Whose responsibility? Resilience in families of children with developmental disabilities

Abstract

Families with children with disabilities are at higher risk of stress, financial disadvantage and breakdown. In recent decades, research and policy have shifted focus from these problems to a strengths-based approach, using concepts such as family resilience. By definition, resilience is the ability to cope in adverse circumstances, suggesting a reliance on the individual. If this is the case, then to what extent does ‘family resilience’ place another burden of responsibility onto families? Whose responsibility is family resilience? This paper begins to answer this question using interviews with parents of children with developmental disabilities based in New South Wales, Australia.

Keywords:

• family resilience
• children with developmental disabilities
• individual characteristics and beliefs
• families’ skills and practices
• access to resources

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge and express their gratitude to all parents who participated in the interviews and were willing to share their life experiences in order to help other families. They would also like to acknowledge and thank their co-authors of the original research projects on which this paper has drawn.

Notes

1. This research project was commissioned by the Australian Government Disability Policy and Research Working Group and approved by the UNSW Ethics Committee.

2. This research project was commissioned within the research project ‘Analysis of Stress Factors within Families of Children with Disabilities Living with One Parent’, approved by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, GA ČR 406/06/0779.