Any family is like a living organism. In its development and formation, it certainly goes through certain stages. In psychology, each of them is attributed to a particular level of family development. This includes the period of courtship, and after the joint life, which proceeds without children. The next stage in the development of the family is the period when babies appear in it. Further, the relationship between the spouses becomes mature, and the children grow up. After that, already matured sons and daughters leave their father's house and go into independent life. Retirement is becoming an additional turning point for many spouses. After all, this period will require the restructuring of life in a new way. Difficulties in the transition of spouses from stage to stage result in a crisis in their relationship. Consider the stages of the family life cycle and the problems that arise in this case in more detail.
A bit of history
The idea of distinguishing the stages of the family life cycle arose in psychology in the forties of the 20th century. She came to this discipline from sociology. Who introduced the concept of "family life cycle"? For the first time this term was used by R. Hill and E. Duvall in 1948 in their report presented at the American nationwide conference concerning the problems of relations between people who are closely related. The topic of the speech touched upon the dynamics of marital interactions. Initially, it was indicated that the life cycle of the family goes through 24 stages.
In the sixties of the last century, psychotherapy began to consider this idea. The life cycle of the family was reduced to 7-8 specific stages.
Today for these stages there are a variety of classifications. When compiling them, scientists, as a rule, proceed from those specific tasks that the family has to solve in order to successfully function in the future. In most cases, this is affected by family structure. The life cycle of a family by many domestic and foreign scientists is considered based on the place of children brought up by spouses. For example, E. Duvall used a criterion relating to the educational and reproductive functions of people who are interconnected by marriage. That is, the scientist put forward his own periodization of the family life cycle based on the presence of children in the parents, as well as their age. These are the stages:
- An emerging family. There are no children in it yet. The period of such relations lasts in most cases up to five years.
- Fertility family. The eldest child of such parents is under the age of three years.
- A family raising preschool children. The eldest child is between the ages of 3 to 8 years.
- The family in which children attend school. The age of the oldest child ranges from 6 to 13 years.
- A family in which children are teenagers. The oldest child has reached the age of 13-21.
- A family that sends older children into an independent life.
- Spouses in adulthood.
- An aging family.
Of course, not every couple in close relationships can be considered this way. After all, there are families in which children are very different in age or spouses have married more than once. Sometimes only one of the parents brings up the child, etc. Nevertheless, regardless of the structure of the family and the specific tasks it faces, it will certainly encounter certain difficulties typical of a particular stage. Knowing about them will allow you to cope with emerging problems much more successfully.
Family dynamics
Married people, as well as their children, are first and foremost nothing more than a social system, which consists in constant interchange with the environment around it. The functioning of any family occurs in the interaction of two complementary laws. The first of them is aimed at maintaining stability and constancy. It is called the "law of homeostasis." The second one is responsible for development. This law indicates that any family can not only change the number of its members. It can also cease to exist. That is why the stages of the family life cycle are considered in a certain sequence and periodicity of stages. All of them include moments that arise from the period of occurrence to the liquidation of this small social system.
The concept of "family life cycle" is the story of loved ones. It has a certain length in time and its own dynamics. The concept of “family life cycle” also includes everything that reflects the regularity and frequency of events occurring in this social system, which significantly affect the change in its structure. This is the birth and death of people, as well as age-related changes in spouses and their children. The dynamics of the life cycle of the family and allows you to highlight the main stages of its existence. The knowledge about them helped specialists develop an effective system of recommendations for providing psychological and social assistance to people who are at one of the crisis stages in the development of marital and parental relations.
What is family?
Human society consists of many groups of people, interconnected by a joint economy, common housing, and most importantly - by close relationships. This is the family. Very often, what happens in such a group of people does not depend on their desires and intentions. After all, the life of this social system is governed by certain properties. Scientists consider the actions of people as something secondary. From this it follows that human actions are subject to certain rules and laws that are characteristic of each stage of the family life cycle. In addition, you should not forget that a group of people in close relations is called upon to perform certain functions:
- emotional;
- household;
- cultural (spiritual) communication;
- educational;
- sexually erotic.
Based on the completeness of the above areas in the family life cycle, the types of family and marriage may be different. So, a group of close people is considered as functional, if all these areas take place. But it happens differently. A family is considered dysfunctional if one or more of the above areas are violated or absent altogether.
Based on the law of development, a group of people who are in close relations with each other must certainly go through a certain sequence of different events. Moreover, all of them will gradually replace each other. The life cycle of family development begins with its creation, ending with liquidation. All this can be compared with the path that each person has to go. He is born, lives, and then dies.
