Family Resilience

Abstract

Families are bound to experience adversities, which can be a single event or persist for many years, such as the diagnosis and prognosis of dementia, or the process of caring for a family member with cancer. When such life disruptions occur, family members have to renegotiate roles while adapting to a new normal. Resilience is a discursive practice that family members engage in when normalcy is disrupted. This entry introduces two communication theories addressing family resilience. Buzzanell's communication theory of resilience provides insights into how family members experience and achieve resilience in difficult health communication contexts. The theory of resilience and relational load presented by Afifi and colleagues identifies four propositions that all identify communicative maintenance, communal orientation, and emotional reserve as central in understanding how families perform resilience in the face of difficult change. Research in applied topics as they relate to the theories of resilience is offered, as well as an overview of future research pathways in the areas of health and resilience as they involve family communication.