Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 07 - Understanding Family Roles and Potential Problematic Roles

Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 07 - Understanding Family Roles and Potential Problematic Roles

title: Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 07 - Understanding Family Roles and Potential Problematic Roles

date: 2025-10-06 19:22:53

location: Heritage University

tags:

• Heritage University
• MSW Program
• SOWK 530

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Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 07

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Week seven is asynchronous, and continues our focus on assessment, but moves the class away from individual work into families and groups. Students will read chapter ten of Hepworth et al. (2023), where family functioning is the focus. Their are forums for students to reflection on their own family rules, discuss elements of family systems framework assessment, families communication patterns, and the family connection to the environment along with other content related to the readings. Students also have a lecture video discussing family roles and the topic of dysfunctional family roles.

The agenda for the lecture video includes

• Content for week seven
• Family roles
• Dysfunctional family roles

The learning objectives for this week include:

• Describe and differentiate types of family roles
• Critically evaluate the concept of dysfunctional family roles and identify the associated roles
• Explain key concepts of the family systems framework.
• Identify and assess family rules, communication styles, and relational patterns.
• Reflect on verbal and nonverbal communication within families.

Week Seven Plan

Agenda

• Content for week seven
• Family roles
• Dysfunctional family roles

Learning Objectives

• Describe and differentiate types of family roles
• Critically evaluate the concept of dysfunctional family roles and identify the associated roles

Week Seven Content: What You Are Doing This Week

Content

• Read Hepworth et al. (2023) Chapter 10 Assessing Families Functioning in Diverse Family and Cultural Contexts
• Watch my lecture video

A-02 W-07 Asynchronous Engagement

The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. They can be related to the prompts or building on conversations shared by peers. There are five forums for this week, and you are expected to make at least five replies¹ across any of the forums. These forums include the following:

• In the Chapter 10 Content Discussion², students consider questions related to the content in the textbook.
• The Family Rule Examples forum opens a space for students to draw connections between personal experiences and family rules.
• Determining what and how we assess for content from families is considered in the forum Family Systems Framework Assessment.
• The Factors Included in Assessment explores the connection that families have to their environment and areas of macro practice.
• Assessing Communication Styles of Family Members can be challenging, in this forum students explore the case study used in the textbook, Home for the Holidays, breaking down the communication dynamics between Anna and Jackie using systems theory concepts like congruence and sequence.
• Finally, in Family Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, students view a video featuring Insoo Kim Berg and reflect on observed patterns of communication, highlighting nonverbal cues and interaction dynamics in a family therapy context.

A-03 Reading Quiz

Complete W-07 Hepworth et al. (2023) Chapter 10 due by Saturday 10/11, 8:00 AM.

Midterm Evaluation

Please complete the SOWK 530 Survey. I would love to hear feedback about how this class is going and what I can do to improve your experience.

Assignment 04a: Interviewing Skills Role-Play

Worth 190 points, or 48% of the student’s final grade, the assignment has two parts. They are key assignments for SOWK 530 used to assess students’ implementation of competency six. The role-play allows the student to engage as a social worker conducting an interview. The reflective paper provides a space to self-critique your engagement and interviewing skills and consider what you might do to engage across system levels.

Meta: Points 100 pts (20% of final grade); Deadline Monday 10/13/25 at 08:00 AM; Completion via Anthology accessible through MyHeritage Assignments; Locations Informational Handout Compress a Video to Reduce the File Size (Desktop Computer), Assignment Submission, and Description and Rubric;

Purpose: The Interviewing Skills Video Role-Play supports students in confirming the acquisition of interviewing skills through the application of person in the environment, empathetic responding, reflective responding, and other interpersonal skills.

Task: Students will work with a partner to record a 10 to 15-minute interview. The interview should be a role-play of an initial meeting between a social worker and a fictional client. Students have the freedom to develop their settings for the interview. This assignment is designed to offer the student the opportunity to demonstrate engagement, the sixth competency described by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The following is the language used in the 2022 education and policy standards (EPAS):

Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

Social workers understand that engagement is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with and on behalf of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Social workers value the importance of human relationships. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and person-in-environment and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge to facilitate engagement with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers are self-reflective and understand how bias, power, and privilege as well as their personal values and personal experiences may affect their ability to engage effectively with diverse clients and constituencies. Social workers use the principles of interprofessional collaboration to facilitate engagement with clients, constituencies, and other professionals as appropriate.

