Familiogram: what it is, parts and characteristics

In both family medicine and systemic family psychotherapy and other health fields it is It is necessary to know what kind of relationships and family dynamics the patient or patients who come to consultation.

These relationships must be put in context and understood by knowing who the members of the community are. family of the patient or individual under study and, therefore, it is very important to know what their tree is family.

Familiograms are tools widely used by professionals who serve families, an instrument that allows you to see what families are like with just a quick glance at it. Let's find out more about what they are and with what symbols they are made.

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What is a familiogram?

The familiogram, also known as a genogram, is an instrument widely used in family medicine, family therapy and any field of intervention in which the family environment of a patient or individual has to be studied. This tool is ideal for the family doctor, since just by looking at it allows you to obtain information about all members and relationships in your family environment patient.

Familiograms can be defined as graphic representations of the development of a family over time, taking into account a minimum of three generations. These graphs are family trees that provide information not only about the family members who visit the consultation or who are the object of study, but also They provide data on those family members who cannot attend a medical consultation but who are important in the dynamics of the family nucleus to intervene.

Among the data that are recorded in this type of tree are the more general demographic aspects such as age, sex, family type and pathological antecedents, among others. What's more, They also serve to know the life cycle through which the family is passing, life events experienced, family dynamics and affective relationships, data that are generally represented on the same sheet so that, with a simple review, the characteristics of the family can be understood.

How to make a familiogram

Making a familiogram is really easy and we don't have to dedicate ourselves to family medicine or systemic family psychotherapy to be able to do one. However, it should be noted that its use is of special interest in the health field, since it allows detecting possible hidden emotional problems or significant psychosocial conditions, since if the dynamics between various individuals are put on paper, it is possible to find dysfunctional relational patterns.

The main data collected are:

• Members of the family
• Biological and legal couple relationships
• Subsystems within the family
• Cohabiting unit
• Demographic information
• Diseases and problems
• Stressful life events
• Family resources
• Family relationships

We can distinguish two components within the familiograms. On the one hand we have the most structural part, which refers to the members that make up the family, their names, ages, gender and type of relationship (partner, children ...). On the other hand, we have the functional part in which the type of interpersonal dynamics, style of interaction between family members and possible problems that they may have are highlighted.

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Familiogram symbols

To be able to make a familiogram correctly it is necessary to know the appropriate symbols to use.

1. Sex, gender and main subject

We started the familiogram by representing the members of the family. The members that are male are represented by squares, while the females are represented in the form of a circle.

The person on whom we are working, our patient or main study subject, is identified with a double line or, failing that, with an arrow that stands out from the others.

To indicate that a member of the tree has died, an X is drawn inside its symbol and, if desired, you can indicate the date of birth and death on the left and right of the upper part of the figure, respectively. The current age of the living persons and the age at which the dead members died is indicated by placing it within the corresponding symbol.

There is the option to indicate whether a member is gay, bisexual, or transgender. This should be indicated only if it is considered important to take it into account during the intervention. If this is not the case, this information may be unnecessary.

Gay men and women are indicated by placing an inverted triangle inside them, while bisexual people are indicated by drawing the same triangle but using the line discontinuous.

Transgender people are indicated by putting their gender in large and inside the gender that they were assigned at birth. If it is a transgender woman (male to female), a circle with a square is drawn on her inside, and if it is a transgender man, a square is drawn with a circle inside (from woman to man).

2. Couple relationships

Relationships are represented using two vertical lines that come out of the members of the couple and that are connect horizontally, placing the man on the left side and the women on the right side in the case of couples heterosexuals.

Marriages are represented by a solid line, separated couples are represented by putting a diagonal line on the line continuous, divorces are indicated with a double diagonal line and premarital relationships are represented with a line discontinuous.

You can indicate the year in which they were married by putting the letter M followed by the date of the union. When there is little chance that they will be mistaken for a century, the year of marriage is indicated using only the last two digits of the year. In the event of separation or divorce, you can also choose to indicate the date of those events.

To represent multiple marriages, the following type of scheme should be used, representing the marriages in order from left to right when only one of the spouses returns to marry. In the event that both are remarried, the most recent union will be placed in the center.

3. Children

In case there are children, these will be represented by joining them with a vertical line to the line that indicates the couple's relationship. Children are always ranked from oldest to youngest, from left to right.

In the event that there are twins, these will be represented by putting the line that comes out of the couple's relationship diagonally, having the same origin. In case one of the children is adopted, the vertical line will be drawn dashed.

It can be spun finer and indicate whether the twins are biviteline or univiteline.

Current pregnancies and abortions, both spontaneous and induced, are also represented in the familiogram. In the case of pregnancies a triangle is used, in the case of unwanted abortions a darkened circle is drawn and in the case of planned abortions it is indicated by an X.

In the event that there has been a death at birth, it is indicated with a square or circle depending on the sex of the baby and with an X inside.

4. Coexistence

To indicate that several people live in the same household, these members of the family or household will be grouped by drawing a dotted line around all of them. The reason dashed lines are used to indicate households is that they are open systems.

5. Type of interpersonal relationship

The most subjective part of the familiogram is its functional part, since the relationships in the family are the most inferential aspect of this type of graphs, in addition to the fact that the members of the family themselves can offer different visions and contradict each other with the others. The functional familiogram involves trying to delineate the relationships between family members, and this is done from information obtained from family member reports and observation direct.

To represent a relationship that is close, two horizontal lines will be used and, if it is very close, three. In case it is very narrow but, at the same time, conflictive, those same three lines and a fourth in the form of a zigzag are used to represent the ups and downs of the relationship. If the relationship is only conflicting, only the zigzag line is used.

If the relationship is distant, a dashed line will be used, but with long dashes so that it is not confused with cohabitating relationships. In case the relationship has been broken, in case it is not a couple relationship, it will be indicated by breaking the line by putting two vertical lines separated with a little space.

Close, close, close conflict, broken relationship, conflict relationship and distant relationship

Finally, there are some symbols to indicate the type of relationship that the person has with agents outside her nucleus of family coexistence. We can indicate them using a pentagon, which indicates that there is a relationship with an institution, or a triangle, indicating a relationship with a professional.

Reference points in the elaboration of the familiogram:

Now that we know what symbols we should use to make a family tree and how to represent the relationships between its members, we should consider the following reference points.

• At least three generations and indicate each generation with a Roman numeral on the left side.
• The family of paternal origin is placed in the upper left margin, and the maternal one in the upper right.
• The family of the main study subject or subjects is placed in the center.
• The proper names of the family members are placed below their symbol.
• Professions, medical history and other relevant aspects of interest can be indicated on the left side of each symbol of family members.
• The family name is placed in the top center of the familiogram.
• What each symbol means will be specified if necessary.
• The date of preparation of the familiogram will be indicated in the lower right margin.
• The full name of the person who has made the family tree will be recorded.