Abstract
A social ecological understanding of resilience recognizes the important contributions of family and social networks, community services, and cultural influences in the positive development of youth in conditions of adversity. This paper offers relational and systemic perspectives on resilience, first considering how key family bonds in the multigenerational network of relationships can nurture children’s resilience. It then addresses resilience in the family as a functional unit, with ecological and developmental perspectives. It describes the author’s research-informed family resilience framework developed for clinical and community-based practice to strengthen children and families facing adversity. Core principles and guidelines in this family resilience approach are described, suggesting its broad utility for intervention and prevention efforts with vulnerable youth and their families. Key processes in family resilience, culled from findings from research on resilience and effective family functioning, are identified for practitioners to target interventions that enable children and their families to thrive in response to serious life challenges.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, C. M. (2012). The diversity, strengths, and challenges of single-parent households. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes: Growing diversity and complexity (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Antonovsky, A., & Sourani, T. (1988). Family sense of coherence and family adaptation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 79–92.
Aponte, H. (1994). Bread and spirit: Therapy with the new poor. New York: Norton.
Engstrom, M. (2012). Family processes in kinship care. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes: Diversity and complexity (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Epstein, N., Ryan, C., Bishop, D., Miller, I., & Keitner, G. (2003). The McMaster model: View of healthy family functioning. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes (3rd ed., pp. 581–607). New York: Guilford Press.
Falicov, C. (1995). Training to think culturally: A multidimensional comparative framework. Family Process, 34, 373–388.
Falicov, C. J. (2007). Working with transnational immigrants: Expanding meanings of family, community and culture. Family Process, 46, 157–172.
Herdt, G., & Koff, B. (2000). Something to tell you: The road families travel when a child is gay. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hernandez, P. (2002). Resilience in families and communities: Latin American contributions from the psychology of liberation. Journal of Counseling & Therapy for Couples and Families, 10(3), 334–343.
Hetherington, E.M., & J. Kelly (2002) For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered. New York: Norton.
Imber-Black, E., Roberts, J., & Whiting, R. (Eds.). (2003). Rituals in families and family therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.
Kaufman, J., & Ziegler, E. (1987). Do abused children become abusive parents? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 186–192.
Landau, J. (2007). Enhancing resilience: Families and communities as agents for change. Family Process, 46(3), 351–365.
Landau, J., & Saul, J. (2004). Facilitating family and community resilience in response to major disasters. In F. Walsh & M. McGoldrick (Eds.), Living beyond loss: Death in the family (2nd ed., pp. 285–309). New York: Norton.
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71, 543–562.
McCubbin, H., Thompson, E. A., Thompson, E., & Fromer, J. (Eds.). (1998a). Resiliency in ethnic minority families. Vol. 1. Native and immigrant families. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
McCubbin, H., Thompson, E. A., Thompson, A. I., & Fromer, J. E. (Eds.). (1998b). Stress, coping, and health in families: Sense of coherence and resiliency. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Petry, S. (2008). Genograms: Assessment and intervention (3rd ed.), New York: Norton.
McGoldrick, M., Carter, B., & García-Preto. N. (2011). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social perspectives (4th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Olson, D. H., & Gorell, D. (2003). Circumplex model of marital and family systems. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes (3rd ed., pp. 514–544). New York: Guilford.
Patterson, J. (2002). Integrating family resilience and family stress theory. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 349–373.
Rolland, J. S. (1994). Families, illness and disability: An integrative treatment model. New York: Basic.
Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 316–331.
Seccombe, K. (2002). “Beating the odds” versus “changing the odds”: Poverty, resilience, and family policy. Journal of Marriage & Family, 64(2), 384–394.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1990). Learned optimism. New York: Random House.
Ungar, M. (2004). The importance of parents and other caregivers to the resilience of high-risk adolescents. Family Process, 43(1), 23–41.
Walsh, F. (1996). The concept of family resilience: Crisis and challenge. Family Process, 35, 261–281.
Walsh, F. (2002). A family resilience framework: Innovative practice applications. Family Relations, 51(2), 130–137.
Walsh, F. (2003). Family resilience: A framework for clinical practice. Family Process, 42(1), 1–18.
Walsh, F. (2006). Strengthening family resilience (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Walsh, F. (2007). Traumatic loss and major disasters: Strengthening family and community resilience. Family Process, 46(2), 207–227.
Walsh, F. (Ed.). (2009). Spiritual resources in family therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Walsh, F. (2012). Normal family processes: Diversity and complexity (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Walsh, F., & McGoldrick, M. (Eds.). (2004). Living beyond loss: Death in the family (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (2001). Journeys from childhood to midlife: Risk, resilience, and recovery. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Yang, O.-K., & Choi, M.-M. (2001). Korean’s Han and resilience: Application to mental health social work. Mental Health & Social Work, 11(6), 7–29.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walsh, F. (2012). Facilitating Family Resilience: Relational Resources for Positive Youth Development in Conditions of Adversity. In: Ungar, M. (eds) The Social Ecology of Resilience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0586-3_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0586-3_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-0585-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-0586-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)