Resilience in Families at Risk: Giving a Healthy Start to their Children

Resilience: A New Research Area in Positive Psychology

“…A case study conducted by Osman, Li and Suppien (2001) revealed that families experiencing life stressors and crisis in Singapore built up their resilience through both intrapersonal factors such as self-control, sense of mastery, hardiness, and learned resourcefulness, and interpersonal factors such as social support and the availability of social networks. Similarly, Nair, Tai and Fong (2001) found that factors contributing to the resilience of children in violent families in Singapore appeared to include: (1) a positive parent-child relationship; (2) the presence of a caring adult; (3) reaching high levels of academic achievement in school; (4) individual characteristics such as interpersonal skills, reflectiveness, good-natured temperament, and sense of humor; (5) taking responsibility for the abuse; and (6) having access to and knowledge of external resources.…”