Families and Stress

Physical Well Being

Material N

eeds

Com

munication

Relationa

l

Decision

Making/Management

Social Support

Today’s Objectives

• Resources to build a healthy family that has the capacity to deal with stressors and to adapt

• Questions that you can discuss with your own family or in your community

• Review stress reaction of children and how to respond to these stressors

Seven Basic Resources

• Physical well being• Material needs• Communication• Relational• Social support• Spirituality/faith• Decision making/management

Purpose of the Seven Resources

Family Hardiness• Shared commitment to

work together to resolve problems

• Family sees hardships as challenges

• Family views itself as having a sense of control and influence over outcomes

Family Resilience• Ability of family to maintain

its established patterns of functioning after being challenged

• Ability of family to recognize changes that need to be made and to make those changes

Physical Well Being

• The physical health of the family• Providing resources to meet an family needs: 1. Nutrition habits 2. Enough physical activity 3. Time to relax 4. Resources for ill family member• If a family member not healthy, entire family

may be vulnerable

Material Needs

• Basic needs being met such as food, clothing, shelter, safety…

• If basic needs are not met it is hard to cope

• Family needs safety plan in case of an emergency

Let’s Talk Questions and Responses

• What does family physical well-being look like in your community?

• How does a family get resources for an ill family member?

• If a family builds a safety plan what should it look like?

Communication

• Families appear to have two patterns of communication

1. Affirmative2. Incendiary

Let’s Talk Questions and Responses

• What does negative communication look like in a family?

• What does positive communication look like in a family?

Communication of A Positive Family

• Pattern begins with parents• Truthful • Do not withhold information• Listen to one another• Respect each family member and others• Include all members when age

appropriate

Let’s Talk Questions and Responses

• If you were talking to families in your community about healthy family communications, what questions would you ask them to find out how they are doing and to identify possible changes they could make?

RelationalThe way family members view themselves in

relationship to the rest of the family

Positive Family Relational Patterns• Parents First: Husband and wife are foundation of the family

unit• Equality: both males and females in the family are

empowered to make decisions• Trustfulness: Family members believe that they can trust one

another• Boundaries: a. External boundaries: there is time for your family. b. Internal boundaries : respect each family member needs

some time for themselves• Right and Wrong: has built a shared sense of what the family

values and what it believes is right and wrong

Relational

• Family Time and Routine: A hardy and resilient family set aside time for family activities:

Simple as bedtime routine Spending time with spouse Time to laugh and play together

• Family TraditionsWhen under stress these are often forgotten;

need to make effort to sustain and continue

Let’s Talk Questions and Responses

• How do the “positive family relational patterns” just presented alight with your cultural patterns? If some do not align, do you think making changes would be beneficial? Why or why not?

Social Support

• Critical to a family’s well-being• Family needs to work at building

individual friendships and family friends within the community, work setting, and culture at large

Families During StressNeed Five Types of Support

1. Emotional support: sharing of information/caring2. Esteem support : affirming values of family members and what they

do3. Network support: has a larger group where there is mutual

responsibility4. Appraisal support: helping them to understand and evaluate

situation5. Altruistic support: understand giving of one’s self for benefit of

others

Family may need additional resources to help give meaning to situation, develop coping strategies, and help family make any needed

changes

Let’s TalkQuestions and Responses

• What does positive social support look like in your culture?

• Does your family have a strong support system? Does it feel that World Relief is part of that support system?

• What could a family do to develop a strong support system?

• If you were talking to families in your community about the importance of having a strong support system, what questions would you ask them to find out how they are doing and to identify possible changes they could make?

Spirituality/Faith

• Helps family find meaning• Gives families hope – which is vital to a family’s

resilience• Faith communities provide needed resources coping

with stress Physical care of families Material needs of families Communication, relational, social support - gives Biblical directions Shapes worldview and values Helps us in decision making and management

Let’s TalkQuestions and Responses

• Is your family actively involved in your faith community?

• Does your family understand that a crisis may cause you to rethink your faith?

