Family types, functions, and role in health - The document defines a family and discusses various family types like nuclear, joint, three generation, and single parent families. It outlines the family life cycle and stresses. Family functions include residence, division of labor, child rearing, socialization, and care of dependents. The family plays a key role in health through child rearing, personality formation, caring for the sick, and providing social and emotional support. Certain diseases can run in families due to shared genes. Problem families can experience health issues due to factors like poverty. Overall, the family is a primary social unit that influences health.

1. Family types , functions – Family in
health and disease
• Dr. vanitha ,
• Dept. of community Medicine

2. Objectives
• Definition of family
• To know about the various types of families
• To understand the functions of family
• To understand the role of family in health and
disease

3. Introduction
Family - primary unit of all society - derived from
Roman word 'famulus' which means 'servant'
Different aspect of family
 As a biological unit ---- share a pool of genes
 As a social units - common physical & social
environment
 As cultural unit ---- it reflects culture of wider
society
 Epidemiological unit ---- for providing social
services & medical care

4. Family Definition
• Group of biologically related individuals living
together and eating from a common kitchen
• A group of people who live together and are
related through marriage, birth or adoption –
the American Bureau of census
• Different from Household
• Family of origin
• Family of procreation

5. Family life cycle
 Families are not a constant - They are ever changing
 Having six phase

6. Family cycle
• The family life cycle is one way to look at the
roles and responsibilities of parenting
• Applicable in areas of low mortality
• ‘leaving home’ – American/ European concept
• Variations/exceptions- divorce, childlessness,
early death of children

7. Family cycle and stress
• Structure- cycle/non-transitional
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Parenthood
• Aging

8. Family Needs
• Physical: Food, shelter, protection, sleep
• Intellectual: Education, moral values, etc
• Emotional : Security, stability
• Social: independence, social skills,
communication

9. Types of family
On the basis of structure:
Nuclear, Joint & 3- generation
 On the basis of authority:
Patriarchal & Matriarchal
On the basis of residence:
Patri local & Matrilocal
 On the basis of marriage:
Monogamous , polygamous & polyandrous
 On the basis of ancestry:
Matrilineal & patrilineal

10. Nuclear family
Also known as "Elementary family”
Definition - Consists of married couple & their
dependent children . Industrialization,
urbanization & employment pattern are the
compelling reasons for nuclear family
 They tend to occupy the same dwelling place
 Husband usually plays the dominant role
 Absence of relatives- grand parents, uncle, aunt
New families - This term is used for nuclear
families less than 10 years old - concept is
important in view of studies relating to family
planning

11. Classification of Family : Nuclear
• Merits: Husband and wife relationship more
intimate
• Demerits: Stress and strain of bringing up
children very high especially when both
parents are employed

12. Joint Family – also called Extended family
• Number of married couples &their children live
together in a same household &share common
kitchen
• All men related by blood & women of household
are their wives, unmarried girls &widows of family
kinsmen
• All property is held in common - common family
purse --- all income goes and expenditures met
• All the authority is vested in senior male member
of family - He is most dominant member and
control all internal and external affairs of family
• The familial relations are enjoy primacy over
marital relations

13. Classification of Family : Joint
• Merits
• Based on Motto “union is strength”
• Economic and social security to old, helpless and
unemployed, Care to young children, old, physically
handicapped, widow/ widowers etc
• Division of labour
• Social virtues (Cooperation, affection, sacrifice etc.)
• Pooling of income makes rearing of children,
arranging marriages, caring for the old easy job

14. Classification of Family : Joint
• Demerits
• Lack of privacy among couples
• Home for idlers
• Not favourable to save money
• Uncontrolled procreation
• Encourages litigation and leads to quarrel

15. Three generation family
It is fairly common in west
 There are representative of three generations in the
same family
Definition
 It occurs usually when young couples are unable to
find separate accommodation and continue to live with
their parents and have their own children
 They are related to each other by direct descent live
together

16. Classification of Family :
Single parent
• Children may be cared for by one parent
• May be due to : Separation of parents,
divorce, death of one parent , unmarried
mothers, work commitments which means
one parent may need to live away from home

17. Problem family
• Poor standard of life
• Unable to discharge minimum family
obligations
• Home life in unsatisfactory

18. Classification of Family : Others
• Stepparent Families
• Children are related through birth or adoption
to one parent only.
• Extended Families
• In some cultures families may include
grandparents and other close relatives

19. Household
• House : Structure with a single roof, where
one or more than one family may be residing
• Household: Group of individuals who live
together and would take meals from a
common kitchen, they are not blood related

20. Functions of Family
Residence
 To provide clean and descent home to its member
 In west when men marries he separate with his parents and sets up
his own home
 In India (Hindus) married couple should resides in the house of the
parent
 Two types of residency:
 Patrilocal residency
 Matrilocal residency
Division of labour
 The male had the sloe duty to earn a living and support the family
 The female had total responsibility for day to day care of children
and running of household

