Open AccessFamily Hardiness and Parent and Family Functioning in Households with Children Experiencing Adverse Life Conditions: a Meta-Analysis
Author(s) -
Carl J. Dunst
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.23
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 2011-7922
pISSN - 2011-2084
DOI - 10.21500/20112084.5236
Subject(s) - hardiness (plants) , psychology , family life , anxiety , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , biology , gender studies , sociology , horticulture , cultivar
Objective: The purposes of the meta-analysis were to evaluate the relationship between family hardiness and different dimensions of parent and family functioning in households experiencing adverse child or family life events and circumstances and determine if family hardiness had either or both stress-buffering and health-enhancing effects on parent and family functioning. Method: Studies were included if the correlations between family hardiness and different dimensions of parental or family functioning were reported. The synthesis included 53 studies (N = 4418 participants) conducted in nine countries between 1992 and 2017. Results: showed that family hardiness was related to less parental stress, anxiety/depression, and parenting burden/demands and positively related to parental global health, well-being, and parenting practices. Results also showed that family hardiness was negatively related to family stress and positively related to family life satisfaction, adaptation, and cohesion. The effects sizes between family hardiness and positive parent and family functioning indicators were larger than those for stress-buffering indicators. Child and family life events and child age moderated the relationship between family hardiness and family but not parental functioning. Conclusion: The results are consistent with the hypothesis that family hardiness is an internal resource that simultaneously has stress-buffering and health-enhancing effects on parent and family functioning.