Public Safety Personnel Family Resilience: A Narrative Review.

The families of public safety personnel (PSP) face demands that are unique to these occupations. Nonstandard work, trauma exposure, and dangerous work environments affect both workers and the families who support them. This narrative review aims to identify the stressors that PSP families experience and the support and resources needed to enhance family resilience. Due to a lack of research on PSP families, this review is a necessary first step to summarizing and interpreting a diverse body of research. The studies included addressed structural and emotional work-family conflict with reference to PSP sectors. A framework from the military family resiliency literature interprets the findings. Factors influencing family functioning and the availability and accessibility of resources provide clues about the type of skills and supports that PSP families rely on. Meaning-making, collaboration, a sense of coherence, and communication were identified as themes associated with intrafamilial processes. Extrafamilial themes included public perceptions, a lack of recognition for the roles families fulfill, and the need for information and education. The results suggest that the vulnerability of PSP families is variable and extrafamilial resources in the form of formal and informal supports are necessary to enhance family resiliency.

Family resiliency and family functioning in Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White families of preterm infants.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between resiliency factors and family functioning in families of preterm infants (< 37 weeks gestation) from two different racial groups hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used at five Level III/IV NICUs in a Midwestern city/suburbs. Seventy-nine family units (24 Non-Hispanic Black and 55 Non-Hispanic White) completed four instruments that assessed families' use of specific resiliency factors and a measure of family functioning. Demographic data were also collected. RESULTS: Using linear mixed modeling, the significant predictors of family functioning for both Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White, even after adjusting for education, income and race, were the protective factors "hardiness" (coefficient = -0.021) and "resources" (coefficient = -0.0052). The fixed effects in the model accounted for 48% (Marginal R2 = 0.48) of the variance on family functioning and the fixed and random effects accounted for 59% (Conditional R2, 0.59) of the variance on family functioning. Sixteen percent of the total sample rated their family as dysfunctional. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study suggest that assessment of protective factors related to hardiness and resources individualize nursing interventions to support the resiliency of both Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White families, regardless of differences in income and education. Further research studying resiliency in families of preterm infants is needed to understand the impact on long-term family functioning. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Understandingindividual family strengths,through the identification of resiliency (protective and recovery) factors could predict at-risk families before discharge. In collaboration with other health care professionals, nurses can assess individual family needs and strengths, within the context of their socioeconomic environment, and the racial and cultural influences that are important to the family.

The Effects of Hispanic Immigrant Mother's Resiliency on Children's Dietary Adjustment.

This study explored the adjustment phase of the resiliency model of family adjustment and adaptation, particularly how stress and food insecurity interact with protective mechanisms to influence children's dietary adjustment. With increasing rates of Hispanic childhood obesity and disproportionate health disparities, this is an issue that must be better understood. Altogether, 137 Mexican immigrant mothers from Illinois and California completed questionnaires reporting their stressors, protective mechanisms, and family health behaviors. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher perceived stress levels for mothers predicted non-nutritive snacking reasons. Furthermore, mother's dietary patterns predicted child's poor dietary quality. Taken together, maternal stressors play a role in family health behaviors, and future studies should consider household food environment factors when trying to understand protective mechanisms for families.

[Nursing care for a lung cancer patient with brain metastasis using the family resiliency model].

This article describes the experience of the author in providing nursing care to a lung cancer patient with brain metastasis who was unable to care for herself. The period of care ran from July 26th to August 7th, 2012. The focus of the article is on the problems of disease adaptation and the coping strategies of the patient and her primary caregivers. The author used the Family Resiliency Model to collect information via physical examination, observation, and interviews. Five major nursing problems were identified in this case: risk of aspiration, self-care deficits, adjustment disorder, caregiver role strain, and family coping ineffectiveness. Based on these problems, the author constructed an individualized care plan to: 1) improve the self-care ability of the patient, 2) enhance the skills of the primary caregiver, 3) recruit the timely assistance of other family members, 4) and reduce the burden of the primary caregiver. The primary goal of this care plan was to promote the quality of life of the patient and her family.

The relationship between family resiliency factors and caregiver-perceived duration of untreated psychosis in persons with first-episode psychosis.

Although the family has an important role in the early detection and intervention of first-episode psychosis (FEP), there are few findings reporting associations between family strengths and early treatment-seeking experiences. This study aimed to investigate, within the framework of the resiliency model of family stress, adjustment, and adaptation, the association between family coping strategies, resource management factors and duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in Iranian families with one adult child with FEP. Hundred and seven individuals referred to three medical centers in Tehran and diagnosed with FEP participated in this study. Caregiver-perceived DUP was measured via semi-structured interviews administered to primary caregivers. They also completed two questionnaires regarding family resources of stress management and family coping strategies. Data analysis indicated that the Family Inventory of Resources of Management (FIRM) total scale score did not significantly explain the variance of caregiver-perceived DUP, but one of the FIRM subscales, the Extended Family Social Support, and the Family Crisis-Oriented Personal Evaluation scale (F-COPES) total score and one its subscales, the Acquiring Social Support, explained a significant amount of the variance of caregiver-perceived DUP. The results suggest that higher family resiliency, especially social support, facilitates the family's appropriate adaptive reaction (i.e., treatment-seeking), with the consequent decrease of DUP.

Family Resiliency Facto for the Adaptation of Family who have a Congenital Heart Disease / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships of family strain, perceived social support, family hardiness, and family adaptation and identify the family resiliency factors for the adaptation of families who have a child with congenital heart disease. METHOD: The sample consisted of 90 families who had a child diagnosed with congenital heart disease and completed surgical treatment. Data was collected from parents using a questionnaire. RESULTS: Results from path analyses revealed that family strain had a direct effect on both perceived social support and family hardiness, and an indirect effect on family adaptation. Also, the findings revealed that perceived social support had a direct effect on both family hardiness and family adaptation, and family hardiness had a direct effect on family adaptation. Thus, these results indicated that perceived social support and family hardiness had a mediating effect on family strain. CONCLUSION: Findings provide the evidence for the theoretical and empirical significance of perceived social support and family hardiness as family resiliency factors for family adaptation. Clinical implications of these findings might be discussed in terms of family-centered nursing interventions for the families who have a child with congenital heart disease based on an understanding of family resiliency for adaptation.