21. Cont.....
 Now a days there are less difference between function of
men and women ---- the coming together and sharing
responsibility
Reproduction and bringing up of children
 This is very important function
 The mother take absolute care of infant and children
during certain age
 The father provides for education and teaches the social
tradition and customs
Socialization:
 The family is bridge between generations and between
father and son
 The cultural pattern relating to eating, cleanliness, dress,
speech, language, behavior and attitude transmitted
through the family

22. Cont...
Economic function:
 The family hold the properties and ownership
like farms, shop, dwelling are handed down to
the children
Social care:
 The family provides social care by....
 Giving status in society
 Protecting its member from insult
 Regulating marital activities of its members
 Regulating to a certain extent political , religion and
general social activities
 Regulating sex relations through incest-taboos

23. Family in Health and Disease
• Child rearing
• Socialisation
• Personality formation
• Care of dependents
• Familial susceptibility to disease
• Non-functional

24. Role of family in health and disease
 The family is ultimately the unit with which one has to deal if
concerned with medicine or public health
 There are certain function which are related with health and
health behavior
Child rearing:
 One of the important function
 Physical care of dependent young ---- survive to adulthood
 The child rearing may differ from society to society and from
time to time
 It is important to note the pattern of child care (feeding,
nutrition, hygiene, sleep, clothing, habit training)
 Passing from one generation to another

25. Cont...
Socialization
 It refer to process by whereby individuals develop
qualities essential for functioning effectively in the
society ......it is a latent f unction
 Teaching the young, the values of the society and
transmitting information, culture, belief , conducts by
citing examples
 Introduction of young in to adult society
 In some societies the young are given freedom to
develop into individuals --- to take initiative
Personality formation
 The capacity of individual to withstand stress and strain
 The way he interact with other people
 Family acts as the ''placenta'' to filter off ill influences

26. Cont...
Care of dependent adults:
Care of sick and injured:
So adult become dependent either through
injury, illness or because of biological limitation
In some society there is great deal of harshness in
respect to those who are sufferer
Sometimes individual are excluded from full
range of benefits
The kind of illness is important ---- attitude of
society
The family acts like the cushion and gives the
front-line care for such individuals

27. Cont....
Care of women during Pregnancy
 In term of financial help, maternity leave, diet and
nutrition supplement and decrease workload to the
women
Stabilization of adult personality:
 The family is like "shock absorber" --- stress and strain
of life
 The stress could be injury, illness, birth, death, tension,
worry, anxiety etc
 The family provide opportunity to release tension ----
individual --- mental equilibrium
 Alcoholics and narcotics are reflection of this trend
 Stress disease --- peptic ulcer, colitis, high B.P.

28. Cont...
Familial susceptibility to disease:
• The member of family share a pool of genes, common
environment ---- decide their susceptibility of disease
• Certain disease such as haemophilia, colour blindness,
D.M., mental illness known to run through families
• Could be a playground for communicable disease viz.
TB, measles etc
Broken family
• Where the parents are separated or where death of
one or both parents
• Importantly, the victims of the broken family in
younger years were found to be displaying
psychopathic behavior, immature personality etc.
• They may drift to anti social activities like prostitution ,
gambling, crime and vagrancy

29. Cont....
Problem family:
• Those families who lag behind the rest of the
community
• The standard of the life are far below the accepted
minimum and parents are unable to meet physical and
emotional need of their children
• The underlying f actors are backwardness, poverty,
illness , mental and emotional instability, character
defects and marital disharmony
• The problem families found in all social class but more
common in LSEC
• The children reared in such environment ----- crime,
prostitution and vagrancy

30. Temporary social groups
• Crowd:
– lacks internal organization, no leader
• Mob:
– Presence of leader but not internal organization,
more emotional than a crowd
• Herd:
– presence of leader, members follow leader
without question

31. Permanent social groups
• The Band:
– Few families living together. E.g. gypsies
• Village
– Small collection of people
– Permanently settled
– 6,38,000 villages exist in India (2001)

32. Permanent social groups
• Town and cities
– Large, dense, permanent settlement of
heterogeneous individuals.
– There are 5545 towns in India (2001)
• State
– Ecological social group

33. Government and political organization
• Government
– Supreme agent authorized to regulate the
balanced social life in the interests of the public
• Types of government
– Democracy- E.g. India
– Autocracy- E.g. Jordan
– Monarchy – E.g. Nepal
– Socialistic- E.g. China
– Oligarchy – E.g. Saudi Arabia

34. Social problems

35. Definition
• Any deviant behaviour in a disapproved
direction of such a degree that it exceeds the
tolerance limit of the community - Lundberg

36. A few Social Problems
• Delinquency
• Dowry system
• Drug addiction including alcoholism
• Prostitution

37. Thank you