ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews extant research as it provides empirical evidence of the interactive relationships between families and health and illness. Relationships between families and individual members' health status can be viewed from a biological, developmental, and ecosystemic perspective. In general, family social processes are believed to exert their influence on health by shaping member's health practices and health service use, influencing psychological health, and providing access to environmental resources. Health-related behaviors including diet, exercise, smoking, and alcohol use are, in large part, presumed to be learned and maintained within the family. The influence of the family on psychological health has been well-documented in both the theoretical and empirical literature. Family-illness transactions are also presumably influenced by interactions among structural characteristics of the family including its life cycle and sociocultural context, the nature of the illness, and by characteristics of the family's adaptation prior to the illness.
