Define family

Consider your experience both within your own family of origin and when interacting with other families. What is different between these examples of families?

In the field of social work, it is imperative that you know how to assess families. When trying to identify what is happening within a family, a social worker must learn about the family’s structure, identify their strengths, review their communication style, and understand the family’s dynamics. Families are influenced by the unique individuals within the family, as well as by the larger cultural context in which the family exists. Families vary in how they define who is a member of the family unit, what role each family should play, and what the family dynamics are based on an individual member’s contributions to the family system. Often, the social worker’s role is to help identify trouble spots and help the family re-adjust to healthy system dynamics.

In this week’s Assignment, you provide an assessment of a family and provide an analysis of the family using a social work perspective with consideration to strengths, cultural values, and social work theory.

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper in which you analyze a family that is familiar to you. Support your analysis by using the Kirst-Ashman and Hull text and at least 2 to 3 additional peer-reviewed articles to do the following:

• Describe the structure of a family that is familiar to you.
• Identify the strengths in the family.
• Explain where in the life cycle this family is located and how that may influence family dynamics.
• Analyze one form of communication used by this family and how this communication style influences family dynamics.
• Describe the specific roles of two family members and explain if the various roles work well together for the benefit of this family.
• Explain how understanding cultural values will help a social worker working with this family.
• Analyze this family using systems theory or the ecological perspective.

Support your paper with references to Kirst-Ashman and Hull, in addition to other resources used to complete this assignment. Paper should include appropriate APA citations and a reference list. You are expected to demonstrate your understanding and ability to apply concepts from the course by paraphrasing resources and providing specific examples of how a concept is evident in the family system you identified for this paper.