The dominant forms of family may differ and families also differ in composition. Environments do not determine human behaviour but pose limitations and constraints as well as possibilities and opportunities for families. Families cannot be considered apart from their environments. Figure 1 represents a general model of the human ecosystem. The environments are depicted as embedded in each other.
Interaction takes place within and between the family and environments.
Families have varying degrees of control and freedom with respect to environmental interactions and their access to resources. Collectively, decisions and actions of individual families have an impact on society, culture and the natural and built environments. Events and systems in the larger environment have impacts on families. For example, the presence of children may mean families do interact with environments as government policies related to children will affect family decision-making as they make decisions to creatively adapt and foster human development. Decisions families make will impact on macro environments, for example, if the family separate, government will be required to support the children through social welfare or impose a support mechanism to enable child support payments.