CONCEPTUAL REVIEW OF FAMILY RESILIENCE

Abstract

Family resilience is a dynamic process that helps families to navigate and overcome adversities and crises. The introduction of general systems theory and its application to family therapy further contributed to developing the concept of family resilience. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of family resilience while highlighting some of the challenges in its conceptualization, whose reconsideration might be of broader importance in future research. Starting from the understanding of the development path of the concept of family resilience, this paper provides insight into how to view the key constructs incorporated in the concept of family resilience. Following this, emphasis in this paper is given to the challenges in conceptualizing family resilience. These challenges include definitions of family resilience, central terms used in models, and variations in the operationalization and measurement of key constructs. The models of family resilience presented in the paper are the ones considered influential in contemporary family studies. They provide frameworks for understanding the processes and cycles involved in family adjustment, adaptation, and response to stress and crisis. The conceptual review offered by this paper could contribute to conducting further research on family resilience.