NRS71001 - Cameron Family Case Study: Analysis of Lifespan Development

This case study analyzes the Cameron family, consisting of Jane (30), Michael (31), Nathan (10), Millie (5), and Melanie (18 months), through the lens of developmental theories. It assesses individual family members' stages using Erikson's and Piaget's theories, identifying their psychosocial and cognitive development levels. Furthermore, the study evaluates the family's overall developmental stage using Carter and MacGoldrick's family development theory, placing them in the 'families with young children' stage. The analysis highlights the family's strengths in communication and adaptation while noting a potential concern regarding the disconnection from Jane's mother, Joanie. The essay suggests interventions by a family nurse to address this issue and promote family resilience, emphasizing the importance of grandparent involvement in children's development. The solution is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

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Introduction:
Each individual passes through different stages of change and developmental
transformation according to their age and developmental stages. The phases and patterns of
change in people have been defined by various sociological theorists. Some famous theorist who
have given idea about difference in development patterns of people according to different life
stages include Jean Piaget, Eric Erikson, Lev Vygotsky and many others. Their theory in the area
of developmental stages has helped many social workers and psychologist to predict patterns of
behaviour in different client groups (Crain, 2015). Similar to theories for developmental stages
for individuals, theory also exist for family developmental theory. The family developmental
theory mainly focus on assessing general features of family life and understanding of this theory
helps teaching and counselling services to understand the kind of education or counselling
needed by a family. Such theories also help to interpret overall health of a family and make
comments on family growth and health promotion needs (Kaakinen et al., 2018). This essay aims
to analyse the phases of change in people’s lives by reviewing the case study of the Cameron
family and exploring the developmental stage of the family as a whole and as individual
members. Critical evaluation of various theorist and society views and perspective will be done
to effectively analyse development stage of individual members and family as a whole.
The Cameron family consists of five family members. It includes Jane (30 years),
Michael Cameron (31), Nathan (10 years), Millie (5 years) and Melanie (18 months). Jane and
Michael are the parents of 3 children namely Nathan, Millie and Melanie. This section looks at
the developmental stages of each of the members and provides the rational for the same. Jane is
30 years old and according to Erikson’s theory of psychososcial development, she comes under
the stage of intimacy versus isolation (people in early adulthood from 20s to early 40s). This

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conclusion has been made as she comes under the age of 20-40 years and her psychosocial
development is similar to this stage. Erikson’s theory define that if other developmental staged
prior to intimacy versus isolation is not successfully achieved by an individual, then after
entering this stage, they may face trouble in maintaining successful relationship with others
(Cherry, 2018). However, Jane had good intimacy with her husband as they have been able to
resolve conflicts by good communication and growing up together. Similarly, Jane’s husband
Michael also belongs to the same developmental stage as her wife and they both have been
raised in the same manner with good opportunities for developing their self-identities. However,
according to Piaget’s developmental stages, the couple comes under formal operational stage as
both are above 11 years old. According to developmental milestone at this stage, they are able to
solve problems on their own.
Nathan is 10 years old and he belongs to concrete operation stage according to Piaget’s
theory. Children at this stage are able to master conservation task and learn logical rules. Nathan
is engage in physical activities appropriate to his developmental stage (Crain, 2015). As per
Erikson’s developmental stage, she comes under industry versus inferiority stage as they begin to
compare themselves with their peer (Mooney, 2016). Positive experience at home helped Nathan
to adjust after moving to new town. Millie is five years old. According to Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development, she comes under the preoperational stage as she falls under the age group
of 2-7 years. Children in the preoperational stage develop language and abstract thought and they
are able to pretend play (Crain, 2015). Millie’s activities match with the developmental
milestones of preoperational stage as she loves to engage in drawing and playing pretend play
using her bunny and iPad. However, Eriskon’s theory used different approach to define
development for a 5 years old child. Millie comes under the preschool stage (3-6 years) and

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Erikson explanation is that children at this stage have control over themselves through social
interactions and play. Similar behaviour was found for Millie in the case study (Mooney, 2016).
In addition, Melanie (18 months) is the youngest member of the Cameron family and she comes
under the sensorimotor stage according to Piaget’s theory. During this stage, children are able to
interpret outside world through touch, watching and listening. Melania is also exploring her
outside world gradually (Crain, 2015).
After individual assessment of Cameron family members according to different theories
on life stages, this part of the essay focus on evaluating developmental stage of the Cameron
family member as a whole. As different family developmental theories exist and the
developmental stages of families differs according to different models, the assessment of the
developmental stage of the Cameron family has been done using one specific family
developmental model. The developmental stage of the Cameron family has been considered
using the Carter and MacGoldrick theory for family development. Rodgers defines stages of
family development by means of normative patterns and based on the change that each family
goes through. It consists of six stages namely the single young adult stage, the new couple,
families with young children, families with adolescent, launching children and moving on and
families in later life (McGoldrick & Shibusawa, 2012). According to Carter’s theory, Cameron
family comes under the stage of families with young children as all the three children of Jane and
Michael are now under the age of 10 years.
The key family development at the stage of families with young children involves going
through the emotional process of transition by accepting new members into the family systems.
Jane and Michael faced such transitions in their life when their first child, Nathan was born. Due
to coming of new member in the family, they faced many challenges. They lost their income,

