Running Head: FAMILY ASSESSMENT

Family Theory the Assessment of the Family

Helen McDonald
December 5, 2014
State University of New York Polytechnic Institute Utica Rome

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FAMILY ASSESSMENT

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Family Identification Information

The Kranks were a fairly nuclear, Caucasian family. This family is a friend of my sisters.
The Kranks consisted of a husband named Garth who was 44, a wife named Henrietta who was
38, a daughter named Jane who is fifteen, a son named Billy who is 19. Garth married Henrietta
because she was pregnant and felt it was the right thing to do. Garth had a son Frank, who is
twenty, outside his relationship with Henrietta, just before he married her. Garth didnt realize he
had this child until just before his wedding. He had cheated on Henrietta, a one night stand, and
didnt realize Franks mother was pregnant. The Kranks lived a fairly normal life with the
exception of having to deal with shared custody with Frank as well as adjusting the familys
finances for child support. Henrietta despised Garth and Frank. She suffered internal turmoil and
relinquished her anger on the family. She caused outburst and scenes in public. She drank and
got physical with Garth.
Garth drank heavily. He questioned his decisions as a father and husband. He found
himself in bars once or twice a week just to get away from his failing marriage. He had poor
coping strategies. Soon he was unable to deal with the insanity his wife was causing his family.
He loved her, cared for her, but he never felt truly connected to her. Together they were unable to
come to resolution, they fought day in and day out over simple things. Over the years Garth was
able to obtain a job as one of the leading managers in his company. He was making more than
300,000 a year. He was successful at work as a sales manager, but not at his family. His children
all had learning disabilities and difficulty with social interaction with children their own age.
Henrietta was a part time maid and her financial income averaged about 300 dollars per week.

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Garth and Henrietta were growing apart, meanwhile trying to manage a family and
children. Garth developed a relationship with a woman, Emma, thirteen years his junior. He met
her in a bar. The affair lasted about a year, until Henrietta found out. She rushed to his bank
account to clear him of his assets. She became violent and destroyed the household. Garth felt he
was in love with Emma and didnt want to leave her. He carefully contemplated his choices,
considering every angle. He chose to stay with Henrietta for three reasons; money, children and
convenience. He poured himself back into his family, doing everything he could to repare his
marriage, including remarrying Henrietta. Henrietta, however, could never completely forgive
Garth. She brought the affair up almost daily. Henrietta wanted another child with Garth,
thinking it would help heal her wounds. Garth had a vasectomy years ago and refused, he did not
want to procreate with Henrietta again, fearing more children would suffer the same problems.
Henrietta revolted. She had an affair with an old flame from high school, Marcus. She
became pregnant and questioned if she should keep the baby. She decided to have an abortion.
Marcus felt Henrietta would only leave Garth for money so he robbed a bank. Marcus was
arrested for his illegal actions. Henrietta hid the affair from Garth. Until one day, Garth stumbled
upon a letter from Planned Parenthood with information revealing Henriettas discrepancy.
Henrietta continued to rebel. She took a trip to Florida with Garths money, inviting a girl friend
with known chemical addiction. She also took her daughter, Jane, on the trip and made her lie to
Garth about her friend coming. When she returned Henrietta disappeared for two weeks. She
visited Marcus in prison. She brought Jane with her and again asked her to withhold information
from Garth. She shortly then asked Garth for a divorce and served him papers. She moved into
an apartment with Garths money. She furnished it lavishly. She also had gotten an expensive
lawyer.

