The Interview Questionnaire
The Family’s Environment
The family consists of three members: the father (Mr. J, 40 years old), the mother (Mrs. J, 35 years old), and their son (K, eight years old). They live in a single-family dwelling with no apparent hazards. Upon closer inspection, it was found that the staircase in the house is somewhat unstable, and some parts of the railing are missing. There seems to be an old air conditioner installed in the house that appears malfunctioning.
Tobacco, Alcohol, or Illegal Drug Use
The father and the mother indeed consume alcohol on a regular basis. The mother admits having a few glasses of boxed wine in the evening and sometimes at lunch. The father drinks cheap whiskey on a regular basis; there are a few glasses and bottles visible in the house.
The Family Assessment of Their Health Status
Both Mr. J and Mrs. J say that they perceive their family’s health status as usual, and they do not see the any issues with their alcohol consumption.
The Head of the Household
Mr. J is the household’s head, which entails that he has the final say in the family decision-making, and this puts a strain on his relationships within the family.
The Specific Assigned Roles in the Family
There is a distinct divide in the assigned roles as Mr. J is the breadwinner who provides for the family while Mrs. J stays at home, cooks, cleans, takes care of her son, and does all relevant house chores, in which Mr. J never participates.
The Family’s Performance in Their Roles
K does average at school; Mr. J seems to work hard while Mrs. J is also overburdened with her responsibilities.
Role Relationship
There is a strain in the family relationship due to the arguments between Mr. J and Mrs. J.
The Family’s Health-Related Behaviors
The family follows the typical American diet full of processed meat, gluten, dairy, and high in sugar.
The Family Income
Mr. J is the only family member that goes to work and gets paid.
Cultural Issues Unique to the Family
There are no particular cultural issues unique to the family. However, Mrs. J said that she had used home remedies often because the medication can be expensive.
Interview Findings Assessment
The J family seems to live in the nuclear context, and most of the time, they spend together at their house. The stereotypical American family structure is applicable to the J family, which means that the father and husband is the patriarch and the breadwinner while his wife stays at home and is responsible for all household chores, including taking care of her son. The main issue in the distribution of responsibilities between Mr. J and Mrs. J is that the husband is only responsible for going to work, and he does nothing to help at home (Hogenboom, 2021). This is a typical challenge with which many families deal because the majority of responsibilities of taking care of the house and the child fall on the mother (see Figure 1 for ecomap), who has little opportunities for self-development or finding a job that will be more fulfilling to her than housework.
Because of the difference in perspectives on housework and family life, the relationships between Mr. J and Mrs. J were strained. As a result of that, the overall health behaviors also get influenced. The wife has reported drinking more because she feels the need to relax and relieve the stress from her days. The husband also drinks because he reports getting tired at work and things are not well at home. The example of the increased alcohol drinking is then transferred to K, who also witnesses arguments between his father and mother. If arguments increase in their scope and frequency, concerns regarding the mental health of K arise. In particular, there is a challenge of potential insecurity, negative parent-child relationships, and the potential of creating a stressful environment (Morin, 2019). Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that the kid’s sense of security is not undermined by the lack of stability in his family. In addition, children who are exposed to a lot of fighting can worry about divorce or wonder when the bad treatment of their parents is going to stop.
In terms of the two functional health pattern strengths, the family has exhibited good activity-exercise pattern and cognitive-perceptual. The family has reported spending a lot of time outside on weekends with K always being encouraged to play with his friends and ride a bike instead of playing on the computer. The cognitive-perceptual pattern is in a good state because the family has no issues in sensory, perceptual, or cognitive capacity. The problem areas include the nutritional-metabolic pattern, role-relationship pattern, and coping-stress tolerance pattern. The excessive consumption of red meat and processed foods is a problem for the family, there are differences in the desires and beliefs between the spouses (Zheng et al., 2019). Mr. J and Mrs. J fail to find other methods to relax and relieve stress other than alcohol consumption, which presents significant challenges for the functional health patterns of the family and the subsequent health issues, both physical and behavioral.
References
Hogenboom, M. (2021). The hidden load: How ‘thinking of everything’ holds mums back. Web.
Morin, A. (2019). How parents fighting affects a child’s mental health. Web.
Zheng, Y., Li, Y., Satija, A., Pan, A., Sotos-Prieto, M., Rimm, E., … Hu, F. B. (2019). Association of changes in red meat consumption with total and cause specific mortality among US women and men: Two prospective cohort studies. BMJ, 365. Web.