Ebook: Handbook of Family Resilience

Resilience is a topic that is currently receiving increased attention. In general, resilience refers to the capacity of those who, even under the most stressful circumstances, are able to cope, to rebound, and to go on and thrive. Resilient families are able to regain their balance following crises that arise as a function of either nature or nurture, and to continue to encourage and support their members as they deal with the necessary requirements for accommodation, adaptation and, ultimately, healthy survival. Handbook of Family Resilience provides a broad body of knowledge regarding the traits and patterns found to characterize resilient individuals and well-functioning families, including those with diverse structures, various ethnic backgrounds and a variety of non-traditional forms. This Handbook brings together a variety of perspectives aimed at understanding and helping to facilitate resilience in families relative to a full range of challenges.

In a time of increasing stressors affecting the lives of so many, resilience—the capacity for individuals to cope, adapt, survive, and thrive despite severe crises and long odds—is a hot topic. Now resilience as both a family trait and a family process is being recognized as equally deserving of study, especially as more families find themselves under greater social and economic strain.

The Handbook of Family Resilience offers scholarly and practical perspectives on how resilient families adapt and adjust, for those seeking a deeper understanding of the concept as well as clinicians working hands-on with families. Resilience is seen as an evolving process over the lifespan as family members support one another, marshal their resources (internal and external), and maintain their functioning through normative, extraordinary, and multiple stressors. Contributors examine resilience across a diverse range of family structures, cultural groups, and challenging circumstances, with an array of timely topics including:

• Clinical ramifications of a focus on family resilience.
• Family resilience in the context of high-risk situations.
• Resilience in ethnic family systems.
• Enhancing resilience in families of children with autistic spectrum disorder.
• From challenge to wisdom: Resilience in aging.
• Family and community resilience in the experience of mass trauma.
• Resilience as tolerance for ambiguity.
• Resilience in the context of grief and loss.

This book is an empowering resource for professionals and practitioners working with families, including sociologists, psychologists, therapists, and social workers. Its breadth of coverage makes it an invaluable text for researchers, graduate students, and faculty in family studies, couple and family therapy, child development, psychology, sociology, social work, public health, and related fields.