Семьи это сложные системы, и им приходится иметь дело со многими различными прогрессиями одновременно. То есть существуют биологические, психологические, социальные и культурные изменения

Stage three: families with preschoolers. This stage begins approximately at the time when the eldest child reaches age three and continues until the child starts school. Often, the demands of dependent children are high, financial resources are low, and parents are heavily involved in early career development. The combination of these factors can be stressful.

Both mothers and fathers contribute to the preschooler's development but in different ways. The preschooler's task during this stage is to develop initiative. Parents can foster this as they expose the child with an opportunity to interact with peers and variety of adults. Children require the security and warm attachments of both parents and the opportunity to develop a positive sibling relationship.

Stage four: families with schoolchildren. This stage begins when the first child is six or starts elementary school and ends at the beginning of adolescence. Both parents and children report this stage as quite a busy period in their lives. It lasts for approximately six years and is heavily influenced by outside activities. Parents can either support or hinder their children's success at school and with their friends.

Stage five: families with teenagers. This stage begins when the eldest child turns 13. This period has often been characterized as one of intense upheaval and transition. These are biological, emotional, and sociocultural changes occurring with great and ever increasing rapidity.

The family must move from the dependency relationship previously established with a young child to an increasingly independent relationship with the adolescent. Growing psychological independence is frequently not recognized due to continuing physical dependence. Conflict often surfaces when the teenager's independence threatens the family who count on the teenager's dependency for their well-being. Families frequently respond to an adolescent's request for increasing autonomy in two ways: 1) they abruptly define rigid rules and recreate an earlier stage of dependency or 2) they establish premature independence. This results in premature separation when the teenager is not really ready to be fully autonomous.

The teenager may thus return home defeated. The teenager's frequent questioning and conflict about values, life-styles, career plans, and so forth can thrust into an examination of their own marital and career issues. Parents sometimes feel they are besieged on both sides: teenagers are asking for more freedom and grandparents are asking for more support. All family members continue to have their relationships within the family, but increasingly the teenagers are more involved with their friends than with family members.

Stage six: families as launching centres. This stage begins with the actual departure of the first child from the home and continues until the youngest child has left home. Parents must adapt to the new roles of a parent and separated adult. This involves renegotiation of emotional and financial commitments. Each family member continues to have outside interests and establishes new roles appropriate to this stage.

Stage seven: middle-aged families. This stage begins with the departure of the last child from the home and ends with the retirement of one of the mates. It is a long stage of approximately 15 years. Many studies have indicated an increase in marital satisfaction during the postparental stage. Some authors, however, have viewed this phase as a lonely, sad time, especially for the woman. The family cycle tends to repeat itself and the couple find themselves in new roles of mother-in-law, father-in-law, and grandparent. Many families regard the disability or death of an elderly parent as a natural occurrence. The parents adjust family ties and expectations to include their child's spouse.

Stage eight: aging families. This stage begins with retirement and lasts until the death of both spouses. Marital relationships continue to be important. Marital satisfaction contributes to both the morale and ongoing activity of both older mates. This is a time for a life review and taking care of unfinished businesses with family as well with business and social contacts. Most elderly people do not mind talking about death. In recent years, there have been several changes impacting on the traditions in family developmental life cycles. Separation, divorce, the rise of single-parent families and the frequency of remarriage by divorced persons have all had an impact. Approximately 40 percent of current marriages end in divorce. Young adults are entering first marriages later and getting divorced sooner. Those who divorce, remarry, and/or re-divorce, are moving through these transitions in shorter span of years than before. For those who divorce, one-half of those who remarry do so within three years. Two-thirds of all women who divorce do so before age thirty.

Because divorce may occur at any stage of the family life cycle, it has different impact upon family functioning depending upon its timing. The marital breakdown may be sudden or it may be long and drawn out. In either case emotional work is required to restabilize the family and proceed on a developmental course.