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Garth knew his wife was growing further apart from him. He pursued Emma again. He
developed a secrete relationship with her again. He tried to convince his children and Henrietta
that the divorce was all Henriettas fault until his affair was again revealed. Henrietta became
preoccupied with anger and rage. She used everything she could find against Garth which was
the children and Garths hard earned money. Garths sons remained neutral. She was able to
convince Jane to react with revenge. Jane destroyed Garths house with spray paint. She spray
painted his garage, his motorcycle and his clothing. She threw toilet paper and paper towels all
around the house. She caused thousands of dollars of damage. Garth did not have her arrested
although she admitted to the crime. Henrietta applauded her behavior and encouraged her with
gifts. She allowed Jane to have parties at her apartment where underage drinking and smoking
occurred. She allowed Jane to have boys stay the night with her. She got Jane birth control.
Jane continued her delinquent behavior. She stole Garths cell phone and used pictures
and text messages against Garth. She keyed Emmas car again causing thousands of dollars of
damage. She stool liquor from Garths house and got drunk at the mall with several of her
friends. She announced openly to Garth that she smokes cigarettes and marijuana. She started to
through wild tantrums with her mother when she didnt get what she wanted. She became violent
with Henrietta. Henrietta then realized she had lost control of Jane and her plan to ruin Garths
life with Janes misbehavior was backfiring on her. Jane attempted to commit suicide and took
overdoses of medication. She was hospitalized and sent to Four Winds Psychiatric facility.
Henrietta had a bad relationship with Garth since the divorce up to this point. She would
not have a reasonable conversation with Garth. Most conversations with him ended in screaming
Henrietta became pregnant with her new boyfriends baby. Jane was turning sixteen and Henrietta
was not able to control her. She decided she needed to combine forces with Garth and start

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correcting Janes out of control behavior before her child was born. Garth and Henrietta got Jane
a counselor and they are currently trying to repair the damage.
Family Developmental Theory
The Family Developmental Theory (FDT) is based on developmental tasks that need to
occur at specific periods in a persons life. Happiness is achieved when developmental tasks are
met. When they are not met unhappiness, disapproval and difficulty achieving succeeding tasks
will transpire. In 1977 Evelyn Duval wrote Marriage and Family Development where she first
introduced the concept of applying individual developmental task principles to the family
(Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 71-72). In her book Evelyn applied tasks to the nuclear
family that needed to be accomplished for each stage of the familys development, staring with
marriage and ending with death (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 72).
The FDT was established after observing that families are long lasting and progress
naturally through stages (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 104). According to Klein and
White (1996) stages are a time interval measured in weeks, months or years where the structure
and interaction of role relationships in the family are qualitatively and quantitatively distinct
from other periods (as cited by Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 104). A transition is a
period, usually seen as a break, between stages which link them together (Friedman, Bowen &
Jones, 2003, p. 104).
The family career of family life cycle is often used to describe the longitudinal path the
family takes through the stages of the FDT (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 104). The goal
of the developmental family theory is to progress from lower, less complex milestone levels to
higher ones with disequilibrium with each transition (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 72).

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The FDT is a small and large-scale analysis of the passive of time. When the family reaches its
milestones the individual in the family is helped to reach its own milestones in development. The
family reaches the milestones together as a unit to satisfy its members and the members of the
community (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 106). The family interacts with internal and
external stimuli that affect the family and individuals journey in meeting developmental tasks
(Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 72).
There are many experiences the family will undertake that can be predicted based on
multiple reoccurrences in other families. There are, however, many experiences that will be
unique to the family, but not unusual for that particular family (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003,
p. 104). The predictable experiences are developmental tasks that must be achieved for a
satisfactory and complete life. This stages or milestones meet biological and cultural
requirements as well as individual objectives and values (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p.
106).
The FDT was originally designed for a nuclear family and consideration for divorced
families was not taken until later in the development of the theory (Friedman, Bowen & Jones,
2003, p. 72). Today, the FDT takes into account that many families are not nuclear and therefore
do not follow a rigid pattern of progression through the stages (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003,
p. 106). Variations to the nuclear family would include; couples not marrying, remaining
childless, separations or divorces, same sex marriages, single parent and stepparent families
(Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 106).
The FDT was chosen for The Kranks for several reasons. The FDT takes consideration
for divorced families and other variations in family development. The family has reached many

