In Spite of All,We Make It: Themes of Stress and Resiliency as Told by Women in Families Living in Poverty

The purpose of this research study was to increase our understanding of how families living in poverty successfully meet life challenges. Family resiliency provided the theoretical framework for examining family coping and adaptation. This study used a purposive sample of women (N = 128) in families with children attending Head Start. All families lived below or at poverty level, most with 11th grade education or high-school/GED diploma. Content analysis methods were used for data analysis. Results of this study identify the characteristics that promote competence, including how individual, family, and environmental factors are potential stressors that also may serve to promote family resilience. The data indicate that family love and mutual support, as well as faith, help stressed families cope and maintain meaning in spite of lack of control over life circumstances resulting from economic poverty.     

The Family Outreach Model: Tools for Engaging and Working With Families in Distress

The purpose of this article is to present a family intervention model to family service providers that builds on previous research in areas of social support and family problem solving. The Family Outreach Model provides a set of strategies for engaging and working with families in five phases of family coping at different points in time in the family's life. The strategies reflect intentional choices by family service providers about both collaborative and directive styles of therapeutic alliance and highlights ways to determine which style best fits with what specific families want and need, depending on the manner of family coping that it is using. Implications for programs and public policy are presented.     

Parenting and the process of migration: possibilities within South Asian families

The migration experience creates a unique set of challenges for families, which can result in intergenerational conflict and create the conditions for abuse or neglect. Alternatively, families can cope with these challenges in creative and seemingly contradictory ways, thus strengthening family relationships. This article introduces the process of migration as a theoretical framework to use in understanding the complexity of the migration experience as well as the wide range of coping responses within families. The process was developed as a theoretical tool in an ethnographic study of first- and second-generation South Asian women in the United States; the study's findings are used to illustrate the application of the process to South Asian parenting experiences and show how the process of migration-where families adjust to a different set of structural conditions, ideologies, cultural norms, and social systems-shapes parenting and family life.     

Gambling and the family: From the stress‐coping‐support Perspective 1

Abstract

Aims: To apply the stress‐coping‐support perspective to the study of the effects of problem gambling in the family. Specifically, to examine the ways in which family members cope and the nature and sources of support they receive. To compare coping strategies of family members of gamblers with those of individuals living with other addictive behaviour in the family. Design: Cross‐sectional interview and questionnaire study of close relatives of problem gamblers. Participants: Sixteen close family members of gamblers from separate families, mainly parents and partners. Data: Semi‐structured interview; adapted version of the Coping Questionnaire (CQ). Findings: Data from the CQ and qualitative analysis of interview data suggested considerable use of ‘engaged’ (specifically controlling) ways of attempting to cope with such problems, comparable to the use of such strategies by relatives of people with alcohol or drug problems, but little use of ‘tolerant‐accepting’ and ‘withdrawal’ ways. Interview data on the support received (or not) by family members confirmed previous research showing that relatives of people with addiction problems often feel unsupported, but particularly appreciate positive emotional and practical support for themselves and their problem gambling relatives. Conclusions: The stress‐coping‐support perspective, previously applied to families with alcohol and drug problems, also offers an appropriate framework for understanding problem gambling and the family.     

Giving Victims of Bullying a Voice: A Qualitative Study of Post Bullying Reactions and Coping Strategies

Current research on how adolescents cope with bullying is primarily quantitative, examines youth in Grades 1 through 6, and neglects to specifically assess how victims of bullying cope with being bullied. The current qualitative study explored the coping strategies of 22 rural middle- and high-school youth victimized by bullying. Results indicated that youth report using an array of emotion focused coping strategies (an internal coping strategy that focuses on emotion regulation) and problem focused coping strategies (active behaviors that are aimed to decrease or eradicate the stressor). These coping strategies included help seeking, physical and verbal aggression, standing up for themselves, and prosocial bystander behavior. While the majority of coping strategies were similar between middle- and high-school participants, these groups reported utilizing verbal and physical aggression in different ways. Further, certain coping strategies, such as help seeking and lashing out with physical and verbal aggression, were utilized as both emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies. Implications are discussed.     

