Porter Family Case Study

Joey was given a more stern parenting style while he was staying with the Porters. This helped Joey see that there are times when you cannot say no and get away with it. It helped teach Joey respect for adults. The Porters could have helped Joey by easing him into their different style of parenting.
The Campbell’s usually did not disagree on how to parent Joey. He had a time schedule and was pretty flexible with Joey. They were extremely nurturing for Joey in the household. The family needs to realize that raising Joey like this may cause problems for him in the future because he does not experience adversity. If everything if given to Joey when he wants it, he will grow up believing that he is entitled.

2. How does each family cope with stress? Describe how each member copes with stress.

Rip Porter usually coped with his stresses by becoming violent. Whenever Rip was out of control he would use violence to gain back control. Wendy would usually deal with stress by shutting down and letting whatever needs to happen, happen. When Rip would not become violent, they were able to talk about stress and work it out.
The Campbell’s stress was dealt with in a different fashion.

When an issue occurs that they do not have control over they run away from the situation instead of facing it head on. Jack would try to pay people off, so that they stressful situation would go away, while Molly would end up in tears.
3. How do the family’s coping mechanisms impact overall family functioning for each family?
In general, the Porter family is not able to cope well with stressors or substandard situations. Rip and Wendy need to work out the issue of domestic violence and alcoholism before they would be able to function as a family. The family is not able to function in a healthy way because of the issues that they face. Wendy needs to face the violence that she experiences because she wants to stay in love with Rip. Wendy needs to get herself out of the negative situation.
The Campbell family does not have any beneficial coping mechanisms. Finding coping mechanisms would be beneficial for the family. The family needs to be able to support each other during hardships. If they are unable to find ways to cope the entire family structure could end up in turmoil which will become a cycle of issues for the

future.

There are two possible outcomes for this situation. Describe what these two outcomes are & how each outcome could potentially impact each family’s homeostasis.
The first solution would be for Joey to have stayed with his birth mother, Wendy. This would have completely changed Joey’s world. Joey is used to having things when he wants them, and a completely different environment. Keeping Joey would have also added stress to Wendy, since she would need to be taking care of and providing for Joey alone, because Rip would be back in jail.
The second outcome that could have happened would have been for the Campbell’s to continue with custody of Joey, but give visitation rights to Wendy. This is not what happened in the movie, but I believe that it would be important for Wendy to be in Joey’s life. With all of the back and forth and confusion for Joey, there should be something consistent that would come out of this ordeal. If Wendy was given the opportunity to visitation rights there could have been an easier transition for Joey throughout the years.