Family Resilience : Positive Psychology Approach to Healthy Family Functioning

Abstract

Nowadays, many families are exposed to changing living conditions, increasing life demands and disruptive crises. The concept of family resilience has become very important. Family resilience is understood as a process which protects and recovers family functioning and involves positive transformation and growth. The family resilience framework is theoretically enshrined in the family systems approach. Recently, new findings in the field of positive psychology have started to reveal the factors behind well-functioning and flourishing families. The present chapter introduces positive factors and key processes of family resilience that contribute to optimal functioning of the family system. The basic and general factors supporting family resilience include, among others, effective communication, cohesion, family hardiness, hope, positive outlook, and well-being of family members. This shows clearly that family psychology overlaps with positive psychology and health psychology in the family resilience framework. The chapter presents a research-informed overview of various approaches for understanding and strengthening family resilience. Practice applications, including strategies and interventions based on the positive psychology approach, are described. Application of the conceptual framework of resilience in prevention and intervention efforts to strengthen healthy family functioning in counselling and therapeutic contexts is also highlighted.