Family Life Cycle

Clinical context

The family life cycle (Carter & McGoldrick) describes predictable developmental stages — from single adulthood and new couple through parenting, launching, midlife and retirement — each with characteristic tasks and transitions such as birth, school entry, launch, bereavement and declining function.

Use it to judge whether a family's stress maps to a normal on-time transition or signals deeper dysfunction: off-time or pile-up transitions commonly present as recurrent symptoms, conflict or non-adherence in family medicine.

Current family life-cycle stage

Transition stress

• Is the family on time or off time for this transition?
• Transitions (birth, launch, retirement, bereavement) are common sources of stress or dysfunction.
• Assess whether the current stress maps to a normal transition vs a deeper family problem.