Social workers:

a. apply knowledge of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as interprofessional conceptual frameworks, to engage with clients and constituencies; and b. use empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills to engage in culturally responsive practice with clients and constituencies. (p. 11)

The following are the instructions for this assignment:

• Students will record a 10 to 15-minute role-play with a classmate. To complete this, students should use a tripod or stable surface to record the role-play with a cell phone or other recording device.
• Each student’s role-play will have three parts (1) introduce the role-play setting, (2) complete the client interview using listening and attending skills discussed and practiced in class, and (3) debrief the role-play with your partner.
• The intention is to demonstrate your ability to use attentive listening, open-ended questions, empathetic responding, and other skills. The focus is not on solving the person’s problem or difficulties.
• Students can do each of the three parts with the camera rolling. During the debrief with your partner, discuss (a) the things that you said/did that helped the other person feel comfortable and open up, (b) the things that you could have improved, and (c) any suggestions or feedback from your partner.
• After completing the first interview, switch roles and do another 10 to 15-minute role play following the same format.
• Each student should upload their final video as the interviewer to the Anthology Portfolio for the instructor’s assessment.
• Your video may be too large to upload to Anthology Portfolio and may need to be compressed. Appendix D provides step-by-step directions with screenshots for how to reduce the file size of your video.

Success: Each student will submit a video of themselves that demonstrates their use of interviewing skills. Grades will be based on the Interview Skill Video Role-Play and Competency 6 Practice Behavior Rubric, which evaluates students based on the CSWE competency six.

Family Roles

“Roles are generally understood patterns of behavior that are accepted by family members as part of their individual identities. Usually, roles can be identified by their labels, which denote both formal roles that are socially sanctioned (e.g., grandparent, mother, father, brother, sister) and idiosyncratic roles that evolve over time within a specific family context (e.g., comedian, scapegoat, caregiver).” (p. 200)

• Enacted: In an enacted role, the family member engages in the actual behavior relative to her status or position (for example, mother).
• Prescribed: members are influenced by the expectations that others hold concerning a social position.
• Perceived: A perceived role involves the expectations of self relative to one’s social position.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (1 of 9) Critical Consideration

I’m going to share with you what are sometimes referred to as the dysfunctional family roles. I think it is helpful to discuss as Vernig (2011) described:

So common is this model of family dynamics that it has entered into the folk wisdom of the field of substance use counseling and self-help support groups for individuals coping with the long-term effects of growing up with an alcohol-dependent parent.

His paper is debunks some of the validity of this as a singular model to follow, although it validates other aspects. It lets us know that we should reconize that roles change and don’t necessarly stay the same. We should be cautious about going into family assessment assuming this is what is happening and their is overlap between these and many other roles that could be described…

But I want to provide an example that you can take with a metaphorical grain of salt and help consider some of the potential roles people follow in. Consider these roles as coping strategies, not pathologies and that they are fluid and can shift.

I’d also encourage you to consider how culture, race, gender, class, and disability intersect with these roles.

I’m also drawing my defintions from this article.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (2 of 9) Overview

There can be several roles that family members might fall under. Sometimes, especially in literature regarding substance abuse, there are roles described as co-dependent or dysfunctional considered common. We are going to spend some time examining those.

I like to share this using the example of the Simpsons, as they fit in it very neatly. If you have ever seen the breakfast club movie, the main characters in that also fit neatly into these archetypes.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (3 of 9) The Addict: The Victim

The addict (or alcoholic) is at the center of the family’s dysfunction. The rest of the family revolves around their behavior—adjusting, enabling, avoiding, or reacting in roles shaped by the addiction.

• Their substance use creates instability, chaos, and emotional upheaval in the home.
• Family members unconsciously organize themselves into roles (Hero, Scapegoat, Lost Child, Mascot, Caretaker) in an effort to manage or respond to the addict’s behavior.
• Often sees themselves as the victim—blaming circumstances, stress, or others for their substance use.
• May manipulate family members to maintain their addiction (e.g., guilt-tripping, denial, anger, or charm).
• The addict’s behavior is usually the unspoken focus of family life—even if not openly discussed.
• Family energy is spent cleaning up after crises, covering for them, or trying to control their use.
• The addict often resists treatment and change because the family system has adapted to accommodate them.
• Recovery requires the whole family to shift—when others change their roles, the addict may be more likely to confront the consequences of their behavior.

