EDCO 815 Reading Report
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Name: Lynda Burke
Date: April 15, 2020
Week #: Five
Place a mark beside the percentage that most accurately represents the amount of reading
from your textbook(s) and additional materials you completed for this week’s module. Then
generate a paragraph of reflection from the reading and type them on this form below. Save the
reading report and submit it through the assignment link on Blackboard. Submitting the weekly
reading report is a requirement for the course.
Critical thinking involves asking questions about clarification of key issues, worldview
assumptions, reasons/evidence, perspectives, and implications. Reflections develop critical
thinking from the required reading. Reading reports will be conducted at 4 times during the
course and will account for a total of 200 points.
Completed Reading
I have completed the following percentage of required reading for this weekly module:
0%____ 20%____ 40% ____ 60% ____ 80% ____ 100% _ X_
Textbook Readings
Balswick: chs. 9 ISBN - 9780801049347
Carter & McGoldrick: ch. 10, 13 & 16 ISBN - 9780205968060
Kostenberger: ch. 8-9 ISBN - 9781433503641
Yarhouse & Sells: ch. 9-10 ISBN - 9780830828548
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Note: Please keep in mind the academic honesty policy of Liberty University as you
complete and submit your reading report. A clear conscience is worth more than a few points!
FAMILY DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO FORUMS INSTRUCTIONS
Purpose:
The Family Development Scenario Forums are designed to give you the opportunity to
interact with real-life examples/scenarios affecting the family and its development. You will read
and interact with course texts and articles supplied with the course materials using the Discussion
Board Forum tool and addressing the prescribed questions associated with each scenario.
You will create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each forum. Each thread
must be at least 400 words, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and include at least 2
scholarly references. In addition to the thread, you are required to reply to a minimum of 2 other
classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 250 words and include at least 1 scholarly
reference in current APA format.
Instructions:
Respond to the following for each family development scenario:
Present your initial impressions.
What are the concerns in this scenario?
What are the tensions in this scenario?
What are the implications for family development?
What is your response in this scenario?
What is the most important take-away?
Submit your thread by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Modules/Weeks 2, 4, and 7.
Submit your replies by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Modules/Weeks 3 and 5 and by
11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday of Module/Week 8.
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Week 5 Reading Report
When newborns turn into toddlers, then turn into little kids and finally become
adolescences, the amount of help they need changes. When a baby is first born, they are
completely reliant on their parents. The newborn is unable to tell its parents what it needs or
wants, it can only cry or scream to try to get its needs met. However, as that newborn becomes a
toddler and a small child, they develop language and it is this language that allows them to
communicate their needs and wants. As they become adolescents, they also learn how to hide
things from their family in the hopes to not get in trouble. Balswick states “both teenage children
and their parents are likely to be undergoing challenging changes simultaneously” (Ch. 9 pg.
159).
Balswick explains that despite the fact that people age at the same rate throughout the
world, he explains that despite the fact that many parents around the world are roughly the same
age when their children become adolescents, not all parents around the world go through midlife
crisis. Notwithstanding the fact that parents are within the same age and have children about the
same age as American families, but they do not go through the as many midlife crisis Americans
do (Balswick, Ch. 9, pg. 160). The parents who are going through their midlife crisis do not
merely need to deal with their current issues but also those of their adolescent’s.
Balswick states that it has just been within the preceding 300 years that children were
delineated as children rather than viewed at as small adults (Ch. 9, pg. 160). “Children are now
viewed as being qualitatively and not just quantitatively different from adults” (Balswick, cp. 9,
pg. 160). While the adolescent child does not need as much attention as the newborn did, they
are still in need of directions and support from their parents. “Parenting cannot be reduced to an
exact science” because one person is different than the next person (Kostenberger, ch. 8, pg.
EDCO 815 Reading Report
154). However, as the social concept and family life began to change, no longer were these
children being mentored while they learn a trade, they were simply jumping into work without
the time spent to teach them a trade. These children were growing in number and are currently
considered adolescents – a time between childhood and adulthood (Balswick, ch.9, pg 160).
These children now go to high school and often on to college, prior to working a fulltime job.
Many of these adolescents become very tech savvy which is a current need in many workplaces.
