Family Values

Counseling The author of this report is to answer several questions about counseling, family systems and overall development. First off, the linkage and relationship between family systems and healthy development will be explored. What defines a healthy family system will be explained. The determining factors of a healthy family system will be listed off. The effects of an unhealthy family system or development structure will be covered. Lastly, there will be details of family systems and how they affect physical, emotional, spiritual, and social development.

While some people with borderline or even dysfunctional family systems find a way to live a fruitful and fulfilling life, the outcomes for people from bad family systems usually substandard to abysmal on some level or another. Analysis A huge part, although certainly not the only part, of developing into an adult that is balanced, properly socialized and otherwise competent is having a family system that is not dysfunctional and that provides the needed and proper structure.

Have a family system that is lacking in one or more of the applicable dimensions can lead to a stunting of development and/or to development that is dysfunctional and improper in nature. There are several main parts to a family system that is healthy and productive in nature. Those dimensions include good structure, good habits and the needed support from both within the family and outside of it.

As far as structure goes, there needs to be a predictability and routine to life in terms of where one lives, how they life and why they behave in such a way.

A child that is constantly being moved and shuttled from one house to another or is not required, and in a non-violent way, to conform to a structure that builds good habits and outcomes is going to end up on the shorter end of the stick as compared to someone that does grow up around such structure and predictability.

As for support, the immediately nuclear family is a huge part, and certainly the largest part, of the structure, socialization and habits a person learns and keeps over the years of their childhood and beyond. However, having a good extended family, good school teachers and other people and even people at church and such is important to a child's long-term being because it sets the tone for their early adult life (massively) and, to a lesser extent, their later life.

While people can adjust and change their ways and patterns as they get older, it is extremely hard to change things once the proverbial die is cast (Teixeira de Melo & Alaraco, 2014) An unhealthy family system leads to a lack of good structure, a lack of good habits and this leads to self-destructive or at least self-inhibiting behaviors when one becomes an adult. Being socially stunted, just as one example, can lead to less optimal results over life than what could be realized once one is socialized and socialized early.

A family system that is not stable and affixed in one place (or a short list of places) can lead to the same sort of thing when a person becomes an adult. Not instilling financial habits when one is a child can lead to shoddy financial habits when one is an adult and that can set people back in so many ways. For example, a bankruptcy filing can set a person back in whole or in part for seven years or more.

Getting evicted from a place can make it very hard for someone to find a new rental place that is worth having. Even if one can afford to buy a home, getting a mortgage can be hard to impossible if one's credit score is too low due to the aforementioned evictions or bankruptcies. In short, getting things right the first time is extremely important and once it goes wrong, it is very hard to fix and/or fix quickly (Harcourt, Adler-Baeder & Pettit, 2015).

As far as spiritual development and dimensions, some people are dismissive (or even hostile) towards the idea of religion being something to lean on. However, regardless of what the religion is (or even if it is just general spirituality), there is something to be said for anything that can lead to better practices, a sharper way of looking at things and so forth. One's childhood and the associated family system set the tone for this in life.

As with most things, being too strict and overbearing can cause problems but being too lackadaisical or loose also creates problems. There needs to a good balance that is not too extreme in either direction. Socialization and its impact on development has already been mentioned but should be fleshed out some more. Being exposed to social situations and environments is vital but it has to be done in the right way. Being exposed to the wrong situations, the wrong people or any situations at.