MARITAL QUALITY AMONG COUPLES LIVING UNDER THE THREAT OF FORCED RELOCATION: THE CASE OF FAMILIES IN THE GOLAN HEIGHTS

This study aims to explore how the long period of uncertainty about possible relocation affects the marital quality of the population in the Golan Heights and what forms of coping with this ongoing stress are used. The results, based on both quantitative and qualitative data, indicate a circular process in which the level of stress generated by the uncertainty varies with marital quality and with other personal and family resources, such as potency and an appreciation of the spouse's ability to cope with the stress. Four ways of coping with the uncertainty were observed in in-depth interviews: fighting, ignoring, postponing, and planning. The results are discussed in terms of their meaning for possible systemic interventions.     

Family Resilience Resources in Coping With Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify resources of family resilience that help families cope with child sexual abuse. Data were collected from a purposeful sample of parents representing nine poor families living in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The narratives of the participants were analyzed thematically. The results indicate that the families, despite adverse situations, utilized internal and external resilience resources. Internal resources were the parents’ relationship with their children, their own emotional functioning and attitudes, the children’s ability to cope with the abuse, boundaries in the family, insight into their children’s emotional needs, and sibling relationships. External family resources were the support of extended family members, friends, and a local community-based nonprofit organization working with child sexual abuse and schools. The empowering role of the identified resources for family resilience should be enhanced in interventions, while future studies could further explore these aspects in families confronted with child sexual abuse.     

Stress Within Families: Some Questions and Possibilities

Individual children's capacity to cope with stressors may be predicated by the stress-coping mechanisms utilised by their families There appears to be a paucity of information about families' responses to stressors. It is postulated that there are significant questions about family coping mechanisms, and that research directed towards these questions may provide information of use in programmes which aim to facilitate the development of effective coping mechanisms in children. Assumptions about the delineation of coping mechanisms, the structure of family units, the designation of stressors., and the study of human behaviour are discussed. A brief outline is provided on a research project aimed at defining and analysing family coping behaviour, and at differentiating families that cope effectively with stressors from those that do not. Some initial impression of findings are presented.     

COVID‐19 as a Transformative Opportunity for Families and Therapists: Harnessing the Possibilities That Constraints Offer Us

This article demonstrates several ways in which the constraints that the COVID‐19 pandemic has posed for families can provide transformative opportunities to strengthen family relationships, become more resilient, and resolve conflicts and longstanding difficulties. Since most families worldwide have been greatly impacted on many fronts by the pandemic, they are looking to us for hope, guidance, and solutions for coping with high levels of anxiety about living in a world where life as we knew it has been turned on its head and we are struggling to cope with uncertainty about what the future will bring. However, in spite of all the limitations and health consequences COVID‐19 has posed for our client families, the majority have been quite resourceful and creative in coming up with their own novel self‐generated coping, problem‐solving, and health‐enhancing strategies well before we see them for the first time. Finally, the article discusses how the constraints of COVID‐19 afford family therapists with many opportunities to further hone their therapeutic alliance‐building skills, gain an intimate insider’s view of their clients’ daily lives that are not accessible in our offices, and co‐design with them therapeutic experiments that can produce high‐quality solutions.     

The experiences of adolescents and young adults residing with their families in emergency shelters in Canada

Emergency homeless shelters can be stressful environments for families. They can be associated with emotional distress and feelings of restriction for parents, and with behavioural, social, and developmental challenges for children. However, little is known about the experiences of accompanied youth residing in shelter with their families, as the literature about this age group's experiences of homelessness has mainly focused on unaccompanied youth. Findings from the current study are drawn from qualitative interviews with 16 adolescents and young adults (aged 16–21) who were homeless and living with their families in family homeless shelters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Youth described family homeless shelters as stressful environments but also found that the shelters provided support to them and their families. Youth discussed the various strategies they used to cope in facing the challenges of shelter life. These findings add to our understanding of youth who are homeless and highlight the ways in which they adapt to the challenges of living in a family homeless shelter with their families. Recommendations are included for ways that shelter staff and policymakers can enact operational and systemic changes that could potentially improve the experiences of such youth and their families.     

