Family Stress as Community Frame

Factors Predictive of Boundary Ambiguity After Divorce

“…Second, individuals who lack a sense of confidence in their abilities may feel a need to continue a spousal relationship or dependence on the spouse; they will feel incapable of handling problems on their own (Cotten, 1999). Additionally, research suggests that seeing a stressor as controllable and/or masterable is important for predicting the severity of a crisis (Reiss & Oliveri, 1983;Walker, 1985), especially when a situation is ambiguous (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Third, if a divorced individual has difficulty accepting the divorce and continues longing for the former spouse, he or she may be unlikely to move beyond these negative feelings and may have difficulty coping.…”

Public image and governance of epidemics: Comparing HIV/AIDS and SARS

“…In my view, the dynamic interaction of the individual's health-related behavior and the environment is better explained by the individual's subjective perception of the situation (for example a crisis or stressor) and the social context of the situation, as proposed by symbolic interaction and family stress theory [42]. Thus, my assumption that a person's motivation to take preventive action may also be manifested in his or her cooperation with community-based preventive measures is explained clearly by the application of the conceptual premises on community responses to stressor events formulated by Reiss and Oliveri [43]. The public's perception of the scope of the problem was highlighted by these authors as part of their concept "community's punctuation of an event".…”

“…They defined the community's punctuation of an event or perceived scope as "when the problem begins and when it ends and who is involved". They proposed that the community and its leaders would be more inclined to invest concerted efforts to solve a problem if three conditions are met: accountability, duty, and competence [43]. That is, the community and its policy-makers would be most inclined to mobilize assistance and preventive efforts when these three conditions are met: the persons affected are perceived as not being accountable for the problem; they are regarded as having the duty to request outside help; they are considered as lacking the competence to solve by themselves the problem affecting them.…”

“…The condition of "competence" identified by Reiss and Oliveri [43] as discussed above, has to do with expertise in handling the crisis, and thus brings in a final concept of relevance to this discussion: governance. Governance is another socially significant aspect of HIV/AIDS and SARS as a strong political will at the national level is needed to invest state resources, and to utilize knowledge and technology creatively for their detection and prevention.…”

Distinguishing families where suicidal behaviour is present from families where suicidal behaviour is absent

“…At another level (the familial) his behaviour maintains family cohesion. At yet another level (the cultural) his behaviour is inappropriate for a seventeen-year-old (Reiss and Oliveri, 1983;Reiss, 1981).…”