Family Health and Social Factors Affecting It

Family health is an important issue that has attracted the attention of sociologists and psychologist. The current research was conducted with the aim of analyzing family health and some social factors affecting it. Based on current theoretical foundations, a healthy family was conceptualized into six components, including intimacy and empathy, family member's independence, satisfaction, meeting the demands of family members, family cohesion, and observance of ethical and Islamic values in the family. The status of family health was measured through the operational definition of these components. Then, the family health was explained with the help of some relevant variables including health status of families of orientation, similarity of economic and cultural capitals of families of orientation, kinship relations, and social environment of family. The method used in this research was survey method, and its population consisted of about 1,600,000 Tehrani families with at least 1 child and 5 years of joint life. The sample size was estimated as 367 families, which were selected from the city blocks located in 22 districts of Tehran using random sampling, and the data were collected through questionnaires. The results of data analysis showed that the strongest link is between family health and health status of families of orientation. The second significant link is between family health and kinship relations. Similarity of economic and cultural capitals of families of orientation and social environment of family showed no significant relationship with family health.