Change for the BEST: Family Changes for Parents Coping with Youth Substance Abuse

This paper reports family changes for participants in a program for parents coping with youth substance abuse. The Behavioural Exchange Systems Training (BEST) program is a professionally‐led, parent training intervention. During 1996 and 1997, six groups of parents participated in the program. High levels of depression were observed at intake, and symptoms demonstrated a stable reduction in association with exposure to the program. Parents tended to achieve success in developing common strategies for assertively managing family problems, though couples from more complex blended families found this more difficult. Adolescent improvements were noted during the weeks observed. A two‐year follow‐up conducted with a subset of families revealed that parents continued to report that the intervention had helped them cope with youth drug abuse.     

Coping With Antigay Violence: In-Depth Interviews With Flemish LGB Adults

In view of the possible negative mental health outcomes of antigay violence and the limited understanding of how lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) men and women cope with such experiences, this study examined the coping and social support-seeking strategies that victims adopt. In 2012, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 Flemish sexual minority victims of violence. These in-depth interviews show that antigay violence can generate profound negative outcomes. However, the respondents employed a range of coping strategies, of which four were discerned: (1) avoidance strategies, (2) assertiveness and confrontation, (3) cognitive change, and (4) social support. Applying a diverse set of coping strategies and actively attaching meaning to negative experiences helps victims of antigay violence to overcome negative effects such as fear, embarrassment, or depressive feelings. However, the presence of a supportive network seems an important condition in order for these positive outcomes to occur.     

Natural disasters: an assessment of family resiliency following Hurricane Katrina

This study explored the role of family characteristics in the coping process of a family after having experienced Hurricane Katrina to gain an understanding of the relationship between family resiliency, hope, family hardiness, and spirituality for survivors of this natural disaster. It was hypothesized that families who demonstrate higher levels of hope, family hardiness, and spirituality would be more likely to effectively cope after the storm. Further, great resource loss was hypothesized to diminish a family's ability to cope. Four hundred fifty-two participants completed the survey. Results indicate a relationship between hope, family hardiness and spirituality, and the criterion variable, family coping. The importance of these findings in terms of exploring family resiliency following a natural disaster is discussed.     

Using psychometric analysis to evaluate the construct validity and reliability of the Coping Response Indices

The Coping Response Indices developed by Billings and Moos (1984a) are frequently used in stress research in the social science and clinical fields. These indices were originally developed in a clinical setting using a conceptual process rather than psychometric methods. This study investigates the factorial structure of the Coping Response Indices scale using a nonclinical sample. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation yields three distinct dimensions within the scale. Considerable support is found for the conceptualization of the Coping Response Indices, as proposed by Billings and Moos. There is also some indication, however, that the conceptualization and measurement of the indices need further revision and testing, especially if they are to be used in social science research. Her research interests include economic strain, stress and coping, and child functioning in diverse family structures. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University. Her research focuses on vulnerable children and families, life-span caregiving issues, intergenerational relations, and prevention of child abuse and neglect. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University. Her research focuses on family resource management, work, stress, and families, and multiple role management. She received her Ed.D. from Utah State University.     

Coping With Overload and Stress: Men and Women in Dual‐Earner Families

This study tested gender differences in a model positing relationships between work and family demands, overload, 4 coping mechanisms, and stress. The coping mechanisms were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between overload and stress. The sample consisted of 1,404 men and 1,623 women in dual‐earner families. Respondents relied on 2 coping strategies: scaling back and restructuring family roles. Men were more likely than women to respond to overload by scaling back and less likely to respond by work‐role restructuring. Coping by family‐role restructuring moderated the relationship between role overload and stress for both groups; however, the gender difference was not significant. Coping by work‐role restructuring moderated the relationship between overload and stress only for men.     

