Family Development Theory

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Transitioning from being an adolescent to a young adult is one of the biggest undertakings an individual will go through in their lifetime. There are many new challenges that must be dealt with that are often unexpected or complicated. The multimedia component of this assignment is a journal with multiple diary entries regarding the challenges one must overcome in their first semester away at college. The author is dealing with withdrawals from their family, struggling with new relationships and old ones, and also trying to find out where she fit in to this new environment and her new relationship dynamics. The struggles that the author faces are centered around the following concepts and theories. Once an individual goes off to college, all of their relationships may see …show more content…

(Jeter, 2016) This theory puts special emphasis on how time affects the changes we see in families. Development of the family is centered around the presence of children and the changes in family stages are set by the oldest child. Some important aspects of this theory are roles and norms. Families with launching centers, or parents that have just sent their first child off to college, undergo much change during this period. Parent’s norms are changing due to the child that they raised and cared for now becoming their own independent adult. As mentioned above, parents change their disciplinary norms to accommodate the new dangers that their child faces when going off to college. The student’s norms change as well. They will most likely experience much more freedom than when they were in grade school living with their parents. Curfews may be lifted, they may have more financial freedom, and freedom to make their own decisions without having to get permission. This new freedom can be daunting from some, and others definitely take advantage of it and can find themselves in dangerous

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