With many jobs being available for adolescents or them getting money from their family they
now are this distinct group found primarily here in the United States. Peers of these adolescents
often control how and what their peers within their group do. These adolescents are often in a
flux, unlike when nearly all families farmed, the children began farming at a young age. Due to
the fact that kids had specific roles and expectations there was nothing considered as adolescents,
where as this concept was born out of the change in our society and technology.
As these adolescents are struggling between their parent’s rules and concepts and their
peer groups rules and activities. These adolescents want to fit in with those in their peer group,
but they do not want to break the engrained rules and expectations of their nuclear family. At the
same time, their parents are likely struggling with all of their own personal changes. “One of the
factors in parent/adolescent conflicts may be that the parent in midlife and the adolescent are
experiencing contracting physical changes” (Balswick, ch. 9, pg. 166).
These struggles that the parents are going through, while their adolescents are also
struggling, may cause significant family disputes. These adults may be in need of assistance and
encouragement as they are learning to control their new feelings and sensations and begin to
realize that they may lose their job because of advancing technology or that they may never
reach the goals they had set for themselves during their adolescents (Balswick, ch. 9 pg 164).
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Many have heard of midlife crisis – it used to be said that during midlife crisis men go
out and buy sports cars and have affairs with women much younger than themselves. Not to say
that some do not act out in these ways, but more often than not, it is this struggle that they are
facing internally, that is the real problem. Uncle Allen, (name changed for his privacy), is one
such person. He had worked for the same company for 38 years and was looking forward to
being able to retire in about two years. Allen, however, was let go as the company automated and
his position was replaced by a robot. The robot did not get sick, did not get tired, etc.… thus the
company was able to work the robot 24/7 whereas the humans only worked 40 hours a week.
Balswick states that men typically have stronger and more noticeable midlife crisis that women
do (ch. 9 pg 164-165).
Carter & McGoldrick cite the US Census Data for 2010. They cite that “44 percent of the
population 18 and older, were single” (Ch 10, pg. 190). “Single parenting was not part of God’s
intended purpose in the beginning” (Kostenberger, ch. 8, pg. 155). Young adults seem to be
moving toward either not getting married or marrying at a later age. Two generations before now
there was a tendency towards being married and having children in their early 20’s, whereas now
people have a tendency not to get married in many cases at all. Often choosing to have children
without getting married. McGoldrick & Carter state that single adults are looked at differently
than married adults (2016, ch. 10, pg. 192). That being said however, the rate of marriages for
Hispanics and Asians has dropped, as well as African Americans. African American men are in
the pool of desirable partners in marriage due to education, incarceration, and mortality rates
McGoldrick & Carter (2016, ch. 10, pg. 192). James Dobson states in his book Bringing Up
Boys, “bears eloquent witness to the fact that boys are in a state of crisis in our culture because
they have often lost a sense of what it means for them to be a man” (20010. As more individuals
EDCO 815 Reading Report
put off getting married until later age or all together, the social setup of adults has radically
changed. As more young adults are moving back in with the parents and/or parents are moving in
with their adult children the balance is drastically changing (McGoldrick & Carter, 2016, ch. 13,
pg. 240). They go on to share Hamilton and Armstrong’s report regarding ‘hooking up’ (2009).
As many young people now claim to be ‘friends with benefits’ rather than a couple or dating this
number will continue to grow, while committed relationships that turn into marriage, with these
young adults will continue to decrease. With more hookups and freedom comes additional
inappropriate risks, such as drug use and experimentation. Between the random hook-ups and
drug experimentation these adolescents of today are living a very different life than their parents
did. “The transformation families must make during adolescence is so profound that it requires a
metamorphosis from a family that protects and nurtures children to a family that is the launching
pad for the adult world of responsibilities and commitments” (McGoldrick & Carter, 2016, ch.
16, pg. 304). It is during this period of adolescents that these sweet little children turn into
something closer to an adult, but with hormones running wild and attitudes from one end of the
of the spectrum to the opposite end in mere seconds. It is during this time in every young
person’s life that their relationship with their parents is stressed all the while the adolescent is
pulling away from their parents and their parents are trying to pull them closer.