The Workers' View: Strategies and Coping Skills in a Family Preservation Program

This article examines the family preservation model from the perspective of workers involved in a program using the model. It describes a pilot study using qualitative research methods completed with all workers in a family preservation program. The study's focus explored the coping mechanisms of the workers specifically related to boundary and termination issues, and ways workers viewed families with whom they worked. Boundaries appeared to be managed by workers through cognitive mechanisms, application of program structure with clients, role clarification, supervision, and self-assessment. Role clarification particularly helped workers set limits for tasks that could be accomplished with families in a short-term model. Comfort and discomfort with termination issues included both personal and professional explanations. Coping mechanisms for managing termination issues were similar to those mentioned in regard to the maintenance of professional boundaries.     

The Materialisation of School in Families' Everyday Lives

This article explores how school is materialised within Danish families and the significance for both children and parents. Based on ethnographic research and inspired by materiality studies and by family and childhood studies, the analysis describes how school-related objects, such as schoolbags, actualise school within the family and create intensive ‘school parenting’. The article also illustrates how the materialisation of school both entangles with family routines, becoming part of being a family and feeds into processes of demarcation and ways of reducing the importance of school in family routines.     

Tuning in to the rhythm: The role of coping in strategic management of work-life conflicts in the public relations profession

How public relations practitioners cope with work-life conflict was studied through a national survey of a random sample of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) members. These active practitioners reported strong preferences in using more proactive conflict coping strategies, such as rational action and positive thinking. Women and those with a graduate degree tend to report more coping behaviors than others. Three types of stressors are identified as sources of work-life conflict: behavior-driven, work-driven, and life-driven.     

Adolescent Perceptions of Interparental Conflict, Stressors, and Coping as Predictors of Adolescent Family Life Satisfaction

Using family stress theory, this study examined the relationship between adolescent reports of selected demographic variables (gender, age, family form), interparental conflict (style, content, intensity, resolution), stress due to the pileup of stressors, coping strategies (social support, detrimental coping), and adolescent family life satisfaction. The sample was comprised of 155 adolescents ranging from 14 to 18 years of age who completed self-report questionnaires at one of three rural Oklahoma high schools. Four dimensions of interparental conflict (overt conflict style, conflict about childrearing, conflict about family roles/finances, conflict resolution), stress due to pileup, social support coping, and detrimental coping were significantly related to family life satisfaction. Adolescent age was positively related to family life satisfaction. Within the scope of family stress theory, scholars have addressed how the combination of stressors and coping strategies relates to the adaptation of individuals within family systems (McCubbin and Patterson 1983). Further, investigations of the relationship of parental divorce to well-being in children and adolescents suggest that interaction patterns within various family forms may be more fruitful in explaining the adaptation of youth than parental marital status (Demo 1992). The perception by youth of conflict between their parents (i.e., interparental conflict) has emerged as a key family stressor that has the potential to explain variation in adolescent adaptation in a variety of family forms (Buehler, Krishnakumar, Anthony, Tittsworth, and Stone 1994). Stressor events for adolescents such as interparental conflict generally do not occur in isolation. Rather, they exist within the context of other stressors such as economic stress, difficulties at school, or normative developmental tasks for families with adolescents (e.g., changing family roles to allow greater adolescent autonomy; McCubbin and Patterson 1986). Further, considerable variation exists in the coping strategies (e.g., social support, avoidance) that adolescents use in response to stress (McCubbin and Patterson 1986). Finally, previous research shows variation between certain demographic variables and adolescent adaptation. Thus, the current study was developed to examine how selected demographic variables (gender, age, family form), adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict (style, content, intensity, degree of resolution), stress based on the pileup of stressor events, and coping strategies relate to adolescent satisfaction with family life (one indicator of adaptation).