CBT techniques for cognitive distortions: A clinician's guide
Family systems theory was developed by Dr. Murray Bowen in the 1950s to explain relational dynamics within family structures. The key concept of family systems, according to Bowen’s theory, is that members of a family are emotionally interconnected to one another.
This means that to understand a person, you can better understand them in the context of their relational patterns. For example, when working with a client on depressive symptoms, you can explore how the depression functions within the family and how these symptoms are expressions of something larger happening in the family dynamic. So, instead of seeing a symptom or mental health condition in isolation, you see it in a wider, expansive, and systemic view.
Another major developer of family systems theory was Salvador Minuchin. While Bowen’s work focused on differentiation (staying emotionally connected while still maintaining a sense of self) and triangles (a relationship system composed of three individuals), Minuchin was more concerned with family boundaries, structure, and family rules.
He also built on Bowen’s concept of triangulation in family systems theory—a process where two conflicting members draw in a third person to reduce tension—and believed that dysfunctional families tend to be rigid and resistant to change over time and develop inappropriate coalitions among subsystems that disrupt healthy hierarchies and structures, according to a 2024 overview.
In modern day therapy, family systems work is practiced as a way to situate a person’s distress in the context of their family, environment, and home. Systemic work that prioritizes family relationships is particularly important when dysfunctional family patterns are present and impact a person’s functioning (and vice versa). Treating the whole person means looking beyond the individual to the family system and patterns around them. Recognizing family roles in dysfunctional families is often the first step in this systemic work.
As a result, a deeper understanding of family roles in dysfunctional families is critical so that appropriate family therapy interventions are delivered for improved communication, connection, and overall functioning.
What are family roles in dysfunctional families?
Families have a tendency toward homeostasis. That is, family systems (like any other type of system) are wired to stay steady and operate as usual. To make that happen, family members tend to take on roles. However, these roles are more than just a way of functioning inside a family.
Family roles in dysfunctional families are survival strategies used for a person to cope with being inside a family that is dysfunctional. Roles include the expectation of “who does what and who behaves how,” which can both be implicit or explicit within the family. Healthy and dysfunctional family systems can both have roles. However, the primary difference is that roles in healthy family systems tend to be more flexible and less maladaptive.
A 2025 study describes “risky” family climates as marked by chronic conflict, aggression, and emotional coldness, which can erode children’s emotion regulation and social adjustment. Clinicians also describe dysfunctional families as involving poor boundaries, unmet emotional needs, abuse, addictions, and relational chaos. A 2025 clinical review links role conflict (strain when one person is stretched across competing roles) between parents and adolescents to adolescent aggression. An essential aspect of family therapy is supporting the family system to identify the roles that family members have taken on, understanding their function, and working toward a more integrated, clear, and appropriate family dynamic.
Clinicians often describe a set of recurring roles in dysfunctional families, a framework that grew out of work with families affected by addiction. These roles are descriptive patterns rather than diagnostic categories, and a 2011 review found the evidence for them is mixed. The roles discussed most often are the enabler, the scapegoat, and the golden child. Scapegoat and golden child roles in family systems are two ends of the spectrum: the scapegoat is the family member blamed for systemic problems, while the golden child is seen as the child that can do no wrong.
Additional family roles in dysfunctional families include the lost child, the mascot, and the hero. A 2021 study using two correlational surveys found that family dysfunction was linked to the scapegoat and lost child roles, and that adults who recalled those roles reported more depressive symptoms.
What is the enabler role in dysfunctional families?
The enabler role in a dysfunctional family is one of the more common roles that emerge in family systems. This is particularly true for families where there are issues of addiction or complex, intergenerational trauma. In this context, the enabler acts as a protector or defender of the primary source of dysfunction in the family.
This role requires the person to take on a great deal of responsibility and also have porous boundaries with other family members. The enabler role in a dysfunctional family might look like someone that minimizes or hides the actions of another person in the family. Often, the enabler role in a dysfunctional family develops unconsciously as a misguided attempt to maintain peace.
For example, if there is a family member struggling with their alcohol use, the enabler role in the dysfunctional family would minimize their actions, deny that there is a problem, or make an excuse for that family member. As a result, other family members take on other roles in the family system as a response to the enabler helping the family dysfunction continue.
What is the golden child role in a dysfunctional family?
The golden child role in a dysfunctional family is a family role usually attributed and taken on by a child. This role is often described in families where enmeshment is present. That is, boundaries are merged and blurred.
The golden child is frequently praised for their actions and seen as a child that makes no mistakes. As a result, the person in the role is seen as an extension of their parent—that is, their successes are internalized as the successes of the parent.
Because of this, this dynamic and role identification is often described in families where narcissistic behaviors or patterns are present. Perfectionism and people-pleasing are just some of the long-term challenges that come for the family member in this role.
