
services in the community
• Provide opportunities for those not in
military services to support those who are

18. 14-18
Results from combat or other traumatic events
• Causes stress and disruption in marriage and family
relationships
Symptoms
• Domestic violence or substance abuse
• Occupational dysfunction
Treatment: Combination of drugs and therapy

19. 14-19
Concept of managing stress: Description of how
families handle stressors
Family’s coping resources are considered strengths,
which are derived from all aspects of life
• Cohesion or flexibility
• Communication
• Boundary clarity
• Order and mastery

20. 14-20
General Specific
Cognitive
Gain knowledge
Reframe situation
Emotional
Express feelings
Resolve feelings
Be sensitive to others’ emotional
needs
Relationships
Increase cohesion
Increase adaptability
Increase trust and cooperation
Community Seek help and support
Spiritual
Be involved in religious activities
Maintain faith
Individual development Develop autonomy, independence

21. 14-21
Pattern of abusive behavior that is used by one partner
to gain or maintain power and control over another
intimate partner
• Forms of abuse include actions or threats of actions that
influence another person
 Physical abuse
 Sexual abuse
 Emotional abuse
 Economic abuse
 Psychological abuse

22. 14-22
Children who witness domestic violence grow up to be
abusers themselves or the victim
• Types
• Intimate terrorism: Violence enacted when taking control over
one’s partner
• Violence resistance: Response to a partner’s abuse
• Situational couple violence: When there is a contentious
situation in the couple relationship

23. 14-23
• Most of the domestic violence victims are women
• 72 percent of all murder-suicides involve an intimate
partner
• Is a chronically underreported crime
• Dating relationship is more likely to be violent than a
marital relationship
• Results in higher probability of rape and homicide
• Women between 16 and 24 years of age have the highest
risk of abuse by an intimate partner

24. 14-24
• Domestic violence is higher in cultures where men are
dominant
• Affected by social class, migration, and female
dependence on males
• Common among low-income couples
• Cultural view on domestic violence affects the
willingness to report

25. 14-25
Systematic perpetration of malicious and explicit
nonphysical acts against an intimate partner, a child, or
a dependent adult
• Increases the trauma of physical and sexual abuse
• Causes long-term damage to the victim’s mental health

26. 14-26
Probability increases when women:
• Are employed with unemployed partners
• Face a physical disability
• Earn more share of household income
Victims experience:
• Poor health, concentration, and performance
• Emotional and/or mental impairment
• Illegal use of drugs and alcohol
• Suicidal thoughts or attempts

27. 14-27
Accompanied by psychological abuse
• Usually psychological abuse occurs first, followed by physical
aggression
• Predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder or P T S D in women

28. 14-28
• Violence in the family of
origin
• Learned helplessness theory:
Battered women often learn
from childhood that they
should not appear competent
around competitive men who
like to win
• Low self-esteem
• Youth
Economic stress and
financial dependency
Isolation and alcohol
Male dominance
Cultural factors
Linkage of animal abuse and
domestic violence

29. 14-29
Cyclical pattern to wife battering
• Tension-building phase
• Explosion phase
• Loving or honeymoon phase
Catharsis conflict: Venting anger verbally can prevent
physical violence
• Not true as verbal aggression goes hand in hand with
physical aggression

30. 14-30
• Counselors advise battered women to move to a
different home or a shelter
• Panic of losing control can lead men to lash out more
aggressively in such situations
• Some programs require the batterers to attend at
least 6 months of counseling and classes
• To prevent domestic violence schools should be
encouraged to teach positive approaches to conflict
resolution

31. 14-31

32. 14-32
• Adults who are involved with partner violence are
often abusing their children
• Those involved with intimate terrorism are more likely to
abuse their children
• Children who witness violence suffer long-term effects

33. 14-33
Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent
or caretaker resulting in:
• Death
• Serious physical or emotional harm
• Sexual abuse
• Exploitation

34. 14-34
Affecting factors
• Employment status of parents
• Family income
• Living with biological, single, or cohabiting parents
• Family characteristics
• Family size and structure

35. 14-35
Psychological aggression: Yelling, shouting, or
threatening a child
Spanking: First step in parents’ physically abusing their
children
• Alternatives to spanking
• Accentuate the positive
• Call a time-out
• Be consistent in how children are
disciplined
• Teach the children rather than hitting them

36. 14-36
Physical health consequences
Psychological consequences
Behavioral consequences
Societal consequences

37. 14-37
• Transcending the pain of a violent childhood is very
difficult
• Some people who are abused or neglected as children
will subject their own children to similar abuse
• Majority of those who are abused as children ensure
that their own children are treated better

38. 14-38
• Economic distress
• Inadequate parenting skills
• Parental personality problems
• Chemical abuse as a means of coping with stress
• Social isolation

39. 14-39
• A special child
• Domestic violence in the family of origin
• Violent subculture
• Violent marriage
• Single parent
• Stepparent

40. 14-40
• Increasing the parent’s self esteem
• Increasing the parent’s knowledge of children and positive
childrearing techniques
• Devising community support networks for families under
stress
Strategies for treatment
• Counseling
• Using discussion and support groups
• Providing child abuse hotlines
• Reducing sources of social stress
Ways to prevent child abuse

41. 14-41
Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse of one sibling by
another
• Signs of abuse
• One child always avoids the other sibling
• Child exhibits changes in behavior, sleep patterns, or eating habits
• Child acts out abuse in play
• Increase in roughness between siblings
Prevention: Active involvement in children’s lives

42. 14-42
Most cases involve physical or verbal abuse, or use of a
weapon
Mothers are more prone to physical abuse
• Frequent in families with a single mother
• Chances increase if they have been abused by their husbands
Some adults physically or mentally abuse elderly
parents

43. 14-43
Generic term that encompasses
• Alcoholism: Addiction to alcohol characterized by
compulsive drinking
• Problem drinking: Alcohol consumption that results in a
functional disability
Contributes to:
• Rapes and sexual assault
• Fetal alcohol syndrome

44. 14-44
Can result in:
• Marital disruption or dissatisfaction
• Domestic violence
• Tension and verbal conflict
• Serious physical and emotional problems for spouses and
children

45. 14-45
Common ways in which families react to alcohol abuse
• Try to deny the problem
• Try to eliminate the problem
• Become disorganized
• Try to reorganize
• Try to escape the problem
• Try to reorganize a second time
• Reorganize, with the substance abuser seeking help

46. 14-46
Self-help groups
• Alcoholics Anonymous or A A: For alcoholics
• Al-Anon: For families of alcoholics
• Alateen: For young people with alcoholic parents
Suggestions for families
• Learn as much as possible about
alcoholism and drug dependence
• Speak up and offer support

47. 14-47
• Do not expect the person to stop without help
• Support recovery as an ongoing process
Families should avoid:
• Preaching, being a martyr, and covering up
• Assuming their responsibilities or arguing when using
• Feeling guilty and responsible for the alcoholism of a member
or joining the member

48. 14-48
• Legal drugs kill more people than illegal drugs
• Nearly 9 out of 10 smokers begin by the age of 18 or
before
• Parents can influence children in not smoking by:
• Not smoking themselves
• Communicating positively and regularly
• Not giving too much unsupervised alone time
or isolating them
• Being aware of their behavior

49. Chapter 14
Stress, Abuse, and
Family Problems