Decision Making/Management Skills

There will always be stress so two basic strategies:

1. Reduce the stress by changing your environment

2. Managing stress through effective coping

Managing Stress

Avoid Alter Accept

Avoid the Problem

• Works once in a while• Often does not work because you let

problem continue without dealing with it• Can create a family “pile-up” so high that

one small stressor collapses the family unit or creates significant problems

Alter the Problem

• Address the issue and problem solve• Family communicates about what

needs to be done and family in control to makes change

• Rule of three

Accept the Problem• Family identifies the stressor and determines

what control they have over it• Identifies changes individual family members

have to make to cope with stress• Identify changes whole family has to make• Family being flexible is key to dealing with

stress• Family having hope is key to dealing with

stress

Let’s TalkQuestions and Responses

• Identify a time when you were able to avoid a stressor.

• Identify a time when you were able to alter a stressor. Explain what you did.

• Identify a time when you had to accept a stressor. What changes did your family have to make? Of the seven resources that we have discussed, which ones helped you to cope with the change?

Benefit of Other Resources

If have other resources in place it is easier to accept and deal with changes:

• Physical well-being• Basic material needs• Communication• Relational – family members see themselves as

important part of family unit• Spiritual/faith• Social support

Stress Reaction of Children

Three most common responses:

1. Fear of event recurring2. Loss of trust in adults3. Sleep disturbances

Children 5 and Under

• What does this look like in your culture?

What to Do

• Need a lot of reassurance and physical comfort

• Opportunity to express their feelings (play, art, story-telling…)

• Re-establish comfort routines• Make sure have adequate nutrition - need

oral satisfaction• Involve in physical activity

Children 5 to 11

• What does this look like in your culture?

What to Do

• Expressions of their experience need to be encouraged through story-telling, play, art, dance, song, music… Always end on a positive note

• Physical activity to relieve tension• May need to temporarily relax routine

expectations, resuming to normal routine as soon as possible

Children 11 to 14

• What does this look like in your culture?

What to Do

• Ample opportunity to express concerns and fears

• Physical activity to relieve tension• May need to temporarily relax routine

expectations, resuming to normal routine as soon as possible

Age 14+

• What does this look like in your culture?

What to Do

• Ample opportunity to discuss feelings individually or in groups with peers and adults to reduce sense of isolation and to normalize feelings

• Encourage to participate in community rehab if relevant

• Classroom activities that relate situation to ongoing course study

Families and StressWhat happens to this home if one or more of these resources are removed?

Physical Well Being

Material N

eeds

Com

munication

Relationa

l

Decision

Making/Management

Social Support

References1997 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Commemorative Lecture

delivered by Hamilton I. Mccubbin (June 22, 1997). Families Under Stress: What Makes Them Resilient? Retrieved September 17, 2008 from: http://www.cyfernet.org/research/resilient.html

Antonovksy, A (1985). Health, Stress, and Coping. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Bubolz, M. & Sontag S. (1993). Human Ecology Theory. In P. Boss, W. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. Schumm, & S. Steinmetz (Eds.), Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods (pp, 419-447). New York: Plenum Press.

Care International Safety and Security Handbook (200). Retrieved August 1, 2008 from: http://ngosecurity.googlepages.com/English_CARE_International_Safety_and_Security_Handbook.pdfTraits

David Baldwin’s Trauma Information Page. Emotional Health Issues for Families of Disaster Workers by the American Red Cross. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from:http://www.trauma-pages.com/h/arcwkfm.php

Durran, D. (1983). Traits of a Healthy Family. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publisher

Fawcett, J. (Ed.) (2003). Stress and Trauma Handbook. Monrovia, CA: World Vision

Headington Institute (2007). Online Training Modules. Retrieved July 6, 2008 from: http://www.headington-institute.org/Default.aspx?tabid=2258

Kloosterhouse, V.H. (2000). Families Use of Religion/Spirituality as a Psychosocial Resource. (Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI)

Pan American Health Organization (2001). Insights into the Concepts of Stress. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from: http://www.paho.org/english/ped/stressin.htm

Rosberg, G. & Rosberg, B. (2000). The 5 Love Needs of Men & Women. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.