Unit 4 assignment 2: Influences of relationships on individuals.
2B.P3 Describe the influences that different types of relationships have on the health and wellbeing
of individuals
2B.P4 Describe how social factors can affect the health and wellbeing of individuals
2B.M2 Explain the influences that different types of relationships have on the health and wellbeing
of individuals
2B.D2 Compare the potential positive and negative influences of different relationships on the
health and wellbeing of individuals
This assignment is about different types of relationships and how they can have a huge impact on our
health and well-being. I will explain their influence on our health and well-being. It contains research
to support the points made. This booklet explains 4 types of relationships and their influences. The
four main relationships covered in this booklet are family relationships, working relationships,
intimate relationships, and social relationships. It compares the positive and negative effects of these
four relationships and how they affect individuals physical and mental health.
Family relationships are usually seen as special because of the biological connections and also the
close emotional bonds between family members. It does not matter what type of family you have as
long as all members of the family support each other equally and treat each other with dignity and
respect. Having healthy family relationships allow individuals to feel safe and wanted and without
loving family relationships individuals will feel vulnerable and lonely. However, while family
relationships can be a source of love, support and protection, negative family relationships that
involve abuse and violence can have negative effects on an individual’s health and wellbeing. Family
relationships can sometimes be complex. Many people have good family relationships that positively
affect their health and wellbeing whereas some have challenging family relationships that negatively
affect their health and well-being.
An extended family consists of parents and their children as well as additional family members like
aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, etc all living in the same household. An example of an
extended family is an elderly parent moving in with their children. Extended families were much
more common in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They can be
very supportive and nurturing, boosting individual’s self-esteem and giving feelings of security.
Having a close supportive family provides emotional support, economic well-being, and increases
overall health. However, living closely with lots of relatives can also be stressful and may lead to
higher levels of anxiety where there are disagreements, tensions in relationships or communication
problems between family members.
Stress process theory suggests that the positive and negative aspects of relationships can have a
large impact on the well-being of individuals. Family relationships provide resources that can help an
individual cope with stress, engage in healthier behaviours, and enhance self-esteem, leading to
better health and well-being. An actual example of an extended family living in the UK is the
Radford's family, this family consists of the mother, father and their 21 children with 14 of them
living under the same roof. They have a popular show showing their lives with their 21 children called
21 kids and counting.
, Case study:
Mary and Mark Jennings live with their daughter Melissa, son in law Dave and four children Adam,
Veronica, Crystal, and Oliver in their family home. All eight of them live under one roof. Mary has
type two diabetes and Mark finds it difficult to move around due to his old age. Melissa and Dave
both have full time jobs to provide for the family’s needs and the children take the bus to school.
Mark and Mary’s grandchildren spend a lot of time caring for their grandparents needs and helping
out around the house. Living in an extended family home has its advantages but it also has its
disadvantages.
Advantages:
An extended family has many advantages, some of the advantages are you get more family time and
more people to feel close to. You will always have company and reassurance that someone is always
going to be there for you to help out. It gives individuals a sense of belonging and purpose. Having an
extended family means that there will always be people helping you out when you need it and share
chores and help you out, say if you are busy or need time off from cooking, cleaning, etc you could
let your siblings or other family members have a turn. Children will always have playmates and older
adults and siblings can contribute to the younger children's learning. Another benefit of living in an
extended family is that there are more adults around to help with domestic activities and childcare.
Having an extended family is good for individual’s mental health because you will always have
someone close to you to talk to and this will help manage stress and worry. Life comes with
accomplishments and failures, having a big family means endless support through the good and bad.
Birthdays and other celebrations with an extended family are full of a lot of people, food and fun.
Disadvantages:
There are plenty or disadvantages to an extended family too, some of them are that it can be costly
and lead to poverty and finance issues, in the case study you can see that the parents both have full
time jobs to provide for the family, this can cause them to be stressed about their money issues.
Living with a large family means that it would be difficult to find space to be alone and sometimes it
will stress individuals out as they have no privacy. They may feel oppressed at home as there is no
space and start to hang out outside of the home, this could cause individuals to get mixed up with
the wrong crowd and begin to do bad things like do drugs. This would be bad for an individual’s
health and well-being. Older siblings can be too dominant and not let younger ones develop to their
own way, they may be bad influences for their siblings who are likely to follow their actions. Another
disadvantage is the loss of independence, you will barely do anything for yourself as you may rely on
other family members too much. In the case study you can see that due to the parents working full
time it is up to the children to look after and care for their older family members. They spend a lot of
time looking after their grandparents and less time focusing on themselves and this will cause them
to focus less on themselves and their health and wellbeing and their academic progress will be
negatively affected.
