Family Systems Thinking as a Guide for Theory Integration: Conceptual Overlaps of Differentiation, Attachment, Parenting Style, and Identity Development in Families With Adolescents

Abstract

There is both the necessity and the capacity for unification across the discipline of family science. This article offers another step toward a comprehensive, integrated body of theory and research shared across our discipline. Specifically, we address how family systems thinking has been reflected in attachment, parenting, and adolescent identity literature, and we present bidimensional models and integrated spectrums emphasizing how levels of differentiation, adolescent internal working models of attachment, parenting styles, and adolescent identity statuses are conceptually intertwined as systemic intrapsychic and interpersonal processes. These theories and concepts, when considered as an integrated whole, invite theoretical complexity that advances the understanding of family processes and guides new research questions. We propose that family systems theory is a holistic framework that is ideal for integrating these concepts in a way that goes beyond highlighting their common factors. We conclude with the benefits and barriers to comprehensive integration across family science.

A Multidimensional Perspective on Former Spouses' Ongoing Relationships: Associations With Children's Postdivorce Well‐Being

“…From a family systems perspective, former spouses' ongoing relationships should play an important role in shaping how children adapt to postdivorce family life (Bortz et al, 2019). Our results support this expectation.…”

“…Thus, in the current study, we moved beyond the common focus on postdivorce coparenting, conceptualizing former spousal relationships in terms of general communication between former spouses (i.e., communication that is not about children or coparenting), boundary ambiguity, how often they communicate with each other, and satisfaction with custody arrangements and child support. On the basis of family systems theory (Bortz et al, 2019), we expected that those qualities, dynamics, and characteristics would set the stage for children's adjustment to postdivorce family life.…”

Risk, Symptoms, and Well‐Being: Emerging Adult Latent Profiles During Treatment

“…CRP also employs evidence‐based interventions influenced by developmental constructs such as (a) attachment security, and specifically, safe haven and secure base functions; (b) differentiation, defined as self‐regulation and balanced autonomy‐closeness in interpersonal functioning; and (c) intersubjectivity, involving mutual recognition of self and other (Sandage et al, 2020). Each of these constructs synthesize with EA flourishing around “systemic intrapsychic and interpersonal processes” (Bortz et al, 2019, p. 544), and the dialectic between self‐ and co‐regulation, or self‐soothing and felt security with others (Sandage et al, 2020).…”

Coparenting and Mental Health in Families with Jailed Parents

“…FST is a perspective in which family members' interactions, patterns, and relationships are conceptualized by how they impact individuals, couples, and families as part of a system [7,46,47]. FST utilizes many concepts relevant to incarcerated coparenting, including holism, morphogenesis, morphostasis, and feedback.…”