You can get acquainted with the classification of various types of family life cycle by studying the literature on psychology. It also contains information about what is characteristic of each stage in the development of relations in a small social group. Also in it you can find a description of those crises of the family life cycle that people have to overcome from one stage of relationships to another.
Monad time
In 1980, scientists proposed a description of the life cycle of an American family. At its first stage, a lonely young man is considered. He is practically independent in a financial sense and lives separately from his parents. This stage of the life cycle of the family began to be called the "monad time." This stage is very important for a young man. After all, its independence allows you to form your own outlook on life.
Love
The second stage of the family development life cycle begins at a time when there is a meeting with a future marriage partner. What is included in a similar stage? Love and romance, and then the emergence of the idea to connect your life. With the successful passage of this stage of the family’s life cycle, people exchange expectations that they express about a joint future, coordinating it.
Dyad time
In the third phase of the family’s life cycle, lovers enter into a marriage, begin to live under one roof and conduct a joint household. This stage is called "dyad time." During this period, the first crisis arises.
The problems of the family life cycle of this phase are the need to organize a joint life. Young people have to deal with the distribution of various functions. For example, someone should organize leisure time, someone should decide on what the money will be spent on, someone needs to work, etc. It can be easy to agree on some issues, and some are difficult to discuss due to ambiguity and the ambiguity of certain preferences. For example, in a family where a young wife grew up, mother never went in a dressing gown and dyed at the arrival of dad. But the newly-married spouse associates a woman in high heels and an evening dress at home with the image of a teacher who was once hated by him. A young husband loves his mother. And she went home in slippers and in a bathrobe. Against the background of different visions of behavior, the first disharmony arises.
Birth of a child
When overcoming the crisis period of the third stage, the marriage is saved. However, even more serious tests await the family. At the birth of the first child, the structure of the family changes.
On the one hand, it becomes more stable, and on the other, a need arises for a new redistribution of time, roles, money, etc. Spouses must decide who will rise to the night crying of the child. They will also have to decide how to visit — in turn, or the husband will always leave his wife and baby at home. This stage is considered passed successfully if the child did not make alienation into the marital relationship, but, on the contrary, rallied the parents.
Birth of subsequent children
The fifth stage of the family life cycle is quite simple. Indeed, at this stage, the spouses do not need to conclude a new agreement between themselves. They already know how they will live with children, who will be responsible for what. They already passed all this at the previous stage. Of course, there may be more than two children, but the patterns in the development of the family system will not change from this.
There are certain data that indicate the dependence of family roles on the order that takes place at the birth of children. So, if a girl is the eldest in the family, then she becomes a nanny for her brothers and sisters. It has a certain responsibility for the younger ones. Moreover, such a child most often does not manage to live his own life. The most prosperous and free in the family is considered the average child. However, the inevitable moment in family relationships is the rivalry between children. During this period, parents have to solve problems related to children's jealousy. In dysfunctional families , coalitions often arise. Moreover, a mother with one child opposes a father with another. Or a woman is with children on the one hand, and a man on the other. And this point is very important for the mental health of people.
Children schoolchildren
At the sixth stage of their life cycle, the family has to face closely the norms and rules of the outside world, which differ from those accepted within the group of close people. In this case, the spouses will have to figure out what can be considered success or failure, as well as what price they are willing to pay for their child's compliance with social standards and norms. For example, a family may be hypersocializing. In this case, she is ready to succeed at all costs. In this case, the loser will only have to cry, not having received the support of people close to him.
The family can also be dissident. It is characterized by being in opposition to external rules and regulations. In such families, sometimes problems arise regarding loyalty to accepted internal values and norms, because violation of the rules of the brotherhood threatens people with ostracism.
It can be argued that at the described stage of the family life cycle, the boundaries of the existing internal system are checked.
Adolescence
The seventh stage of the family life cycle is associated with the puberty of the oldest child. This is the time when a grown child is trying to understand who he is and where he is going in this life. A family needs to prepare its child for independence. This is the point that tests the effectiveness and viability of the functioning of this group of people.
As a rule, this period coincides with the crisis, which is characteristic of middle age. Parents at this time especially need to maintain stability. Indeed, for them it is the middle of life, which leads to the realization that some facts are already irreversible, the profession is chosen, certain career results are taking place, and children are more grown. During this period, people begin to realize that their strength is decreasing, and there is not much time left. To recognize yourself as a failure in this case is much simpler, "hiding" with children. After all, an uncomplicated career can be explained by the fact that a child had to spend a lot of time. Often, the stability of the family directly depends on whether children and parents continue to live together. The departure of young people necessitates the communication of spouses only with each other. At the same time, they have to solve a huge number of problems that previously simply were postponed for later. There are no longer any excuses in the form of children, which sometimes leads the spouses to divorce. That is why this stage in the life of the family is considered the most painful and problematic. Close people have to rebuild internal and external borders, as well as learn how to live when their composition changes.