What is the scapegoat role in a dysfunctional family?
The scapegoat role in a dysfunctional family is the opposite of the golden child role. In this role, the family member (usually a child, but not always) is considered “bad” and blamed for problems that exist in the family. This family member is seen to have little value to the family and often absorbs the tension within the family.
Using a Bowenian lens, this can reflect low differentiation in the family, with anxiety focused on one person, much like what Bowen called the family projection process, in which parents focus their anxiety on a child.
The scapegoat role is common in families that are less likely to have open communication about the issues underneath the family dynamic. Scapegoat roles are linked to more depressive symptoms in adulthood, according to a 2021 study, and the person may internalize being seen as “the bad one” within the family.
What are other common family roles?
Three other roles are frequently described alongside these:
Hero: Often a high-achieving child who makes the family look functional from the outside.
Lost child: Withdraws, stays quiet, and avoids drawing attention, often coping through emotional distance.
Mascot: Uses humor or distraction to ease tension in the family.
What are common characteristics of a dysfunctional family?
Clinicians and researchers often assess family functioning across areas such as communication, roles, problem solving, and emotional involvement.
Dysfunctional families vary, but patterns commonly described in clinical practice include:
Poor or blurred boundaries
Chronic tension or conflict
Unmet emotional needs
Abuse or neglect
Addiction
Relational chaos
Rigid, unchanging roles and rules
Indirect communication, including triangulation
What are some family therapy interventions to address family roles in dysfunctional families?
Given the complexities of family dynamics and dysfunction, it is important to be aware of relevant tools and approaches that help work toward healthier roles for families. Healthy roles tend to be those that are age appropriate, not fixed, and supportive of healthy interactions within the family.
Structural family therapy subsystems
One example of a way to intervene with a family that maintains dysfunctional roles is to utilize structural family therapy subsystems. Within structural family therapy, a 2010 paper describes the therapist as a change agent who helps the family reorganize, with an emphasis on structure, subsystems, and boundaries.
Subsystems include any relational structure within a family, including the parental subsystem, the child subsystem, alliances between parent and child, and even the grandparents subsystem. The same paper notes that individuals are subsystems within a family and that subsystems can form by generation, sex, interest, or function.
A structural family therapist might focus on power dynamics, boundaries, and communication patterns during the course of treatment. Common structural therapy interventions to address family role dysfunction include family mapping, unbalancing (where a therapist temporarily aligns with a subsystem to reset the power balance), and enactments (encouraging families to act out conflicts live in session). The techniques are described in a 1981 text on structural family therapy. By identifying triangulation in family systems theory, therapists can also help members learn to communicate directly rather than routing their stress through a third party.
Experiential interventions for family dysfunction
Another relevant clinical approach to address family dysfunction is through the use of experiential family therapy interventions. This could include exercises where the family is tasked with learning and experimenting with their family experiences during the session.
One experiential technique is sculpting, in which one family member arranges the others in physical space to show how they experience the family’s relationships.
Whatever intervention is utilized, it is recommended that clients and families be collaborative in the process of assessing, identifying, and re-working dysfunctional family roles. A tool like the genogram is a great way to introduce families to alliances, subsystems, coalitions, and other terminologies related to family therapy.
Providing psychoeducation can be a valuable tool, whether that means providing resources or worksheets about family roles along the way. As families learn about these roles and how they emerge, they can have a strong part in changing the narrative of their family and creating healthier roles over time.
Sources
Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (n.d.). Differentiation of self.
Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (n.d.). Family projection process.
Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (n.d.). Introduction to the eight concepts.
Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (n.d.). Triangles.
Bueno Fernandez, L. A., Schoo, C., & Aslam, S. P. (2025). Family dynamics. StatPearls.
Connell, C. (2010). Multicultural perspectives and considerations within structural family therapy: The premises of structure, subsystems and boundaries. Rivier Academic Journal.
Epstein, N. B., Baldwin, L. M., & Bishop, D. S. (1983). The McMaster Family Assessment Device. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
Helm, K. M. (2024). Family systems theory. EBSCO Research Starters.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Harvard University Press.
Semmelhack, D. (2018). Sculpting in couple and family therapy. Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy.
Vernig, P. M. (2011). Family roles in homes with alcohol-dependent parents: An evidence-based review. Substance Use & Misuse.
Vignando, M., & Bizumic, B. (2023). Parental narcissism leads to anxiety and depression in children via scapegoating. The Journal of Psychology.
Zagefka, H., Jones, J., Caglar, A., Girish, R., & Matos, C. (2021). Family roles, family dysfunction, and depressive symptoms. The Family Journal.
Zhou, Q., Lin, C., & Guo, X. (2025). Family dysfunction, parenting stress, and child mental health: Associations with bullying involvement and the moderating role of neighborhood support. Frontiers in Psychology.
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