DYSFUNCTIONAL COUSIN

Dysfunctional Cousin

Dysfunctional Cousin

Dysfunctional family refers to a family pattern generally associated with lower levels of health, well-being, happiness, and positive outcomes, compared with other families (Reiss, 1991). Conceptualizing a dysfunctional family should be not as a dichotomy but as a continuum, viewing it in terms of degrees of dysfunction. Some families may be more or less dysfunctional than other families, with the extent and severity of dysfunction varying. Many disciplines such as sociology, psychology, social work, medicine, and criminology study dysfunctional families. Because several disciplines study dysfunctional families, many different definitions, viewpoints, and solutions to dysfunctional families exist.

Many different types of dysfunctional families exist, as do various forms of family violence commonly classified as dysfunctional. For example, cousin became dysfunctional when harmony was disrupted in house. At young age, he lived a life without his father and his mother was drug addicted. After sometime, his mother died in a car accident. His grandmother takes care of him and his three brothers. His grandma is smothering, she applied don't ask don't tell policy in her home, South Central Los Angeles. Life started abusing crack cocaine, robs from family members to get a fix and molest his little cousin.

Family violence is also dysfunctional because of the physical and emotional harm inflicted on the victim and the negative and threatening environment in which the young people like cousin live.

Chronic and abusive use of drugs or alcohol within the family is dysfunctional because of the action affiliated with such activity. Such chronic and abusive use correlates with higher levels of emotional and physical violence as well as diminished parent-child interaction. The net results for offspring are lower levels of academic success, self-esteem, and other indicators of overall well-being. Moreover, a higher likelihood of drug or alcohol abuse among children and adult children of drug- ...