Alvarenga Family Structure

Identity and Structure After Crisis The Alvarenga family’s hierarchal structure collapsed after the divorce. There was a relationship disturbance or between Rochelle and James, which was triggered by the divorce. James had the role of a parent after the divorce and he was expected to provide instrumental and emotional caregiving within the family system. Crystal recalls James waking her up for school, picking her up from the bus stop after school, and helping her with homework. James was expected to help Rochelle with filling out documents such as job applications and insurance forms, things Edward normally helped Rochelle with as she depended on him to help her with most things outside of the household. James was also the family navigation
A surrogate relationship is when hierarchy in the family structure is broken and parent treats their child like an adult (Taibbi p 58). James was also a key decision maker in the family and confidant to his mother Rochelle. According to the family systems theory, when a parent seeks excessive instrumental and emotional care from their child as Rochelle did with James, it leads to inappropriate generational boundaries and leaves the child at risk of role reversal (McElwain, Cox, Houts, & Macfie, 2005). Role reversal describes a situation in which a child undertakes parental responsibilities to an extent that it exceeds the developmental norms of a child (McElwain et al. 2005). Minuchin suggested that role reversal occurs when families are unable to maintain hierarchical generational boundaries in which parents are unable to guide, nurture their children, and children are unable to seek comfort advice from their parents (Nuttall, Valentino, & Borkowski, 2012). Events like divorce can be an antecedent for role reversal as it was for James. This upset the balance of the family system as Crystal reports that James and Rochelle had an inappropriate alliance as James had a lot of power in the family. Crystal wanted to feel like