Family resilience and resiliency following Hurricane Katrina.

Abstract

Families who "struggle well" and become resilient do so through processes that "can reduce stress and vulnerability in high-risk situations, foster healing and growth out of crisis, and empower families to overcome persistent adversity" (Walsh, 2003, p. 405). Although use of the term resilience has been the subject of some debate (e.g., Hawley & DeHaan, 1996; Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000;Masten, 2001), it reflects the idea that a person (or, in our research, a family) has strengths or resources that have allowed him or her to overcome a challenging experience and to thrive following that experience (Cowan, Cowan, & Shultz, 1996;Patterson, 2002). As opposed to survival (Walsh, 1999), resilience is a dynamic process (Walsh, 2003). Because we share the view of some family scientists who differentiate resilience, a process, from resiliency, an outcome (e.g., Patterson, 2002), we designed our research project on the adaptation of families following Hurricane Katrina to investigate both resilience and resiliency. Considerable research has focused

Family Resilience

“…Most studies, to date, examine family processes in dealing with a particular type of adversity within the family, such as serious illness (Kazak, 2006), developmental disabilities (Greeff & Nolting, 2013), the death of a child or parent (Greeff & Joubert, 2007;Greeff, Vansteenwegen, & Herbiest, 2011), divorce (Greene et al, 2012), stepfamilies (Coleman, Ganong, & Russell, 2013), foster care (Lietz, Julien-Chinn, Geiger, & Hayes Piel, 2016), and family reunification (e.g., Lietz, 2013). Increasing attention is being directed to family resilience in conditions of extreme poverty, community disasters (Knowles, Sasser, & Garrison, 2010), and war and terrorism (MacDermid, 2010;Saltzman et al, 2016) and with refugees, forced migration, and populations in war-torn regions (Rolland & Weine, 2000;Weine et al, 2005). Only a few studies to date have tracked the evolving challenges and adaptational pathways over time in family resilience (e.g., Greeff & Joubert, 2007;Lietz, et al, 2016).…”

Applying a Family Resilience Framework in Training, Practice, and Research: Mastering the Art of the Possible

“…Most examine family resilience processes in dealing with a particular type of adversity within the family, such as the death of a child or parent; serious illness or disability; parental substance abuse; separation and family reunification; divorce; stepfamily integration. Increasing research attention is being directed to family resilience in conditions of extreme poverty and collective trauma in major disasters, war, terror attacks, and forced migration (e.g., Hernandez, ; Knowles, Sasser, & Garrison, ; MacDermid, ; see also Hernandez, Gangsei, & Engstrom on vicarious resilience for practitioners). Only a few research programs have tracked pathways over time in family resilience, incorporating a developmental perspective (e.g., Lietz ; and the intervention research by the UCLA/Harvard team led by Saltzman [Saltzman et al., ; see Lietz, Julien‐Chinn, Geiger, & Hayes Piel, ; Saltzman, ; and Saltzman, Lester, Milburn, Woodward, & Strin, ; in this Special Section]).…”

Disaster Hits Home

“…The prior point is especially important for disaster researchers, given that most people respond to hazards and experience disasters as members of households (Blinn-Pike, 2010; Fothergill, 2004; Morrow, 1997). Yet the study of postdisaster family recovery has been largely neglected (Knowles, Sasser, & Garrison, 2010), and research designed to assess recovery trajectories from the perspective of both adults and children is exceptionally rare. Indeed, much available research on the effects of disaster on families draws on “head of household” surveys or interviews where one adult speaks for the entire household (Bourque, Shoaf, & Nguyen, 2002) or secondary data (Cohan & Cole, 2002).…”

“…This study contributes to the disaster literature in other important ways. Recovery is the most understudied phase in the disaster lifecycle (Phillips, 2009), and family recovery has received especially limited attention (Knowles et al, 2010). Moreover, longitudinal studies that gather data from the same respondents are rare in disaster research (Phillips, 2002).…”