ABSTRACT
This chapter views the family in its own setting, as distinct from that brought into being by the hospital in connection with the child's illness. The changes in family-member role performances during the period of hospitalization constituted the framework for the series of adjustments that the family had to make once the child returned home. Characteristically, his return occasioned in the family what may be termed a state of socio-political imbalance, especially as regards the nature and exercise of parental authority and the behavioral norms that govern sibling relations. The presence in the family of a handicapped child placed some fathers under greater compulsion to find a better paying job. The chapter describes what occurred in the families with respect to certain key aspects of childhood socialization. The socialization of any child, regardless how permissive or harsh the parents are, involves the application of some relatively stable balance of rewards and punishments in his discipline.
