ABSTRACT
Of all the industrialized nations, the United States has had the most difficult time conceptualizing the role of family life in the health and illness of citizens. Perhaps because of the dominance of individualism in this country, Americans have tended to split the individual from the family just as they have tended to split the mind from the body. The traditional emphasis in health research and health policy has been on individual factors of health, illness, and health behaviors, with family context peripheral.
