Family Lifecycle

A couple takes the vows, and establishes their home, but does not have children yet.

• Parenting Family

• Beginning Family

• Family with teenagers

• Empty Nest

From the time the oldest child leaves the family home until the youngest child leaves

• Empty Nest

• Retirement/Aging

• Family with Teenagers

• Launching

Adjusting to retirement, coping with the death of a marriage partner and life being alone

• Family with teenagers

• Launching

• Retirement/Aging

• Parenting Family

From the time the oldest child leaves the family home until the youngest child leaves

• Empty Nest

• Launching

• Family with schoolchildren

• Family with preschoolers

A couple and their dependent children, mother father and children.

• Nuclear Family

• Step Family

• Extended Family

• Adpotive family

Families with children under age 18 headed by a parent who is widowed or divorced and not remarried

• Nuclear Family

• Adoptive Family

• Extended Family

• Single Parent Family

New living circumstances, accepting new ways and adjusting to supporting children outside of the home, from the time children are gone until retirement.

• Parenting Family

• School Children Family

• Empty Nest

• Retirement Family

A family consisting of a couple and their children from this and all previous relationships.

• Single Parent Family

• Adoptive Family

• Extended Family

• Blended Family

A process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents through the courts. Could be when a child(ren) become legally part of a family

• Extended Family

• Adoptive Family

• Blended Family

• Cohabitating Family

A family that extends beyond the nuclear family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives, who all live nearby or in one household.

• Extended family

• Adopted Family

• Cohabitating Family

• Single Parent Family