Task 1 – Information

Description

In this task you will reflect on your knowledge and understanding of family strengths and recognise how families contribute to the overall health outcomes of a child or young person.

Part B: You will write a 750 word assignment that has a course weighting of 20%. In this part of Task 1 you will review the concept of family as it is reflected in contemporary society. You will need to describe family strengths as a framework and discuss how the family strengths framework can be applied as an approach in health care practice. You should cite scholarly references to support your discussion. The references should use Harvard referencing style conventions. The marking rubric for Task 1b is linked below. 

Criteria: 

Review of the concept of family in contemporary society Family strength framework description and application to health care practice Use and cite reference material as evidence and to support ideas and concepts Referencing style conforms to Harvard referencing style used at USC

Introduction

A family is a group of people who care about each other and help each other through life. It incorporates both genders who keep up a socially acknowledged sexual relationship, with one or more children either own or adopted (Murati, 2016, p. 510). Family-centred care is an important concept in child nursing as the family plays a central role in a child’s life. Change in society, events and policies, the evolution of different theories underpinning family-centred care, and responses of nurses and parents to family-centred care have brought significant development in family-centred care. In contemporary society, single-parent households and small families are increasing. The concept of the contemporary family and family strengths framework is described in the later sections of the essay.  

Families in contemporary society:

The family has frequently been considered as the cornerstone of society and the most basic unit of social organisation that consists of essential tasks such as role modelling and socialising children (Murati, 2016, p. 511). Today, families in Australia are diverse regarding structure, membership and functions. In the 20th Century, the family turned out to be smaller, and this caused greater individual attention to each other. Nowadays, there is the emergence of the nuclear family due to space and privacy and migration. Declining infant mortality rate, availability of efficient and less expensive strategies of contraceptive, and decreased sources in the family has reduced the average size of the family in modern society (Parker, 2017).  Also, the high divorce rate and re-marriage increased in contemporary society, which influences the social and emotional needs of the family members. In the present society, social attitudes towards unmarried parent family have changed and have become more acceptable (Murati, 2016, p. 512). Divorce, separation and the demise of the spouse increased single parenthood (Murati, 2016, p. 512). Homosexual households have turn out to be a more common vicinity in the past few decades. The nature of the family has a greater impact on the child’s health and well-being as the family performs a crucial role in satisfying the child’s need from birth to adolescence and beyond. Exposure to a negative or disruptive family environment at some point in early childhood has a more effect on the child’s emotional, social and cognitive development (Valentina, and Singh, 2014, p. 309)

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