Understanding Resilience: What is it?
“Resilience is a series of positive, protective processes that help to reduce maladaptive patterns and outcomes, especially under conditions of risk (Russo & Fallon, 2014).”
When we build resilience in everyday occurrences we will be more prepared to take on the life-changing stressors often associated with military life.
The awesome thing about resilience is that it isn’t a trait that families either have or they don’t, resilience can be built over time!
So how you develop resilience?
Building family resilience involves two related - but separate - family processes: Adjustment & Adaptation.
Adjusting + Adapting = Resilience
Adjustment:
includes protective factors that help families continue to function when they are faced with risk factors.
Protective Factor Examples: individual traits such as honesty, humor, wisdom, optimism, flexibility, etc. (It is important to note that many protective factors can also function as recovery factors and vice versa.)
Risk Factor Examples: Family conflict, poor health of a family member, deployment of a family member, frequent relocation, financial strains, etc.
PROTECTIVE FACTORS
Factors that increase families’ resistance to stressors.
RISK
FACTORS
Struggles and issues that increase families’ vulnerability to negative outcomes.
Adaptation:
involves recovery factors that help families to be able to adapt in crisis situations.
Recovery Factor Examples: Family integration, support within the family for each member, family optimism, self-reliance, etc. (It is important to note that many recovery actors can also function as protective factors and vice versa.)
RECOVERY
FACTORS
Factors that allow families to positively cope with stress.
Active Coping
Active Coping
“Active coping includes purposely working to reduce the stress of any given situation, as opposed to avoidant coping where individuals experience a high level of denial about and avoiding dealing with the situation (Blow, et al., 2017).”
Active coping can positively help with the adjustment to military life and helps balance stress and adversity
Did You Know: Studies about the coping methods of military members and their spouses have found that active coping on the part of either partner does not impact their spouse positively or negatively, but avoidant coping on the part of either partner negatively impacts their spouse.
Resiliency Supports
–Individual Characteristics –Familial System Support–Social Support–
Individual Characteristics: Protective Factors
Every person in a family possess individual characteristics that help the entire family to adjust and adapt better as stress and crises arise.
Print out the following PDF and identify your strengths. This can help you to recognize that you have characteristics that help your family to combat stress & help you ponder on new ways to use your specific traits. *Print out multiple copies and have your family fill them out together to see how everyone contributes to family resilience*
Family System Supports: Important Recovery Factors
These supports are comprised of anything within the family unit/system as a whole that supports the continued function of that system.
Examples:
Family Cohesion (Integration) - or - how well the family works together as well as the efforts of parents to keep the family together, good family communication, and family flexibility and adaptability (Russo & Fallon, 2014).
These types of supports also include (McCubbin et al., 1997):
Family Support and Esteem Building - efforts to seek social support outside the family
Family Optimism and Mastery - efforts to maintain unity, function, and optimism
Familial Self-Reliance and Equality - a family’s purposeful effort to change patterns of functioning and physical, emotional, and financial conditions
Family Schema - a family’s shared system of values and beliefs
Social Supports: Protective & Recovery Factors
Families also need outside social supports. These supports can take many forms such as:
Extended Family
Close Friends
Engaging in Family Advocacy - supporting and helping other families in similar situations.
Formal or informal community groups like: child play groups and childcare programs, church community groups, neighborhood organizations, and separation and reunion programs.
Each branch of the military has many social support resources and programs aimed at helping families. Click the icons below to find family support information in your branch of service.