Empty nest
The eighth stage is a repetition of the third. The difference between them lies only in a different age of the members of the dyad. Children become independent and live their own lives, and parents have to spend time together. It’s good if people retained the joy of mutual communication, reaching the stage of “empty nests” without any special losses.
Loneliness
The ninth phase of the life cycle occurs after the death of the spouse. A person has to live life alone, just as in his young years, until he entered into a marriage. Only now he is in advanced age, and behind his back have lived years.
Russian family
In our country, the stages that a group of close people go through are significantly different from the American ones. The life cycle of the Russian family differs from that described above due to the economic reasons taking place in the country, as well as in connection with certain cultural characteristics of the Russian nation.
The differences primarily relate to the isolation of families. Indeed, in Russia, not many can afford to buy a separate apartment or house. In addition, the joint life of several generations is not considered bad and difficult. Consider the stages of the life cycle of a typical Russian family:
- Parents with older children. As a rule, young people do not have the opportunity to gain the experience of an independent independent life. They are elements of the family subsystem, that is, the children of their parents. As a rule, young people lack a sense of responsibility for their own destiny. Indeed, in practice, he does not succeed in checking the rules of life.
- At the second stage of the family’s life cycle, the young man gets acquainted with his future marriage partner, bringing him to the parental home after the wedding. And here he has a very difficult task. Inside a large family, a small one should be created. Young people have to decide not only by what rules they have to live together, but also to agree with their parents. Usually a young spouse or spouse enters a large family, like a daughter or son. That is, the elders begin to consider them another child. Parents, the daughter-in-law or son-in-law should be called "father and mother." That is, spouses among themselves, seemingly like a newfound sister and brother. Not everyone is ready for such a scenario of relations. It is good if both spouses do not want to build their life in this way. Worse if only one. This leads to conflicts between the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law, the son-in-law and the mother-in-law.
- The birth of a child also contributes to the transition of the family to the next stage and the emergence of a crisis period. Spouses, again, need to agree among themselves on who will do what and what to answer for. Often when living together under the same roof for several generations, the roles between people are not completely defined. Sometimes it becomes unclear who is a functional mother and who is a grandmother. It is not clear who actually has the responsibility for caring for the child. Toddlers often become the son or daughter of not a mother, but a grandmother. .
- , , . . , , .
- . . - . , , , , . , . . , . . . . . , .
- . .
Of course, most of the stages in the life path of the American family are in the Russian version. This may include, for example, the courtship stage, the conclusion of a marriage contract, the appearance of children, the path of their psychological development, etc. However, in the context of a large family of three generations, they take place in an altered form. The main features of the family of the Russian state consist in a very strong moral and material dependence between its members. All this often leads to confusion of roles, indistinct separation of the main functions, the need for a constant clarification of rights and obligations, etc. Our youth is much tougher and closer than in the West is connected with the previous generation. Each of the family members has to daily contact with a large group of close people, involved in difficult relationships and at the same time performing many social roles that do not fit together well.
A new approach to classification
Recently, domestic family science is considering a different version of the life cycle that people, connected by close relationships, go through throughout their existence. The authors of this approach are V. M. Medkov and A. I. Antonov. In their opinion, the life cycle of a family consists of four periods determined by the stages of parenthood.
In other words, this theory considers marital relations through the prism of birth, parenting, and socialization of children. The following stages are distinguished:
- Prenatal. The period of this stage lasts from the registration of marriage until the first-born. Spouses during this period are preparing to become parents and create a family in its full understanding.
- Reproductive parenthood. This is the period that lasts from the birth of the first child until the last child. Depending on the decision of the parents, the second stage may be longer or shorter, or it may be completely absent if the child is the only one in the family.
- Socialized parenthood. At this stage, the family is engaged in raising children. Sometimes this stage lasts forever. However, fathers and mothers should limit their parental care when they come of age as a son or daughter. Prolonged socialization often leads to the fact that a young man does not start his own family, preferring to remain an eternal child.
- Ancestors. After the first grandson appears, parents turn into grandparents. They become progenitors, which does not mean the end of the stage of socialized parenthood. The fact is that even at that time minor children can still be present in the family. The fourth and last stage of the family’s life cycle lasts until the death of one of the progenitor spouses.
However, it is worth noting that not all families go through the steps described above. This is often influenced by objective and subjective reasons. Among them are forced and voluntary separation of children and parents, spouses, death and divorce. At various stages of the family's life cycle, such causes lead to the appearance of its various forms and to the incomplete passage of the stages described above.