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The Family Life Cycle: Developmental Crises and Their Structural Impact on Families in a Community Mental Health Center
Author(s) -
GARTNER RICHARD B.,
FULMER RICHARD H.,
WEINSHEL MARGOT,
GOLDKLANK SHELLY
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1978.00047.x
Subject(s) - typology , mental health , psychology , population , constellation , demography , developmental psychology , psychiatry , geography , sociology , physics , archaeology , astronomy
A typology for troubled families was developed based on the configuration of family members and the position of the identified patient within the family structure. This typology was investigated by surveying the demographic and clinical characteristics of 110 families of patients treated in a day hospital. Four types or “constellations” were found in the sample population. The families in the four Constellations differed significantly from one another in the gender, age, and diagnoses of the identified patient and the income level of the families. The Constellations thus appeared to constitute distinct clinical entities in the population studied. The reasons for the differences among Constellations are discussed in terms of the stress families experience during developmental crises involving structural change.