The Reed Family Cultural Assessment
Introduction
The Reed family is of one of the largest ethnic groups which is African American descent. The Reed family consist of Daryl’Neisha, is twenty-one, Amanda who is a thirty-eight and Dori’Asia, who is eighteen, and the family dog, that they’ve had for 7 years, shih-tzu named Dutchess.
Communication
Everyone in the Reed family only speaks English at home. Spanish was taken in high school, but no one speaks or writes it fluently. Text messaging and Facetime are two of the biggest ways the Reed family communicate with each other. Some messages get misconstrued, and sometimes that leads to disagreements. The Reed family has difficulty communicating due to the small amount of time they get to spend with each other. Daryl’Neisha and Dori’Asia are full time college students and have part-time jobs. Amanda, the head of the household, has a full time job and spends the evenings taking care of her grandfather who has Alzheimer’s.
Nonverbal Communication
The Reed family uses nonverbal communications frequently. Facial expressions are used within the Reed family to show happiness, disapproval, sadness, or anything in between. The Reed family does not use silence as a way of communication. They think that silence is awkward, because it is and gives them a sense of anxiety. Vocal Tone When the Reed family communicates, the tone of voice is different depending on the conversation. They will use a tone of voice that assertive when giving demands to other people. They also speak in a tone that is nice and encouraging when having a heart to heart conversation with someone.
Space
The Reed family does not to like to have their personal space invaded by people that they don’t know, or they aren’t familiar with. They are not fans of going to crowded places such as concerts or and they all in agreeance that they would never go to Time Square on New Year’s Eve. The Reed family gets irritated and nervous when surrounded a crowd of people. They only like to be in an intimate distance with someone if the person is their significant other. Personal distance is used with their family and close friends. They do not like to engage in conversation with strangers and hate being caught in traffic.
Social Organization
Culture
The Reed family always has family gatherings for the holidays. On New Year’s Eve, they bring in the new year by going to church and saying a prayer at midnight. Easter is celebrated by everyone putting on their “Sunday’s Best” and going to church. An Easter egg hunt is held for the children and dinner is served afterwards. Thanksgiving is the one holiday that the Reed family looks forward to the most. Thanksgiving is a feast of all the foods that they’ve been waiting a year to eat. Before the food is eaten, there is a prayer with everyone holding hands, and they go around and say what they are thankful for. Then they serve the food, eat and then it’s time to gather in the living room for football.
While serving the food, the wishbone in the turkey is located. And breaking the wishbone is tradition that doesn’t go undone. To determine which two people get to break the wishbone, they pull names out a hat. The person who has the biggest part of the wishbone gets to make a wish. Christmas is celebrated in the Reed family and is the most exciting. The Reed family does Black Friday shopping every year. And after a long morning of shopping, they come back to rest and then they put up their Christmas decorations. The entire extended family gathers on Christmas Eve and then everyone celebrates with their nuclear family on Christmas morning.
Ethnicity
The Reed family is African American. African Americans are known for having large family gathering and cooking a lot of food. According to McCoy, African Americans roast and eat a whole pig during their family gatherings. The entire pig is considered edible except for the squeal. The Reed family does not engage in roasting of a pig during family gatherings Music is an important to the Reed family. They listen to music everyday whether its gospel, hip-hop, R&B or jazz. Religion and its Role The Reed’s are Baptist and attend the Universal Church of Christ every Sunday if they are not scheduled to work. Everyone has been baptized as a child and believe in baptizing their children. Communion is done every 1st Sunday of the month. Bible study is on Wednesday’s but is not attended due to their busy schedules Family Roles The Reed family is nontraditional. (It consists of two sisters and one of the sisters daughter.
According to Lovas, fewer American households are consists of a traditional family, that has a husband, wife, and their children. Nontraditional families can be related by blood, marriage, adoption, or association. There are three women in this family, but no men, so the family roles are different from traditional homes. These women take out the trash, cut the grass, rake leaves and shovel the driveway when necessary. In the Reed family, Amanda, is a graduate of Sinclair Community College and works fulltime as a Physical Therapist Assistant. She is the breadwinner and pays majority of the bills. Daryl’Neisha, works part-time as a Direct Support Professional with people who have developmental disabilities. She pays a small amount of bills to help out. Dori’Asia who works part-time at St. Elizabeth Hospital in the dietary department lives rent free. All three of the women help out with buying groceries, cleaning the house, cooking and taking care of the dog.
Role of Friends
The Reed family considers friends important. The Reed family considers friends that they’ve known a long time part of the family. Friends are used for emotional support and for celebrations. Friends of the Reed family are invited to all the holiday gatherings. Time The Reed family thinks about the future as well as the present. Daryl’Neisha uses yearly planners during school to keep up with upcoming assignments or special events. She also lives in the present by taking one day at a time and trying not to stress about things events that are far away. One of her favorite sayings is “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. ”
Environmental Control
The Reed family believes that germs are the main cause of sickness. Germs are more prominent in public areas, so they try to limit their exposure to germs by only using public restrooms when necessary, never sitting on a public toilet and washing their hands often. Besides germs, the Reed’s believe that stress can also make you sick. Within the Reed family stress had led to a higher blood pressure reading, weight gain due to stress eating and chronic headaches. The Reed family talks about mental illness in their household because they think it’s important. They encourage each other to speak up if they have a problem. Mental health controls how we feel, and it affects the decisions that we make. But in African American culture, mental illness is stigmatized.
According to NAMI, African Americans has mental illness stigmatized due to the lack of information, lack of resources and faith, spirituality and community. Traditionally, African Americans rely of faith and family for support rather than going to the doctor.
Biological Variations
Physical Characteristics The Reed family comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes. On the maternal size, the women range from five feet to five feet seven inches and are slim and the men are all taller than five feet and eight inches and are slim as well. On the paternal size, the women are shorter and are overweight. The men are five feet six inches to five feet eleven inches and they tend to be overweight as well. The paternal side has darker skin, but everyone has dark brown or black hair. In the Reed family, everyone has dark brown eyes.
Genetic Predispositions to Disease
On the maternal side of the family there are some women that has had breast cancer. These are also some men on the paternal side of the family that have high cholesterol. On the paternal side of the family there are some people who have diabetes, and hypertension. The men on the paternal side of the family have uncontrolled diabetes, which have led to frequent hospital admissions and limb amputations.
According to Mandal, African Americans are at risk for cardiovascular disease, sickle cell anemia, pancreatic cancer, diabetes and vitamin D deficiency. When African Americans have diabetes, it is usually paired with a comorbidities such as hypertension or high cholesterol.
Conclusion
The Reed family isn’t the same as a traditional African American family. There are some similarities and some differences. Not every family is the same, your family can be whoever you want it to be. Families provide encouragement, support and love.
