Background: The family life cycle describes the stages of family development starting from the formation of the emerging adults to marriage, birth of children, growth into adolescents, adulthood and families in later life. The cycle includes individual developmental changes of family members, evolution of marital relationship and cyclic development of the evolving family unit. Presently, there is no study that describes the developmental tasks, structures and functions of Filipino families with young children. Objective: The objective of the study was to describe the developmental tasks, family structure and functions among selected Filipino families with young children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to March 2016 on a total of 353 Filipino parents of families with young children ages 0-12 years old. Results: The extended type of family (65%) is more predominant than the nuclear type (35%) among the participants. A high Family APGAR score of 9.2 (SD ± 1.1) translated to highly functioning families with young children. Overall, the first order changes on financing, marital adjustments and extended family relationships were highly met except that on the unexpected costs of family life. For second order changes, there was a significant association of decline in intimacy over time among couples progress thru the life stages (X2 12.75, p-value 0.013). Partners were able to adjust the marital relationship mainly through communication and acceptance. The parenting roles were done most of the time except for the roles on inspiring children for nationalism and providing wholesome educational materials. Finally, almost all families with young children (99%) were able to align relationship with extended family members. Conclusion The selected Filipino families with young children mostly have an extended family structure and are highly functional. Overall, the first and second developmental tasks were accomplished in varying degrees.
Family ; Family Relations ; Parenting