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of the traditional developmental stages and has had dislocation in stages due to the divorce.
Transitions in the developmental stages cause stress or disequilibrium, which The Kranks have
faced.
Analysis of Family
Garth and Henrietta got married and had children reaching their first set of milestones
according to Duvall. Because Garth had a child that was discovered just before he married
Henrietta, Henrietta and Garth had to make changes in their developmental task of marriage and
the new child. Henrietta was pregnant prior to getting married. The tasks of marriage and child
rearing were reversed. Henrietta and Garth raised their family together, fairly happily because
they continued to progress through the family stages without a glitch. This was up until they
reached the developmental stage of a family with school-aged children, their oldest child, Billy,
was thirteen. The family was transitioning after a move from Buffalo to Albany for a promotion
Garth had at work.
Henrietta and Garth were starting to divide. Garth felt he was progressing further with his
career and his individual developmental tasks while Henrietta continued to be a stay at home
mother. Henrietta wanted to continue her childbearing stage while Garth had had a vasectomy
and wanted to continue progressing in stages. Garth wanted to pursue work and continue making
his current family comfortable and happy. Henrietta was unable to resolve her feelings about
Garths premarital affair and continued making things uncomfortable and volatile at home. Garth
began another marital affair and continued it for a year. The decision to divorce was not made at
this time. Despite Garths attempt at reconciliation, Henrietta continued to feel resentment for
both affairs and pursued other men. The decision to divorce was then made, a developmental

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stage in the dislocation of the family life cycle by divorce (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p.
136).
The Kranks daughter, Jane, was 15 when they finally decide to divorce. Jane was and
continues to have emotional and delinquent behaviors stemmed from both the divorce and her
mother. The adolescent already has problems from being a teenager lacking coping mechanisms.
(Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 137). The divorce only makes the problem worse. The
parents are separated and were not working together to raise her. According to Friedman, Bowen
and Jones (2003) co-parenting is also problematic when the adolescent is having behavioral
problems. Progressing through the developmental tasks of adolescence and the family life cycle
is initially delayed (p. 137).
Divorce is one of the most frequent variances in the family life cycle. The number of
divorces has quadrupled since 1960 (Friedman, Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 135). According to
Weissman and Cohen (1985) four attributes of positive parenting alliance (after divorce): each
parent invests in the child, each parent values the other parents parenting, each parent values the
other parents involvement in the childs life and both parents wish for communication with each
other about child matters (as cited in Lamela & Figueiredo, 2011, p. 182).
The Kranks son, Billy, was able to cope well with the divorce and continue on his
individual developmental tasks. He continued going to community college pursuing a degree in
automotive. Garths son Frank was disconnected from the core of the family and its changes in
the FDT.
According to Friedman, Bowen and Jones (2003) After the divorce, family systems
research has found that it takes about one to three years for the family to restabilize itself (p.

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135). Once the family is able to get through the crisis and the transition into stabilization, the
normal family and individual developmental stages will begin again. The Kranks are currently in
the final stages of the divorce process and the divorce phase of the family life cycle (Friedman,
Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 135). They are moving toward the postdivorce family stages. These
stages include the willingness to maintain finical responsibilities and the willingness to parental
contact with the ex-spouse with support contact of children with the other parent (Friedman,
Bowen & Jones, 2003, p. 135). Henrietta is moving towards this stage by forming a relationship
with Garth that supports better parenting with Jane. She has been allowing and encouraging Jane
to spend more time with Garth for the first time in nearly a year.

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References
Freidman, M. M., Bowden, V. R. & Jones, E. G. (2003). Family nursing research: Theory and
practice (5th ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Lamela, D., & Figueiredo, B. (2011). Post-divorce representations of mariral negotiation during
marriage predict parenting alliance in newly divorced parents. Sexual & Relationship
Therapy, 26(2). 182-190 doi:10.1080/1468.1994.2011.563288