A Modified Working Definition of Family: Carter and McGoldrick on Becoming a Family (Discussion)
5 min read Discussion: A Modified Working Definition of Family, Carter and McGoldrick on Becoming a Family
Relying on Carter and McGoldrick, Chapter 14, and other scholarly materials, discuss how your proposed definition of family (from the Initial Working Definition discussion) agrees or disagrees with Carter and McGoldrick’s presentation of “Becoming a Family.” Highlight areas they address that you did not. What have you learned about marriage and the family as a place to foster child development? How does this scholarly perspective fit with a biblical view of family? How might your personal views and values affect your ability to work with the full range of families you are likely to encounter?
Accepting new members into the system
From partners to co-parents
New grandparent and in-law roles
Covenant, nurture, faith formation
Respect diverse families
Model response
Original example for study purposes (about 510 words). Add page numbers from Carter and McGoldrick, Chapter 14, and adjust to your own initial definition.
Agreement and differences. My initial working definition described family as a network of people bound by marriage, birth, adoption or enduring covenant commitment who share belonging and take ongoing responsibility for one another’s care and growth across the life span. Carter and McGoldrick’s family life cycle perspective agrees that families are systems that develop over time, but it adds a much clearer picture of how families change at predictable transitions. In the stage of becoming a family with young children, the central emotional task is accepting new members into the system (McGoldrick et al., 2016). My definition emphasized commitment and belonging, but it did not address how adding a child forces every relationship in the system to reorganize.
Areas I had not addressed. Carter and McGoldrick highlight several second-order changes that occur during this transition: the couple must make space for children while protecting their own relationship, partners must negotiate parenting roles, household work and finances, and the extended family must realign as parents become grandparents (McGoldrick et al., 2016). They also emphasize that this stage often brings stress and decreased marital satisfaction, that gender expectations about who provides care can create conflict and that social context, such as economic pressure, culture and support networks, shapes how families manage the transition. My earlier definition treated family as relatively stable; this reading shows that family identity is continually renegotiated.
What I have learned about marriage and child development. A stable, cooperative relationship between parents provides an emotional base for children. When couples protect time for each other, share caregiving and handle conflict constructively, children experience security, while unresolved conflict and isolation can spill over into parenting. I also learned that support from extended family and community is not optional; new parents need networks that share the load of caregiving.
Fit with a biblical view. Scripture presents marriage as a covenant in which a man and woman leave their parents and become one flesh (Genesis 2:24), children as a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3) and parents as responsible for teaching faith in daily life (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). Carter and McGoldrick’s emphasis on the couple bond as the foundation for receiving children aligns with this covenant view, and their description of grandparents’ new roles fits the biblical picture of faith passed across generations. Where the scholarly perspective describes the full diversity of families as they exist, a biblical view also speaks to what families are called to be, and Christian practitioners hold both without using one to dismiss the other.
Impact of my views on practice. My personal values favor marriage and two-parent families, which could lead me to unconsciously view single-parent, blended, cohabiting or same-sex-parent families as deficient. To work effectively with the full range of families, I must recognize that my role as a helper is to support each family’s strengths and goals, listen without judgment and avoid imposing my beliefs, while remaining honest about my own values and seeking supervision when they create tension. Practicing self-awareness and cultural humility will help me serve every family with respect.
References
McGoldrick, M., Garcia Preto, N., & Carter, B. (2016). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives (5th ed.). Pearson.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Tip: check your syllabus for the exact edition and chapter title of Carter and McGoldrick, and cite page numbers for the specific tasks of this life cycle stage.
Frequently asked questions
What is the key task of the ‘becoming a family’ stage?
Accepting new members into the family system, which requires the couple, siblings and extended family to reorganize roles and relationships.
How can personal values affect work with families?
Unexamined values can lead to judging families that differ from our own. Self-awareness, cultural humility and supervision help practitioners serve all families respectfully.
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