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sleeps and date night. However, they found success in maintaining a healthy family as they were
able to accept new responsibilities and realign family relationships and role. This is relevant with
the second order change in the family status of stage three according to Carter and MacGoldrick
theory. Some relevant change necessary at this stage for a successful family involves adjusting
marital system to make space for children, taking responsibility in child rearing, financial and
household tasks and realigning relationship with extended families (Rago, 2016). The positive
aspect of Cameron’s family development is that the couple also made similar adjustment after
the birth of their children. For example, to manage childrearing responsibilities, Jane returns
from her work part-time after Nathan was 12 months old. In addition, as the birth of a child led
to additional expense, they faced financial challenges too. However, both Jane and Michael were
able to communicate well regarding any issue and their decision of moving to a regional town to
seek better life proved good for the overall family health. Therefore, the family development
according to the family life cycle was going smoothly.
The changes and the management of the developmental stage of Cameron’s family shows
the couple were successful in making effective transition after entry of new members in the
family. However, one negative aspect or one area that was neglected was realignment with
extended families (Walsh, 2016). This is said because while moving to a new region, Jane did
not took her mother Joanie with her and she lost the opportunity to look after her grandchildren.
This step made Joanie sad. In the long run, this could have an impact on Joanie’s health too as
she lives alone and already suffering from anxiety and depressive disorder. Apart from the
individual impact on health of Joanie, Jane and Michael’s decision to move to a new region
without taking Joanie can have impact on the Cameron family too. This is because the couple’s
children particularly Nathan and Millie must be used to the presence of their grandmothers.

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Although all children have established new social ties in the new region, however they will be
deprived of the love of their grandmother. Grandmothers are the one who give memorable
memories to children. Their role is also important in influencing children’s psychological and
physical health outcomes (Pulgaron et al., 2016). Hence, presence of Joanie is important for the
three children of Jane and Michael so that bonding of love and social ties continues through the
generation.
To resolve the issue of separation from grandmothers and its impact on overall
development and early childhood experience of children, a family nurse can intervene and talk to
Jane about the importance of grandparent on their children’s development. Taking step in this
area is critical for family development as well as extended family also acts as resources of
resilience for a family system (Walsh, 2016). Joanie can help Jane and Michael to buffer stress as
they migrate to other stage of family cycle too. The family nurse can make Michael and Jane
aware about the importance of grandparent involvement for the health and well-being of
children. Family nurse can advise regarding bringing Joanie back and also explain the benefits of
the move. Some of the relevant benefits will include improvement in social and emotional
experiences of the young children. For Jane and Michael, the move will help them to balance
raising their children with work with the support of Joanie (Pulgaron et al., 2016).
On assessing the Cameron’s family according to resilience parameters, it can be said that
good communication and understanding is a strength for the family which has helped them to
overcome health care concerns and other challenges in the past too. For example, when Jane and
Michael faced financial challenges after Michael was the sole earning member of the family, the
couple were able to resolve those conflicts by constructive talks and communication. As both
have good understanding and grown up together, they will be able to handle health concerns of

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the overall family too. Once the couple are aware regarding the health risk associated with Joanie
living alone, it is expected that they will overcome this issue through their good communication
skills. Both Jane and Michael are the important family members who can invest in the positive
development of at-risk children as well as extended family members. It is expected that the
couple can use their maturity and communication to take proactive steps to buffer risk, reduce
family dysfunction and support resilience of the elder member of the family too (Walsh, 2016).
To conclude, the essay gave an insight into the developmental assessment of the
Cameron’s family as a whole. The essay looked at developmental stages and developmental
growth of each family members followed by the analysis of developmental stage for the overall
family. All the five family members belong to different stage of development according to
Piaget’s and Erikson’s theory of development. Secondly, the evaluation of family development
using the Carter and MacGoldrick theory revealed that they come under the stage three and the
family has been able to successfully transition and manage the process of change according to
the stage of the family cycle. Apart from success of Cameron’s in managing changes after
coming of their children, one health concern identified for the family was disconnection from
grandmother Joanie after shifting to new region. As this could affect health of both Joanie as
well as overall family health, the essay suggested the role of family health nurse in making Jane
aware regarding the role of grandparents in children development as well as maintaining family
resilience. The communication skills and maturity of Jane and Michael has been identified as
strength too which could help them to overcome all family issues.

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References:
Cherry, K. (2018). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retrieved Juny, 5, 2018.
Crain, W. (2015). Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory. In Theories of development:
Concepts and applications (pp. 132-170). Routledge.
Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Steele, R., & Robinson, M. (2018). Family health care nursing:
Theory, practice, and research. FA Davis.
McGoldrick, M., & Shibusawa, T. (2012). The family life cycle. Guilford Press.
Mooney, E. F. (2016). Erik Erikson: Artist of moral development. In Volume 13: Kierkegaard's
Influence on the Social Sciences (pp. 101-114). Routledge.
Pulgaron, E. R., Marchante, A. N., Agosto, Y., Lebron, C. N., & Delamater, A. M. (2016).
Grandparent involvement and children’s health outcomes: The current state of the
literature. Families, Systems, & Health, 34(3), 260.
Rago, M. (2016). Family Development Theory. Encyclopedia of Family Studies, 1-6.
Siegler, R. (2016). Cognitive development in childhood.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1002&context=psych_oer#page=280
Walsh, F. (2016). Family resilience: a developmental systems framework. European Journal of
Developmental Psychology, 13(3), 313-324.

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