DeclarationBy submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. First and foremost, I would like to thank the families that agreed to participate in this study.Without their input this study would not have been possible.Thank you also to Mr Davis, the principal of the Dorothea School in Cloetesville, for his help in identifying families meeting the selection criteria and for facilitating my contact with these families.A big thank you to my supervisor, Professor Abraham Greeff, for his ongoing patience, support and encouragement, not to mention all his valuable input regarding the research design, the implementation thereof and ultimately, the writing of this document.Thank you to Professor Martin Kidd for conducting the statistical analyses of the data, and for patiently explaining away any uncertainties.To my siblings and all my friends, thank you for the emotional and practical support provided.And last, but definitely not least, a big thank you to my wonderful parents. Thank you for your continuing and unconditional love and support, and for believing in me even when I didn't. I couldn't have done it without you! iv SUMMARY Family resilience refers to the family's ability to overcome adversity using inherent and/or acquired strengths and resources. The aim of this study was to identify factors contributing to the successful adaptation, or resilience, of families following the birth or diagnosis of a child with a developmental disability. The study is based on the theoretical frameworks of family resilience proposed by and Walsh (2003) Quantitative data was analysed through analyses of variance, Pearson product-moment correlations and a multiple regression analysis. The qualitative data was analysed using thematic content analysis. These analyses revealed that an acceptance of the situation, positive patterns of family communication, commitment and support within the family unit, and a positive attitude with regard to new experiences and challenges facilitate family adaptation and resilience, while negative patterns of communication within the family were found to be inversely related to family adaptation. An inverse association was also found between age of the child with a disability and family adaptation. These findings suggest some possible avenues of intervention by which the adaptation of families with a child with a developmental disability in South Africa can be facilitated or supported. v OPSOMMING Gesinsveerkragtigheid verwys na die gesin se vermoë om terugslae en teenspoed te oorkom deur die gebruik van bestaande en aangeleerde sterktes en hulpbronne. Die doel van die huidige studie was om kwaliteite te identifiseer wat tot die aanpassing, en dus veerkragtigheid, van gesinne met 'n kind met 'n ontwikkelingsgestremdheid bydra...