Family Transitions: Family Life-Cycle Theory

Ali Mohy

ID: 210229

The British University in Egypt

Family Psychology

21PSYC07C
 Families are the building blocks of any society, in addition to being the most important

thing to its members. Family is like persons, it goes through a set of developmental changes,

stages and transitions marked by events, such as having a baby, child getting into school or

university, father getting promoted, and so on. This paper will discuss the transitional phases

families go through in accordance to the family life-cycle theory which focuses on the patterned

and systematic changes family experience as they move forward in time and asserts that all

families go through predictable changes that occur due to life events and unpredicted events

(Carter, McGoldrick, Petro, 1980); in addition to addressing the factors that affect these

transitions and the tactics that can be used to avoid problems that can arise in these different

phases.

According to the family life cycle theory generally most families go through the same

stages and transitions, in order for a family to transition from one stage to another certain tasks

should be accomplished. Carter and McGoldrick who are the creators of this theory, have came

up with five general stages. The first stage is family founding; in this stage an independent adult

finds a partner that they become emotionally dependent on, working out ways of handling

differences, learn how to establish a home and finally establish one (Frasier, 1963). In this phase

the partners start working on long and short term goals. Factors like economic resources might

have a great influence on this phase, as it was found in a study by Hardie and Lucas that

economic hardship plays a role in initiating couple conflict while economic well-being can

increase positive measures of a relationship (Hardie, Lucas, 2011). The second family stage is
child bearing which is characterized with the parents having their first child, allot of changes

occur in this transition to parenthood. According to the lifecycle theory, this stage is marked by

tasks like learning about pregnancy, child rearing and accepting parenthood responsibilities

(Frasier, 1963). Moreover in this stage a huge part of the couples attention, time and affection is

diverted from the partner to the child, which could have a huge effect on the relationship

between the two partners. One study had found that a decline in the overall relationship occurs

suddenly after the birth of the baby, in the study parents showed increases in conflict, negativity,

and problem intensity after birth (Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, Markman, 2009). This suggests that

the transition from family founding to child bearing is very hard on the family and in order to

decrease the intensity of these negative experiences in my opinion a couple should take allot of

time before taking the decision of having a child. This time should be spent by talking

thoroughly about the risks and responsibilities of having a child in addition to acknowledging the

affects it will have on the relationship in order to have a healthy coping strategy for both parents

when they reach this stage.

Thirdly the child rearing stage, it is the stage were parents raise their children from

childhood to adulthood, this includes but not limited to getting them into school, socializing

them, making efforts to comfort them and teaching them independence. In this transition is

largely due to the factor of the child aging, this could be positive for working mothers as it was

found in a study Nomaguchi and Fettro that when a the female partner in the family gives birth,

work-family conflict arise however, as the child becomes older this conflict decreases

(Nomaguchi, Fettro, 2018). Transitioning from being a parent to an infant to being a parent of an

older child or an adolescent, entails many changes which could prove challenging in many way.

This could be due to the son or daughter having more opinions and being able to disagree and
engage in conflict, which puts pressures on the parents to always search for new tactics and

adopt a parenting style that suits the family, this could have tiring effects on the parents, however

it is a crucial part of having a children. That is why in my opinion parents should educate

themselves on how to raise a child early on, in order to be better equipped to interact with their

children and be able to raise children that are psychologically healthy.

The fourth stage in the family cycle is the child launching stage. The child launching

stage is the stage where the parents are preparing the child to leave the house and become more

independent (Carter, McGoldrick, Petro, 1980. Examples of this transition would be the son or

daughter going to university, work, or leaving the house due to other factors. For some parents

this transition could be a debilitating one, as they experience being somehow lost as they feel

they lost role and meaning, this experience is referred to as the empty nest syndrome which takes

us to the fifth and final stage. The final stage which is called the empty nest stage is the transition

from living with the children to the children leaving the house and seeking independence. As

mentioned prior in this paper, this transition may result in the empty nest syndrome some parents

may suffer from, however, other parents might see it as an opportunity to start doing what they

put on hold because of the children, things like specific hobbies or trips. Moreover some use this

transition as to spend more time and give more attention to their partners, as the stages that have

included the children might have had negative effects on the relationship between both partners

in the family. However for the parents who suffer from the empty nest syndrome, in order to

cope with this problem, there are multiple suggestions, for example seeking support from loved

ones and talking about one’s feelings about this issue this person could be one’s partner which

will also strengthen the relationship between the person and their partner. Moreover keeping in

touch with one’s children can decrease the negative emotions entailed with the empty nest
syndrome (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020). Figure 1 represents the five stages and shows how much

time each stage take in comparison to each other.

Figure 1.

To sum up family goes through several stages, each stage with its set of challenges. There

are many factors that influence the transition from one stage to the other, thing like marrying or

cohabiting which are the initial family stages to giving birth to a child and raising them. The

stages mentioned in this paper are with accordance to the life cycle theory, these stages makes

sense as they capture the natural transition from one life situation in the context of family to the

other. However in my opinion I think this model only represents the stages a healthy nuclear

family goes through with no regards to other types of families like lone parent families, same sex

families and families that does not plan on having children.

References:
 Carter, McGoldrick, Petro. (1980). The family life cycle: An overview. ResearchGate. p-

1.

Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, Markman. (2009). The effect of the transition to parenthood on

relationship quality: an 8-year prospective study. Journal of personality and social

psychology, 96(3), 601–619. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013969

Frasier. (1963). You and the Family Life Cycle. Oregon State University

Hardie, Lucas. (2011). Economic Factors and Relationship Quality Among Young

Couples: Comparing Cohabitation and Marriage. National Library of Medicine.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2020). Empty nest syndrome. Mayo Clinic