With the adolescents pulling away from their parents and family and turning towards
their peers, that often lead to experimentation with sex, alcohol, and drugs. If the family is too
consumed with their own issues of midlife crisis, divorce, loss of job, etc.… these adolescents
could fall through the cracks. Social economic status also plays a significant role in the outcome
of these adolescents. It has been found through studies that the lower the income of the family
the more likely they adolescent is to become addicted to drugs, dealing drugs and/or getting
EDCO 815 Reading Report
pregnant. On the opposite side the higher the income the more likely the adolescent will be to get
addicted to drugs or alcohol, but their family will have the recourse’s to hire the best lawyers and
rehab centers to keep their adolescents out of trouble. “Families with adolescents usually seek
therapy when parents have reached a point of desperation about not being able to control their
child’s behavior” (McGoldrick & Carter, 2016, ch. 16, pg. 314). These parents, whether married
or single often feel as though they are at the end of their rope, not know who or where to turn to
for help with their rebellious adolescent. As McGoldrick and Carter state in this ever-shifting
world we live in, individuals are losing the essential and significance of intimate and expressive
relationships (2016).
Divorce rates are skyrocketing, not primarily because if the lack of good intentions, the
unavailability of resources and instruction on how to conduct a strong biblical marriage, or even
the lack of love, but because many unbelievers and believers alike, inadequately recognize that
spiritual warfare is a certain reality that calls for a concerted, deliberately planned response
(Kostenberger, ch. 9, pg. 167).
“Family members need to be sure of one another or to be confidently attached. When that
security is destabilized or becomes detached by environment, circumstances, or behavior, the
figurative glue that permits people to ‘keep their lives together’ breaks down” (Yarhouse & Sells,
pg. 36). Stavinoha stated “Two people experiencing the same situation may cope very differently.
One may feel intense mental or emotional tension while the other experiences only a slight bump
in the road” (2018).
Yarhouse & Sells states ‘the use of these techniques points to a kind of pragmatic
minimalism or commitment to what “works” with a family, beginning with minimal
interceptions that target what the family reports matters to the them’ (Nichols & Schwartz, 2006).
EDCO 815 Reading Report
The family must have certain things that work in addition to the things that do not work. When
there is something that works, that is the part of the family that needs to be focused on. By
focusing on the things that work – those things can be increased, whereas the things that are not
working can be decreased. “The experiential emphasis of breaking free from family-initiated
emotional suppression reminds us of a time when the breaking of restrictive social, civil,
religious, and familial controls was an essential and at times challenging part of our history”
Kostenberger: Ch. 8, pg. 187). During the 1960’s adolescents were seen to be driving around in
VW Buses, smoking weed (marijuana), living a ‘free’ life. There were drugs everywhere, sex
was open and wild, and many looked at the young adults of that time frame as being out of
control. Yarhouse & Sells states that “Satir described the primary function of parents within
families as being “people makers”; that is, they are to nurture children into their potential as
adults to function with an awareness of self and a capacity to engage with others (Satir, 1972,
1988). Yarhouse and Sells state that Satir was a few of the primary therapists who spoke “for
family intervention of psychiatric and relational dysfunction” (ch. 8, pg. 189). Family
intervention moved forward towards solution focused therapy. Solution focused therapy looks to
explain there is not a model of a ‘normal family’ or ‘typical family’ rather that each family is
very unique and dissimilar than a family next door or across the country. “Solution-focused
family therapy, then, draws on assumptions found in constructivism or the understanding that
perceptions and descriptions of the family’s experience leads to the construction of not only our
understanding of that experience but also of the reality about that experience” (Becvar & Becvar,
2006).
EDCO 815 Reading Report
References
Becvar, D. & Becvar, R. (2006). Family therapy: A systemic integration (6th ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Dobson, James (2001). Bringing up boys. Carol Streams, IL.: Tyndale.
Garland, D. (2012). Family Ministry: a comprehensive guide. Downer Grove, IL:
Intervarsity Press
Hamilton, L. & Armstrong, E. A. (2009). Gendered sexuality in young adulthood:
Double binds and flawed options. Gender & Society, 23(5), 589-616. doi:
10.1177/0891243209345829
Kostenberger, A. J. (2010). God, marriage, and family – rebuilding the biblical
foundation. Wheaton, IL: Intervarsity Press.
McGoldrick, M., & Carter, E. (2016). The expanding family life cycle individual, family,
and social perspectives. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Yarhouse, M. & Seals, J. (2017). Family Therapies: a comprehensive christian appraisal.
Downer Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press
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