Impact of family structure, functioning, culture, and family-based interventions on children’s health

Abstract

Behavioral health problems in children and adolescents are increasing in the USA and worldwide. This chapter will begin by covering the history and possible causes of changes in the traditional two-parent family structure and its negative impact on children’s development and health. These structural family changes resulted in changes in family functioning with the loss of fathers, resulting in increased family poverty and reduced parental involvement. Solutions including broader implementation of the family interventions proven to increase family nurturing and improve children’s behavioral health outcomes will be reviewed including their effectiveness results. These family evidence-based interventions also reduce differential generational acculturation and family conflict prevalent when families from one traditional culture move into a less traditional Western culture. The need for cultural adaptation to increase acceptability and dissemination capacity of health promotion programs is stressed. Despite 20 years of randomized control trial research on evidence-based family interventions, there is a research to practice gap depriving families of the best family services and increasing social and health-care costs. Hence, this chapter ends with policy recommendations to have a broader public health impact including using computer information technology to reduce the cost and increase dissemination of effective health promotion and family interventions.