Background. A challenge is considered a “wake-up call” for family resilience, requiring a proper response (willingness to evaluate, understand an event and its signals, and also give an adequate response). Family resilience is defined as an adequate response to challenges, that is, the ability to cope with them based on the cultural-historical context and family resources, such as clear and open family communication and connectedness, the use of social resources, a broad system of values ​​and senses, the ability to derive meaning from adversity, acceptance, and flexibility. Objective. This article reports on a study which aimed to analyze components of the resilience of Russian families in response to life circumstances that have become challenges for them. Design. The study was conducted from March 20 to May 7, 2022. Participants took an online survey on Yandex-forms; the link to the survey was distributed through social networks on public pages and in private messages. Two hundred seventy-four (274) representatives of Russian families responded, including 234 women and 40 men (14.6%) ranging from age 17 to 65 (cf. 34.1+12.5). After removing the data of 15 participants who did not report a negative event in their families, the final sample consisted of 259 people. Results. Challenges for modern Russian families can be categorized as loss challenges, relationship challenges, global challenges, challenges of illness, and challenges of financial well-being. The challenges of loss stimulate flexibility of response, acceptance, and overcoming suffering through mutual understanding. Global challenges and the challenges of illness awaken family spirituality. The ability to discuss problems together and share decision making becomes a resource to meet the challenge of families’ financial well-being. Confidence in solving problems and a positive outlook become resources to face relationship challenges. The intensity of events is a signal for a family to evoke communication and connectedness, acceptance, and flexibility, as well as family resilience as a whole. Conclusion. There is a connection between the difficulties that respondents regard as challenges and the characteristics of their family resilience; the most adequate response to challenges is to increase family resilience.

The problem of the research is important in the context of psychological assistance and interaction with adolescents with disabilities. The study aimed to carry out a comparative analysis of the resilience profiles of adolescents with congenital (cerebral palsy), acquired disabilities (oncology, rheumatic diseases) and healthy peers. The study involved 51 adolescents with cerebral palsy, 61 with oncological diseases, 51 with rheumatic diseases and 86 conditionally healthy adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old. In total it embraced 249 teenagers (mean age 14.94+1.48), of which 128 were male and 121 were female. There were used the following methods: the “Victimity” questionnaire (M.A. Odintsova, N.P. Radchikova), “Resilience Test” (E.N. Osin, E.I. Rasskazova) and “COPE” questionnaire (E.I. Rasskazova, T.O. Gordeeva, E.N. Osin). The study revealed significant differences in the resilience profiles of adolescents from different groups: healthy teenagers are mainly characterized by unstable and resilient profiles; adolescents with oncology and rheumatic diseases — by all three profiles; adolescents with cerebral palsy — by victim and unstable ones. The female part of the sample, unlike the male part, are characterized by unstable and victim profiles. The most significant differences in groups with different resilience profiles were found in coping strategies related to the dysfunctional coping style. The use of coping strategies: behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, concentration on emotions and humor leads to a decrease in resilience in the boys of the entire sample. Concentration on emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, and infrequent use of active coping are predictors of reduced resilience in girls.

Aim. Empirical validation of the projective technique of K. Adams «Space of Trees and Light». Method. The study involved 298 people, including 245 women and 53 men aged 18 to 65 years (average age 33.89+12.7). There were used the following methods: Questionnaire «Family Emotional Communications» by A.B. Kholmogorova, S.V. Volikova, M.G. Sorokova; Questionnaire «Experience in Close Relationships» by K.A. Chistopolskaya and co-authors; projective technique «Space of Trees and Light» by K.Adams. Results and conclusions. The results given by the projective technique «Space of Trees and Light» are in correlations with the characteristics of family dysfunctions and displays of emotional attachment of adults in close relationships. Statistical analysis of the data showed that the groups of respondents who chose a picture symbolizing one or another version of the child’s spiritual world are characterized by specific profiles of family emotional communications and the experience in close relationships. Answers to additional questions to the technique help to clarify these features. The choice of a picture that symbolizes one or another social situation of development in the parental family acts as a kind of heuristic that allows one to build hypotheses about the features of family emotional communications and about the experience in building close relationships. The technique «Space of Trees and Light» can deepen empirical research and replenish the arsenal of techniques and methods in the practical activities of psychologists.