Rituals, Routines, and Their Influence on Health in Families

[Page 909]Family households are places where children learn about health, develop health attitudes, and establish health behaviors that are reconstructed over time. The ecologically rooted household system is where family members regularly interact with one another and the larger world through information, events, and actions. Rituals and routines have potential to strengthen or threaten individual and family health outcomes.

Family is defined as a collection of individuals with a general commitment to the well-being of one another and who label themselves as family. During the course of one's lifetime, one might experience multiple configurations of living that are considered family or “like family.”

Rituals and routines are linked to individuals and family contexts. It is probable that most will have several different experiences during life that might ...