Family interaction is a unique form of social interaction based on a set of intimate and continuing relationships. It is the sum total of all the family roles being played within a family at a given time. Families function and carry out their tasks and life-styles through this process.
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Family therapists, psychiatrists, and nurses are giving increased attention to the emotional balance in family dyads or paired role positions such as husband and wife or mother and child. They have noted that a shift in the balance of one member of the pair (or of one pair) will alter the balance of the other member (or pair). The birth of a child is the classic example. In single-parent families, dyads and emotional balance also shift.
Interaction of the husband and wife, or of the adult members living under one roof, is basic to the mental, and sometimes physical, health of the adults as well as to the eventual health of the children. There are two factors that strongly influence this interaction : (1) the sense of self-esteem or self-love of each family member and (2) the different socialization processes foy boys and girl.
References :
Duvall, Evelyn, Family Development (4th ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1971.
LeMasters, E. E., “Parenthood as Crisis”, in Crisis Intervention: Selected Readings, ed. Howard Parad. New York : Family Service Association of America, 1972.
Vincent, Clark, The Family : Trends and Directions in the Seventies. A speech to the Eleventh Annual Conference on Prevention and Community Mental Health, St. Louis, April 27, 1973.
