Research shows that families with "resiliency" are able to adapt, to change in the face of risk factors. Risk factors are those hazards that increase the likelihood of a negative outcome for families. They may be biological, economic, social and psychosocial in nature. The economic hazards of reduced income and increased debt brought on by conditions like drought or flood are particularly challenging to farm families and agriculturally-related families. Figure 3 shows some risk factors that vary from normal transitions of life to catastrophic occurrences.

Family resiliency is the capacity of the family to retain, maintain or regain their ability to function after being challenged by expected events that arise in the course of family living and events that are unforeseen. Even the best of families are sometimes hard-put to adjust to and cope with the challenges that go beyond the ordinary stresses and strain that are part of family living over time. And, an event or series of events that pushes one family into a state of crisis, or a risk of crisis, may not do so to others. Or, given the timing of the event in the life cycle, the family may handle the triggering event differently. Why?

In part, the answer lies within the family and in part, within the community or greater environment.3 Research shows that families with the most resiliency-or bounce-back-ability--have both protective and recovery factors sufficient to offset or overcome the triggering event.⁴

Protective Factors

Protective factors mitigate the impact of the triggering event. They vary by race, ethnicity and social class. For example, Caucasian families often have more factors; African-American families have a more limited range and scope of factors; families with greater financial resources may have more options for handling a crisis requiring money.

An understanding of which factors are most important for a family requires an understanding of which stage in which they are in the family life cycle. Stages include those of:

• Couple
• Childbearing/School Age
• Teenage/Young Adult
• Empty Nest & Retirement

Stages of the life cycle affect both the experience of the family in handling crisis and the resources available. For example, a health crisis might be more manageable for some older empty nest/retirement families than for a family in the child bearing years. A financial crisis might be less manageable for those on a fixed income than those with the ability to increase income. For a couple just starting life together, they may lack the experience base upon which longer-term couples have to draw.

Across the life cycle, research shows that the most prominent protective factors are:

• Family time and routines
• Family celebrations
• Family traditions
• Family hardiness

Other factors that appear include:

• Family communication
• Personality compatibility
• Financial management
• Family accord
• Health
• Support network
• Shared values around leisure time

If a family shares these factors going into challenges, they are more likely to have the elasticity and buoyancy needed to bounce back. That is, they have the ability to adapt.

Recovery Factors

Recovery factors are those which a family needs following a triggering event to regain family functioning. They include the ability to use the family's own resources and capabilities as a first response. The family may need to change patterns of function and, if possible, to change the adverse condition.

Again, research reveals several key factors:

• Family integration-ability to keep the family together and maintain an optimistic outlook
• Family support-access to support from others
• Self-esteem and confidence-attitudes that the event can be handled
• Family control and organization-ability to establish and follow rules and procedures
• Family advocacy-ability to affect change in social, economic or political arenas where policies, programs and practices may be unsupportive or counter to family needs.
• Family meaning-ability to define and explain situation so as to legitimize changes, achieve harmony and acceptance and put the situation into a context that lessens pain and trauma.
• Family schema-creation of an internal sense of shared values, beliefs, expectation and rules to guide and shape the family.

General Factors

Research also indicates there are general factors that are emerging

• Family problem solving communication-patterns that affirm (convey support and caring which calm the reaction, increase potential for recovery, minimize risk for dysfunction and lead to solutions) and that incite (create upsetting and disturbing responses which may undermine the ability to adapt).
• Equality-members are equality and constructively supported as they mutually contribute to the adjustment and adaptation in relation to the event.
• Spirituality-through spiritual beliefs and practices, families can face situations not explained by reasoning and logic alone.
• Flexibility-roles, rules, meanings, lifestyles adjusted to achieve harmony and balance .
• Truthfulness-among both family members and helping others personnel, truth fills in the gaps caused by lack of clarity regarding options and outcomes.
• Hope-with clarity about desires and wishes and a confident expectation of the fulfillment of wishes or desires, the family can reduce the sense of helplessness.
• Family Hardiness-when taxed to the limit, family members rally and pull together through shared commitment creating a collective strength to control and influence the outcome.
• Family time and routines-practices work together to develop patterns of behavior and function that produce predictability and stability in which harmony and balance can emerge and exist.
• Social Support-draws from a network of relationships to facilitate durability, develop coping strategies, foster the family's ability to change and receive supplemental resources. Includes five dimensions-emotional, esteem, network, appraisal, altruistic.
• Health-state of physical, emotional, psychological and interpersonal health and well-being contribute to the prevention and recovery from risk factors

For families seeking to bounce back from the hard ground of the drought, or to stay afloat when flood waters come, an audit of their resiliency may be in order. By reviewing the above factors, they can take stock of what they have going for them. Where they are less than fully protected or stocked up on recovery and general factors, they may be ready for assistance from those in the community such as Cooperative Extension Educators who can support them as they find ways to regain stability and strengthen their families.⁵

Life has a way of bringing challenges to all who live long enough. For those families in agriculture, the next weather challenge could be continued drought, flood, fire, ice or snow. There could be government changes in zoning or regulations or family changes like turning over the operation to a new generation. The family that wants to stay in the business will need to find a way to balance family living and business operations such that it proves right the adage:

⁵ McCoy. J. (Ed.)., "Family Resiliency: Building Strengths to meet Life's Challenges," Iowa State University Extension, l995. Return to top