The Role of Families in Building Resilience
Abstract #111
Title: Using Family Counseling to Increase Family and Individual Resilience
Presenter: James Coyle (University of Windsor, Canada)
Introduction: Resilience theory provides a helpful framework for describing how individuals attain positive developmental outcomes. Family relationships can be an important resource for individual resilience, but family dysfunction often leads to individually-focused interventions, which may reduce the influence of potential family strengths.
Methods: Family counseling which strengthens family resilience is an alternative which may improve protective elements of family relationships, resulting in resilient functioning for families and individuals. While resilience theory suggests domains for family intervention, such as improved communication skills, hopeful beliefs, flexible roles, and family cohesion, it relies on counseling methods from other models, particularly solution-focused and narrative therapy, for improving resilience. These counseling models also suggest the usefulness of resources outside of the family, therefore explaining how individual, family, and community interventions can increase resilience. This presentation will describe a resilience-based family counseling model using a brief case example.
Findings: This model assesses risk and protective factors at individual, family, and community levels. It describes counseling interventions which can improve family and individual resilience, and it strengthens the important bond between individuals and families which can be an ongoing source of resilience
Abstract #116
Title: Structural Disadvantages Among Palestinian Refugee and Marginalized Communities in Beirut: Impact Evaluation of a Parenting Intervention
Presenter: Suna Hanoz (ACEV-- Mother Child Education Foundation, Turkey)
Co-Author: Lilliana Angelica Ponguta, Ghassan Issa, Cosette Maalouf, Lara Aodeh, Kaveh Khoshnood, Anna L. Zonderman, Liliya Katsovich, Rima Salah, James Leckman
Introduction: Refugee camps and periurban contexts present a composite of risk factors. We completed a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a school readiness intervention (MOCEP). Previous research found that MOCEP fostered children’s resilience by supporting stable and positive relationships between them and their parents, among other mechanisms.
Methods: The study population included 107 mother-child dyads living in two multi-function community centers inside Palestinian refugee camps and one government-sponsored social service agency in a low-income neighborhood in Beirut. We explore the associations between key contextual variables, parental variables, and child social-cognitive development in these hard-to-reach and vulnerable contexts. Raters who were blind to the intervention assignment collected a comprehensive battery of contextual/structural, community, family/home, and maternal variables and a multidimensional battery of child outcomes including cognitive development, executive function, and social-emotional development.
Findings: We characterize the structural challenges using a mixed-methods approach, and explore the impact of the intervention on multiple maternal, child, and community-level variables associated with resilience in these structurally disadvantaged contexts. We also explore the impact of the MOCEP program and implications for practice and policy will be discussed.
Abstract #226
Title: Stress Exposure and Well Being in Chinese (Shanghai) parents: Risk and Protective Factors
Presenter: Judith Siegel (New York University, USA)
Introduction: We explored the physical and mental health of 2,077adults and questioned whether adults exposed to potentially traumatic events (PTE) and stress after relocating from non-urban areas developed depression or physical symptoms. We questioned the influences of vulnerabilities (income and social status) and factors predictive of resilience (social and marital support).
Methods: We sampled 2,077 parents of first-grade children in the public schools in Shanghai. Respondents reported whether they had experienced a PTE such as an earthquake, tsunami or parental loss or divorce during childhood. Respondents were also asked if they had non-urban, Hukou registration, indicating migration associated with lower social status and difficultly accessing resources. Additional instruments measured depression, somatic symptoms, marital satisfaction, and social support as well income, education, employment, weekly working hours, and social status. Ordinary least squares regression was used to study physical
Findings/Implications: In support of existing literature, respondents with both migration and PTE and the identified risk factors (poverty, social status) scored highest on depression and physical symptoms. However, the protective function of resources (education, social support and marital satisfaction) cushioned both depression and physical health symptoms.