While the addict’s behavior is the source of the dysfunction, the family system sustains it through unspoken rules and coping roles. Change is most powerful when each member adjusts their own behavior, rather than trying to “fix” the addict.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (4 of 9) The Hero

This family member (often the oldest child) devotes their time and attention to making the family look “normal” and without problems.

• Often takes on adult responsibilities early in life to support the family.
• Highly accomplished in areas valued by the family (e.g., school, career).
• Provides the family with someone to brag about—helping maintain an external image of success and stability.
• May leave the home early but remains available to “rescue” the family when needed.
• Internally:
  • Driven to succeed, but not always for their own reasons—often based on external expectations.
  • Constantly scrutinizing themselves, struggling with feelings of inadequacy.
• Neglects personal needs and relationships in pursuit of success.
• Often feels like the entire family depends on them.
• May become a workaholic as an adult or develop stress-related illness.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (5 of 9) The Scapegoat or “The Screw Up” or “The Problem Child”

The Scapegoat (often the second-born) always seems defiant, hostile, and angry. They are perpetually in trouble at school, work, or social situations… (this is who our clients often are)

• Commonly follows the hero and may feel overshadowed by them.
• Often reacts to the praise and success the hero receives with resentment.
• Their misbehavior draws attention away from the addicted parent or family dysfunction.
• Frequently gets in trouble—academic problems, legal issues, or risky behavior.
• May experiment with drugs, alcohol, or engage in early sexual activity.
• Attracted to peer groups that reinforce antisocial or rebellious behavior (e.g., gangs).
• Often blamed for family problems, reinforcing feelings of failure and alienation.
• Internally:
  • Feels out of control.
  • Struggles with anger, which is often expressed outwardly.
• These patterns may lead to problems in adulthood: legal trouble, substance use, or poor academic/work performance.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (6 of 9) The Mascot

This family member is often the youngest child in the family. They are the court jester, trying to get everyone to laugh. They do this unconsciously to improve the atmosphere in the dysfunctional household, as well as turn the focus away from the addict or alcoholic.

• Seen as cute, funny, or the “life of the party”—a welcome distraction from family problems.
• Uses humor and charm to reduce tension and lift the family’s mood.
• Often protected by the family, who withhold serious information from them.
• Internally:
  • More aware of the family’s issues than others assume.
  • Struggles to understand these problems and lacks tools to cope.
• Experiences fear in response to family conflict and uses humor to manage anxiety.
• This coping strategy becomes reinforced over time.
• As an adult:
  • May avoid confrontation and serious topics.
  • Struggles in relationships.
  • May turn to drugs or alcohol to manage anxiety or maintain energy.
  • Has difficulty with focus, may be constantly busy or hyperactive.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (7 of 9) The Lost Child or “Space Cadet”

The lost child basically disappears. They become loners or are very shy. They feel like strangers or outsiders—not only in social situations, but also within their own families.

• Withdraws from the family to avoid adding to the chaos or conflict.
• Often ignored or overlooked by other family members.
• Develops a rich inner world through reading, fantasy, or imagination.
• Learns not to seek attention or disrupt the family system.
• Avoids expressing needs, even when essential.
• Rarely receives praise or recognition like the hero does.
• Internally:
  • Feels lonely, sad, and disconnected.
  • May struggle to form friendships or intimate relationships.
• As an adult:
  • Tends to keep distance from family.
  • May remain single or experience difficulty with closeness in relationships.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (8 of 9) The Caretaker / Enabler

Also known as the enabler, this family member—often a spouse—takes on the addict’s responsibilities and shields them from consequences.

• Usually the spouse of the alcohol-dependent person.
• Attempts to protect the addicted partner from consequences of their behavior (e.g., making excuses, covering up).
• Takes on excessive responsibilities to preserve the family image.
• May appear outwardly devoted to stopping the addiction while unknowingly reinforcing it.
• Internally:
  • Feels helpless and inadequate.
  • Lacks time for personal needs or interests.
• Focused on maintaining a façade of normalcy and ensuring others in the family stay in their roles.
• Behavior is often rooted in loyalty and modeled by previous generations.
• Life becomes centered around the addicted person.
• As an adult:
  • May struggle with personal identity and needs.
  • Operates primarily in reaction to others’ crises.
  • Reinforces the dysfunction by maintaining the system.

Dysfunctional Family Roles (9 of 9) Titles

• The Addict: The Victim
• The Hero
• The Scapegoat or “The Screw Up” or “The Problem Child”
• The Mascot
• The Lost Child or “Space Cadet”
• The Caretaker / Enabler