Healthy Family Functioning: Conceptual and Research Developments

Abstract

An important development in family process research has been the redirection from a family deficit focus to a normality based orientation. This approach seeks to identify the family strengths and resources that are crucial in mastering life challenges and promoting the well-being and healthy development of individual family members. Drawing on conceptual and research contributions from the field of family therapy and the social sciences, this article presents recent developments in our understanding of normal family processes and the patterns that distinguish well-functioning families from dysfunctional ones. Emerging research findings are synthesized in an integrative framework that specifies key components of family functioning in three domains: organizational patterns, communication processes, and multigenerational life cycle patterns and belief systems.