Every family is a social system, which is always in interaction with the world around us. The family will maintain its functioning when it is subordinated to the basic laws, which are inextricably linked: the law aimed at preserving family stability and the law of its development. It will not be superfluous to note that the family's life cycle is accompanied by a periodic and consistent change in its stages.
As you know, the notion of a family that was recently created and the spouses who have lived together for many years, is different in the same way as the family life cycle.
Objective events and age-psychological changes in partners in the family can determine the development of life stages of each family.
Stages of the life cycle of the family
In psychology in the 40's, 20 cent. an idea arose about the stages of the life cycle of the family. Initially, there were about 24. At the moment, it is conditionally divided into the following stages:
- Stage of courtship.
- Living without children.
- Stage of the triad (appearance of children).
- A mature marriage.
- The stage in which children leave the house.
- "Empty nest".
- The final stage in which one of the spouses remains alone after the death of a partner.
Each stage before the spouses puts certain tasks. So, a family that successfully overcomes the emerging difficulties, set internal and external tasks, is called functional. Otherwise - dysfunctional. The right decision for a dysfunctional family will be to seek help from a psychologist. The life cycle of the development of the family assumes a crisis transition from one phase to another and not always the partners are able to see the opportunity to adapt to the new situation in the family life.
The main stages of the life cycle of the family
The phases of the life cycle of the family have their own difficulties and problems, we will consider them in detail.
- In the period of courtship before the wedding, the main goal is the desire to achieve material and psychological independence from the parental family definition with the choice of the future husband, business and emotional interaction with him.
- There are young couples who are not in a hurry to overcome this period. The reason for this - the fear hidden inside their family (the parent). And others on the contrary try to create their own family as soon as possible, thus freeing themselves from the close relationship of parents and children. Some can not marry due to financial and economic dislocation.
- In the period when a married couple lives without children, changes are established, related to their social status. Internal and external family boundaries are defined, whether or not interference in the family life of relatives is allowed. During this period, the partners spend a lot of time establishing negotiations with each other on various issues. It is not excluded the emergence of emotional, sexual and other problems.
- During the appearance of young children in the family, the spouses are divided into roles. This is due to paternity and motherhood, adaptation to mental stress, an insufficient load to be alone. In the event that an unwanted child appears, there are problems associated with the difficulties of education and understanding of the spouses, that parting will be difficult because of the appearance of the child.
- The crisis of the middle of family life falls on the period when children leave the parental "nest". In complete families during this period
there is a large number of divorces. This stage is characterized by a high level of anxiety. Spouses need to decide on new goals, priorities, etc. - At the last stage of the life cycle, the restructuring of the role structure in the family takes place in the direction of the decision to maintain health, creating a satisfactory standard of living for the well-being of both spouses.
So, the family passes through a certain life cycle during its development. The most important thing in this period is to overcome difficulties, striding leg in step with your partner.