Resilient Families - Essay Example

Resilient Families Closely compact families tend to be more resilient to adversity in comparison to those that exhibit otherwise.These manifest itself of the abilities of families to tackle challenges encountered. This paper therefore seeks to analyze data collected that attempts to focus on key factors to family resilience. Findings The findings illuminate that communication; connectedness; problem solving; and family ideology are key ingredients of the resilient in the family. The majority of those interviewed highlighted that good communication as the foundation and root the holder families to be closely knight together. They resonate with the notion that families that play together usually stay compact. Good communication encompasses family members openly talking to one another in trust. They discuss matters in unison with each member highly regarding the other opinion. The discussion often come to conclusion when a solution is reached and the solution is that which commensurate with the each of the family members agreement and convictions. They ability to listen to each other and observing both the verbal and non-verbal reactions of the members is key to the success of effective communication. Parents play an integral role in fostering communication in the family. They are responsible for inculcating or instill this virtue into their children as the up bring them. Technology is taking toll in the ability of family members to effectively communicate. More often, individuals get glued to the TV or get consumed by their phone thus they end up losing physical touch with other members. In addition, communication helps in fostering strong emotional attachment, unconditional among other aspects in the family. The problem solving techniques that family members employ is crucial in their resilience especially when confronted with challenges. These techniques manifest when families are able to talk about the challenging situations and work through finding solutions through them. Effective communication will allow the members when faced with challenging situation to express their emotions and view the conflict in question from various angles of perspectives. Moreover, past experiences are essential in solving emanating problems as it reveals whether the members learnt from the previous experiences. The third facet is the level of connectedness within families. It is prudent that members within a family are capable of not only understanding each other but also provide comfort for one another. Strongly healthy bonded compact families are ideal in holding it together. The strength of the relationship is inculcated by virtues such as level of respect, honesty, trust, love, and shared support all demonstrated in daily operations both in good times and when faced with adversity. They feel secured and sense of belonging as well as acceptance to the family especially when there is love and support from family members. The ideologies of the families also play a vital role in enhancing resilience in the family. These are values that families uphold as part and parcel within their systems. Majority of those interviewed expressed that faith and hope which are rapidly dwindling in the contemporary society are some of the ideologies that enhance family unity and resilience during tough situations. Faith, hope and optimism can be effective tools of sub optimizing or minimizing stress related to challenging situations. The other ideological factor is spirituality and religion. Families tend to uphold virtues that are advocated for by the religion they subscribe to. The unison among members of the families in adhering to those virtues is crucial in promoting resilience. The above findings can be married with Walsh’s (2006) keys to family resilience. Walsh categorizes these keys into different broad facets such as family belief system; organizational patterns; and communication process. Family system belief entails comprehension of the adversities by perceiving resilience as relationally based, normal and experiences that are contextualized as well as having the sense of coherence. In addition, it also encompasses outlooks that are perceived positively, spirituality and transcendence. On the other hand, the organizational patterns as illustrated by Walsh (2006) manifest in form of flexibility within the family, the connectedness as well as the economic and social resources that are possessed by families. The families are capable of mutually supporting and collaborating with one another by showing commitment and respecting not only individuals but also their needs and embracing diversity. Economic and social aspects are inculcated through: mobilizing all the kins; support from communal network; mentoring relationships; and building securitized financial base within the family members. Finally, Walsh (2006) elaborates that communication process entails clarity, solving problems collaboratively, and allowing individual members to emotionally share their concerns. Clarity in communication involves member of the family being clear and consistent with conveyance of information and expressing their opinions or convictions truthfully. On the other hand, sharing emotions openly consist of collaboratively sharing pain joy, being tolerant and accommodative to one another, and interactions through humor and respite. Solving problems in unison encompasses collective identification of problems; shared decision making process; focusing on agreed goals; and success building. Patterns Through the patterns by age, 72% of individuals from 25 yrs and below believe in good communication as a vital ingredient to family resilience while between 40-50yrs the 94% of individuals are also of the similar opinion and between age 65 and above 61% share similar sentiments. However, 25 yrs and below, 40-50 yrs, and 65 yrs and above respectively believe in problem solving ingredient in the following percentages 33, 36 and 33 respectively. As for connectedness in the order of ages as mentioned above the percentages are 83, 109, and 104 respectively while for ideology these percentages drop to 19, 41, and 41 respectively in the order of ages illustrated above. The second pattern focuses on marital status by categorizing the key family resilient factors into married/common law, cohabiting, separated/divorced, widowed and never married respectively. In the above mentioned order the percentages on view on communication are 88, 75, 67, 50, and 65 respectively. However, on problem solving the percentages in the order highlighted above are 37, 33, 42, 21, and 26 respectively while on connectedness the percentages figure are 109, 92, 100, 107 and 81 respectively. Finally, on ideology basis the figures drop to 35, 33, 38, 64, and 21 respectively. Conclusion It is evident that communication, connectedness, and problem solving techniques are imperative fostering family resilient both in times of adversities as well as good times. This has been demonstrated through the findings and theoretical perceptions of Walsh’s literature. Reference: Walsh, F., (2006). Strengthening Family Resilience (2nd ed). New York: Guilford Press Read More