Chapter 2 Families and Parents 37
their gender role, or a person’s behaviors,
attitudes, and beliefs about men and women
in society.
Tasks also differ from family to family
due to family structure. For example, mothers
who are single parents usually take on all the
family roles. If this same mother becomes a
wife/mother in a stepfamily, she will need to
adjust her tasks to fit the way the new family
functions.
Tasks may also change due to decision-
making power in a given family. For example,
career families may decide to share parenting
tasks and decisions even if these were not
the roles they saw in their childhood homes.
Shared decision making often results in more
positive attitudes.
Families Develop in
Stages
A family grows and changes over the
years, just as the individual members do. In
most families, these developmental changes
occur in what some experts call the family
life cycle. The family life cycle represents the
stages of family development over a period
of time from marriage through old age.
As children are born, the family expands.
As children leave home as young adults, it
contracts. The eight stages of the family life
cycle include the following:
Beginning stage. The first stage of the
family life cycle begins with a couple’s
marriage, which establishes a family
unit. During this stage, their main
goal is adjusting to married life. Each
person must learn to share life with the
other while maintaining his or her own
individuality. The length of this stage
varies from one couple to another. Some
couples shorten this stage and enter the
childbearing stage right away. Other
couples enjoy this stage longer while they
postpone parenting. Couples without
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children remain in this first stage,
continuing to mature in their marriage,
until the middle-age years.
Childbearing stage. The second stage
begins with expectant parenthood. As
this stage begins, the couple focuses on
the coming birth. As they prepare for
the arrival of their first child, the couple
realizes nothing will ever be quite the
same. Primary attention is focused on the
baby, 2-7. The couple now has dual family
roles—husband/father and wife/mother.
Parents must learn how to manage extra
responsibilities and conflicting demands
on their time and energy. This stage ends
when the first child reaches age 3.
Parenting preschoolers stage. Primary
attention is focused on providing for the
child’s growth and development in the
preschool years. Parents develop firm
thinking about how to support, guide,
and discipline their children socially and
emotionally in this stage.
Parenting school-agers stage. This
stage begins when the first child is age 6.
Parents adjust to other parents within the
school community and must encourage
their children’s school achievements.
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2-7 Parents in their childbearing years focus their
attention on nurturing their children.