Family Stress Theory

Crisis is a person’s or a set of people’s reaction to an event. This theory deals with how families handle stress. One can say all family passes through four stages of crisis. Recently there was a death in my family. I believe the person who felt the most pain is my uncle in-law because he was the one living with my aunt for a number of years. First there was the death which was unexpected. Then the disorganization taking place, we as the family  members did not know what to say, what to do and naturally we were all looking for someone to blame for this. Everyone was and still is sad. The autopsy was to be done to find out what killed her as she was not sick. After the autopsy, the funeral date was to be set and funeral programme to prepare. We all were going through these motions and not really knowing that we were going through the four stages of crisis. After the funeral then we will gradually have to go back to our lives and learn to live without our aunt, sister, wife and daughter, meaning all the family members. This is the final stage of the crisis reorganization.

This theory helps us to understand the balancing the stress of work, school and personal life. Right now I feel I am going through a crisis. My husband and I do not see eye to eye on the responsibilities of each other in the marriage. He believes, I should do all the household duties even though I am at school, and I feel that he should understand that I have six weeks of school and I am asking him to do some of the things I usually do for the few weeks that I am away. We are now going through the four stages of crisis. At the moment we are at the fourth stage where we are reorganizing, helping out each other and making the necessary adjustment until my schooling is through in August. This theory helps me to understand others who are going through this stress; why if there is no compromising this could lead to a divorce.