The child as a member of the family system

In the past, approaches to the analysis of early socialization have emphasized the importance of the mother-child dyad. As researchers have broadened their interests to include the father's role in early socialization the need to conceptualize the infant as a member of a family has emerged. The usefulness of general systems theory for concept totalizing the young child as a member of a family, a living system at the level of the group, is explored. Current research findings are related to a system framework and suggestions for conceptualizing the steady state processes of the family are proposed.