Identify and discuss how the depth and nature of a family's involvement in the social environment is a key dimension of a family system structure

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A key dimension of family system structure is the depth and nature of its involvement in the social environment. Like all social systems, families require inputs of energy and resources from external environments for their survival; without such transactions with the environment, families suffer from entropy, or the tendency of systems to wither over time. But often, relations of families with their external environments can be a source of stress and strain, threatening family functioning and even survival. Most often, the social environments that families inhabit provide both strain and facilitative support.
The social environment of families can be described as a set of broad social sectors that catalog the various ways that all families engage with the outside world. These include the economic sector and the labor market, educational institutions, public health and mental health systems, public safety and corrections institutions, nongovernmental organizations and religious institutions, familial networks, and informal support networks, among others.

Family mobility and migration illustrate the importance of the social environment in overall family functioning (Sluzki, 2008). Family relocation can threaten family functioning even as it provides a sense of relief at escaping from threatening home country environments or excitement as people are drawn to new opportunities and challenges. It threatens family functioning first through the depletion of social resources immediately available to help families achieve their goals.

Relocation can also strain families through the cultural conflicts that can attend movement across regional and international boundaries. In the face of resource challenges and cultural conflicts, successful families sustain their functioning through active engagement in their new social environment, collecting local social capital to enable them to access local resources and institutions while also sustaining their engagement with social support networks from their original homes (Smokowski & Bacallao, 2011).

How families manage their engagement with the social environment brings the interrelationship of family system structures (e.g., boundaries, rules, roles, power, and decision making) into strong focus. When navigating their external environments, families are managing boundaries, reinforcing rules, and exercising role differentiation, all at the same time.