You may like to check out my webinar on Family Resilience, or, The Resiliency Program.
What Is Family Resilience?
The concept of family resilience refers to the family as a functional system, impacted by highly stressful events and social contexts, and in turn, facilitating the positive adaptation of all members and strengthening the family unit.
Resilience entails more than managing stressful conditions, shouldering a burden, or surviving an ordeal. It involves the potential for personal and relational transformation and positive growth that can be forged out of adversity. Studies over recent decades find that couples and families, through suffering and struggle, often emerge stronger, more loving, and more resourceful in meet- ing future challenges. Although some families are more vulnerable or face more hardships than others, a family resilience perspective is grounded in a deep conviction in the potential of families to strengthen their resilience in overcoming their challenges.
Even those who have experienced severe trauma or very troubled relationships have the potential for healing and growth over the life course and across the generations.
A family systems orientation broadens attention from parent-child dyadic bonds to a broad relational network, identifying potential resources for individual resilience throughout the immediate and extended family. A resilience-oriented family assessment seeks to identify members who are – or could become – invested in the positive development at-risk children, believe in their potential, support their best efforts, and encourage them to make the most of their lives. Even in troubled families, positive contributions might be made by parents, step-parents, siblings, and other caregivers. Grandparents and godparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and informal kin can play a supportive role.
Key transactional processes enable the family to rally in highly stressful times: to take proactive steps, to buffer disruptions, to reduce the risk of dysfunction, and to support positive adaptation and resourcefulness in meeting future challenges.
The Foundations of Family Resilience
Resilience is not the absence of stress or hardship but the ability to navigate it effectively. According to the Family Stress Model developed by Dr. Pauline Boss, family resilience is a process influenced by how a family perceives challenges, communicates about them, and utilises internal and external resources. Resilient families tend to share these core characteristics:
Adaptability: Flexible families adjust roles, routines, and expectations in response to changing circumstances. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many families found new ways to work, learn, and support one another from home.
Effective Communication: Open, honest, and empathetic communication helps families address problems collaboratively. Studies show that families who actively listen to one another and validate emotions are better equipped to manage conflict and uncertainty.
A Positive Outlook: Families with a shared sense of hope and optimism are more likely to persevere through challenges. Research published in The Journal of Family Psychology highlights that fostering a “we-can-do-it” attitude often leads to greater problem-solving success.
Strong Social Connections: Accessing support from extended family, friends, and community organizations can buffer the impact of stress. For instance, families involved in faith-based or cultural communities often report higher resilience due to shared values and collective resources.
Shared Meaning: Finding purpose in adversity helps families reframe challenges as opportunities for growth. This concept, supported by the work of resilience researchers Dr. Froma Walsh and Dr. Ann Masten, emphasizes the importance of family narratives that focus on overcoming past obstacles.
Nurturing Resilient Children
Children become resilient when they learn to adapt to challenging demands with guidance from positive, competent adults. In describing resilient children, Ginsburg uses the seven critical C’s: competence; confidence; connection; character; contribution; coping; and control.
Further, he suggests seven ways that parents can build resilient children: love; let go; expect the best; listen; set a good example; encourage; and teach.
Key Processes In Family Resilience
Belief systems
Making meaning of adversity
• Relational view of resilience
• Normalize, contextualize distress
• Sense of coherence: view crisis as meaningful, comprehensible, manageable challenge • Facilitative appraisal: explanatory attributions; future expectations
Positive outlook
• Hope, optimistic bias; confidence in overcoming challenges
• Encouragement; affirm strengths, focus on potential
• Active initiative and perseverance (can-do spirit)
• Master the possible; accept what can’t be changed; tolerate uncertainty
Transcendence and spirituality
• Larger values, purpose
• Spirituality: faith, contemplative practices, community; connection with nature • Inspiration: envision possibilities, aspirations; creative expression; social action • Transformation: learning, change, and positive growth from adversity
Organisational processes
Flexibility
• Rebound, adaptive change to meet new challenges
• Reorganise, restabilise: continuity, dependability, predictability • Strong authoritative leadership: nurture, guide, protect
• Varied family forms: cooperative parenting/caregiving teams
• Couple/coparent relationship: mutual respect; equal partners
Connectedness
• Mutual support, teamwork, and commitment • Respect individual needs, differences
• Seek reconnection and repair grievances
• Recruit extended kin, social, and community supports; models and mentors • Build financial security; navigate stressful work/family challenges
• Transactions with larger systems: access institutional, structural supports
Communication/problem-solving processes
Clarity
- Clear, consistent messages, information
- Clarify ambiguous situation; truth seeking
Open emotional sharing
- Painful feelings: (sadness, suffering, anger, fear, disappointment, remorse)
- Positive interactions: (love, appreciation, gratitude. humour, fun, respite).
Collaborative problem solving
- Creative brainstorming; resourcefulness
- Share decision-making; repair conflicts; negotiation, fairness
- Focusing on goals; concrete steps; build on success; learn from setbacks • Proactive stance: preparedness, planning, prevention.
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Family Resilience Assessment Scale
The 4-item family resilience scale
- “When your family faces problems, how often are you likely to do each of the following,” and the four items for the original and translated instrument are:
- “Talk together about what to do”
- “Work together to solve our problems”
- “Know we have strengths to draw on” “Stay hopeful even in difficult times.”
To calculate the total score for family resilience, each item is reverse-scored and averaged. Higher scores indicate a more resilient family, and vice versa.
Questions/Statements From Family Resilience Scales Used In The Research
These often are answered using a scale of how strongly you agree/disagree. Notice it’s not just about the family unit, but the community surrounding the family too.
- We accept stressful events as a part of life.
- We are able to work through pain and come to an understanding.
- We can work through difficulties as a family.
- We define problems positively to solve them.
- We are adaptable to demands placed on us as a family.
- We are open to new ways of doing things in our family.
- We feel people in this community are willing to help in an emergency.
- We feel secure living in this community.
The Role of Culture and Diversity
Cultural values play a crucial role in shaping family resilience. For example, collectivist cultures often emphasize interdependence, which can provide a strong foundation for resilience by encouraging mutual support. On the other hand, individualist cultures may foster resilience by valuing personal autonomy and adaptability.
A study published in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology noted that families from diverse backgrounds often draw resilience from cultural practices, such as storytelling, spiritual beliefs, or community engagement. Understanding and respecting these practices is essential for professionals working to support families from varied cultural contexts.
Final Thoughts
Family resilience is not a fixed trait but an ongoing process that evolves as families face new challenges. By cultivating communication, adaptability, and shared purpose, families can strengthen their ability to thrive together. Moreover, support from schools, workplaces, and community organizations can amplify these efforts, creating a network of resilience that extends beyond the family unit.
Every family has the potential for resilience. By understanding the science behind it and implementing evidence-based strategies, families can transform hardships into opportunities for growth. If your family is navigating a tough time, remember: resilience is not about perfection but persistence—and the journey is one you don’t have to take alone.
Learn more about family resilience, assessing it, and how to cultivate it by doing The Resiliency Program or check out my webinar on Family Resilience.
Alex is a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP) and has a MSc in Personalised Nutrition. He is also a breathwork facilitator with a background in personal training and massage therapy. He also runs The Resiliency Program - a 24 week program aimed at building physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual resilience.
