Rethinking resilience in families of children with disabilities: a socioecological approach

Abstract

This paper explores resilience in families of children with disabilities in the Province of Alberta, Canada. Utilizing Ungar's social ecology of resilience, we present an analysis of 78 responsive interviews drawn from a three-year multimethod study. We show that families who reported doing well were able to conduct their lives with a ‘business as usual’ approach to their daily lives, in contrast to families who were struggling and had reported that disability had overtaken their day-to-day routines and activities. Exploring factors that led to these experiences, we show the importance of social context in understanding family ‘well-doing’ in families with disability. The policy and program implications of our findings are discussed.

Cet article traite de la résilience de famille d’enfants infirmes, dans la province de l’Alberta, Canada. En utilisant l’écologie sociale de résilience, de Ungar, nous présentons une analyse de 78 entretien réalisés au cours d’une études multi-méthode de trois années. Nous montrons que les familles qui signalent bien s’en sortir étaient capables de mener leur vie avec une approche quotidienne«  comme d’habitude », en opposition aux familles en difficulté qui relatent que l’infirmité a chamboulé leur routine et activités quotidienne. En explorant les différents facteurs qui ont mené à ces ressentis, nous montrons l’importance du contexte social dans la compréhension des familles qui s’en sortent bien dans les familles avec une infirmité. Les implications de nos recherches en termes de politique et programme sont discutées.

Keywords:

• disability
• resilience
• social ecology
• qualitative
• families

Mots-clés:

• infirmité
• résilience
• écologie sociale
• qualitatif
• familles

Notes on contributors

Rhonda Breitkreuz is an Associate Professor of family ecology in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta where she leads the Gender, Family, and Policy Studies Initiative. Her research interests include the integration of work and family, gender and family, and the implications of social policy for individual and family well-being.

Laura Wunderli is a BSC graduate from the Department of Human Ecology where she worked as a research assistant for Rhonda Breitkreuz. She was awarded a prestigious scholarship through the University Research Initiative at the University of Alberta to assist on the development of this research on families of children with disability.

Amber Savage is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta, and the research coordinator for the Family and Disability Studies Initiative. Her doctoral work is focused on examining disability-based disparities in the subjective well-being of young people and exploring potential pathways connecting early childhood life conditions to youth subjective well-being outcomes.

David McConnell is Professor and Director of the Family and Disability Studies Initiative, Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta. Spanning two decades, his primary areas of research include child and youth protection, disability-based inequalities in health, parents and parenting with intellectual disability, and sustainable family care-giving.

Notes

1. All participant names in this article have been changed to pseudonyms to protect the confidentiality of the participants.

2. Although Tulsa and Pradip indicate here that they benefited from a hospital interpreter, they did speak English and our research interview with them was conducted in English.