Family Health History

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Roderick Campbell Jr.

Professor Scherr

Precision Medicine

27 January 2019

Family Health History

When I first begin to ruminate on how I would proceed in asking my family members

about their health history, I evaluated each of our relationships. I considered things such as “have

I spoken with them in the last few days, or the last few months, or even years?” The answer to

this question induced the route I would take. It was interesting to learn new things about my

family members and I would not have known some of the information that I now know, if it were

not for this assignment. As I reflect on my experiences collecting this data from my family, I

will begin where I started the collection: my mother.

My mother is a person that I feel like I can go to no matter what the situation is. She has

always provided this level of comfort that no one else can replicate. So, she was the first person I

explained the assignment to and she was eager to help. As she gave me her information, she told

me something that was fairly new about her health but that it was common, especially for black

women. I would have just assumed everything was 100% but this information made me wonder

about how health communication works inside the institution of family. A lot of people, even

family members might be embarrassed or unwilling to share personal data with you if they feel

like the information is going to be released somewhere publicly. I understand this sentiment, so I

developed a way to explain to my family members that I am just collecting data on the

experiences of collecting the data and not so much on the health history itself. My mother could
have gone on and on about the other family members health history but I told her that I wanted to

see how they reacted. She had an abundance of family health information.

Collecting information from my brothers and sisters was the easiest task because we have

a close-knit relationship. We are all relatively close in age so they understood the basis behind

the information I was collecting. One of my sisters was even happy I called because she thought

it was important that we keep a record of our family’s health history and that collecting

information was a great starting point to do so. The aspect of familiarity made the process much

more comfortable and even quicker. The hardest part of the data collecting was trying to get into

contact with the family members I do not speak with occasionally.Another reason why it was

difficult is because I have what is described in the Bylund et al reading as a “blended family”. A

blended family is, “an adoptive, or stepfamily, traditionally consists of remarried parents and

children whom are not all biologically related and is usually formed through remarriage”

(Bylund et al.,2010). I went to my mother to get their numbers because I figured she knew

everyone's number. I noticed that I had a pattern of contacting the women first in my family

because they are more open to things I am doing with my schoolwork. I believe going to the

women in my family first represents a cultural norm that we have in our family. “Each family

system reflects the members’ cultural norms” (Galvin and al.,2010). The norm is that the women

are typically viewed as more approachable, and knowing this information motivated me to

contact the women first in hopes of a positive response. One male family member asked me a ton

of questions about the assignment, and eventually chose not to disclose any information. This

was a bad experience because I figured that would be the typical response from all of my male

family members that I contacted.


Another aspect I had to address was whether or not it is an acceptable thing to converse

about within my family. “Constitutive rules established what serves as acceptable or

unacceptable communication… Regulative rules specify behavior – how, when, where and with

whom to talk(Bylund et al., 2010). I considered the topic of our family health history as

something that would be accepted because of the history we have of openly communicating

about important matters. There was not a fear of me stepping out of bounds because we could be

described as a very pluralistic family. As discussed in class lecture, “A pluralistic family is open,

uncontrolled discussions--open to and involve all family members...control is not

needed...arguments based on merit not which family members support them...are high in

conversation orientation and low in conformity conversation” (Scherr, 01/28/2019). I am the

second to youngest in my family but I was not shackled by the confinements of hierarchy. If I

know about a certain topic, then I have the authority to speak and ask questions on the topic. I

love this about my family and I noticed this pattern arrived often when collecting information for

this assignment. My older siblings, uncles, aunts, and grandparents did not dismiss because I was

young, but rather accepted the fact that I was in college and knew a thing or two about the

information I was going to be asking about.

The regulative rules were much more difficult because I knew that the general question

about our family’s health history was an appropriate thing to discuss, I just did not whom to

speak to about it after my immediate family because we have such a blended family. The

drawback I noticed derived from me proposing the question to my uncle about my paternal,

biological grandfather. Since my biological grandfather remarried, I do not communicate with

him much and I thought it would be inappropriate to ask him about his health history. My uncle

is my barber so I have a rather comfortable relationship with him because he comes to my


football games, texts me, and is a consistent person in my life whom I feel like I can go to for

advice. This is an example of how “communication is a process...not a one time

thing...influenced by past behavior, relationships...and will impact subsequent interactions”

(Scherr 01/07/2019). My decision to choose the family members to speak with about our

family’s health history all ties in with our past communication experiences and prompted me to

be comfortable with asking them about certain information in the future.

I have learned valuable information while collecting the data for my family’s health

history. I discovered new boundaries I could cross, and boundaries I could not cross. The

information I have on my family’s health history was the result of a collaborative effort from

different members of my family, and gave me hope that we can continue the sharing of this

important health information. It is also evident that my mother is the gatekeeper of the

information but I wonder if the next generation of my family will keep the gatekeeper position as

a woman. Maybe I will become the new gatekeeper? We will see how the complex webs and the

power system in which I call my wonderful family, decides to carry on the traditions of what we

have established now.

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