Resilience among Families Where a Parent Accepted a Voluntary Teacher's Retrenchment Package

Abstract

Teachers who accepted the voluntary severance package from the South African Department of Education between 1996 and 1998 were approached to take part in this study on behalf of their families. Thirty participants completed a biographical questionnaire and the Family Index of Regenerativity and Adaptation (FIRA-G) developed by McCubbin and Thompson (1991). The results confirmed the relationship between family stressors, family strains and family distress, implying that if stressors and strains are not managed, they pile up, deplete resources and lead to family tension and stress. The results also highlighted the protective nature of good financial management, suggesting that there are measurable factors which act as crisis-meeting resources, diminish the negative impact and degree of the stressor and ultimately foster resilience and facilitate recovery. Social support was highlighted as a resilience variable.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Antonovsky

Sourani

(1988). Family sense of coherence and family adaptation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 79–92.

Baleta

(1996, June, 8/9). Scrap plan for cut backs, teachers urge. Weekend Argus, p. 15.

Barnard

(1994). Resiliency: A shift in our perception?. The American Journal of Family Therapy 22(2), 135–144.

Business Times (1999). Redeployment causes havoc. Business Times. http://www.btimes.co.za/99/0912/survey/survey09.htm. Accessed on 25 November 1999.

Craig

(1996, 13 June). Mitchell's Plain teachers threaten indefinite strike. The Argus, p. 1.

Duffy

(October 25, 1996). 17 000 teachers take retrenchment option. Mail & Guardian. http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/96oct/25oc-tea.htm. Accessed on 25 May 1999.

Duffy

(October 17, 1997). Axe teachers' showdown. Weekly Mail & Guardian. http://www.sn.apc.org/wmail/issues/971017/NEWS4.html. Accessed on 2 June 1999.

Du Toit

(1993). The Psychological effects of unemployment on black women in Sebokeng. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education.

Frude

(1991). Understanding family problems. A psychological approach. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

10.

Graney

(June 6, 1996). Union is selling teachers down the river. The Argus, p. 25.

11.

Hawley

D. R.

De Haan

(1996). Toward a definition of family resilience: Integrating life-span and family perspectives. Family Process, 35, 283–298.

12.

Jenkins

J. H.

(1997). Not without a trace: Resilience and remembering among Bosnian refugees. Psychiatry, 60, 40–43.

13.

Lavee

McCubbin

H. I.

Olson

D.H.

(1987). The effect of stressful life events and transitions on family functioning and well-being. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49(8), 857–873.

14.

Lavee

McCubbin

H. I.

Patterson

J. M.

(1985). The Double ABCX Model of Family Stress and Adaptation: An empirical test by analysis of structural equations with latent variables. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47(4), 811–825.

15.

Marsh

D. T.

Lefley

H. P.

Evans-Rhodes

Ansell

V. I.

Doerzbacher

B. M.

LaBarbera

Paluzzi

J. E.

(1996). The family experience of mental illness: Evidence for resilience. Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 20(2), 3–2.

16.

McCubbin

M. A.

(1988). Family stress, resources, and family types: Chronic illness in children. Family Relations, 37, 203–210.

17.

McCubbin

H. I.

Joy

C. B.

Cauble

A.E.

Comeau

J. K.

Patterson

J. M.

Needle

R. H.

(1980). Family stress and coping: A decade review. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 42(A), 855–867.

18.

McCubbin

H. I.

Lavee

(1986). Strengthening army families. A family life cycle stage perspective. Evaluation and Program Planning, 9, 221–231.

19.

McCubbin

H. I.

McCubbin

M. A.

(1988). Typologies of resilient families: Emerging roles of social class and ethnicity. Family Relations, 37, 247–254.

20.

McCubbin

H. I.

McCubbin

M. A.

Patterson

J. M.

Cauble

A. E.

Wilson

L. R.

Warwich

(1983). CHIP – Coping Health Inventory for Parents: An assessment of parental coping patterns in the care of the chronically ill child. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45 (2), 359–370.

21.

McCubbin

H. I.

McCubbin

M. A.

Thompson

A. I.

(1993). Resiliency in families. The role of family schema and appraisal in family adaptation to crises. In Brubaker

T. H.

(Ed.), Family Relations. Challenges for the future. (pp. 153–177). Newbury Park: Sage.

22.

McCubbin

H. I.

McCubbin

M. A.

Thompson

A. I.

Han

Chad

(1997). Families under stress: What makes them resilient. AAFCS Commemorative Lecture. http://www.cyfernet.org/research.resilient.html. Accessed on 24 September 1998.

23.

McCubbin

H. I.

Patterson

J. M.

(1983). The family stress process: The Double ABCX Model of Adjustment and Adaptation. Marriage and Family Review, 6, 7–37.

24.

McCubbin

H. I.

Thompson

A. I.

(1991). Family assessment inventories for research and practise. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.

25.

McCubbin

H. I.

Thompson

A. I.

Kretzschmar

H. O.

Smith

F. A.

Snow

P. D.

McEwen

M. A.

Elver

McCubbin

M. A.

(1992). Family system and work environment predictors of employee health risk: A discriminant function analysis. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 20(2), 123–142.

26.

McKenry

P. C.

Price

S. J.

(Eds) (1994). Families and change. Coping with stressful events. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

27.

Olson

D. H.

McCubbin

H. I.

Bames

H. L.

Muxen

M. J.

Larsen

A. S.

Wilson

M. A.

(1989). Families. What makes them work. California: Sage Publications.

28.

Otto

H. A.

(1963). Criteria for assessing family strength. Family Process, 2(2), 329–337.

29.

Patterson

J. M.

(1988). Families experiencing stress. Family Systems Medicine, 6(2), 202–237 (Work and Family Abstracts). http://www.nnfr.org/research/workfam/Patterson.html. Accessed on 12 August 1999.

30.

Reyneke

C.J.S.

(1996). Die Pastorale Begeleiding van die Persoon wat Afgedank is (Pastoral counselling of the retrenched). Unpublished master's thesis, University of Stellenbosch.

31.

Richters

J. E.

Martinez

P. E.

(1993). Violent communities, family choices and children's chances: An algorithm for improving the odds. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 609–627.

32.

Rossouw

(1996, May, 10–16). New deal wipes out education imbalances. Mail & Guardian, p. 13.

33.

Rutter

(1985). Resilience in the face of adversity. Protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 598–611.

34.

Silliman

(1994). Resiliency research review: Conceptual & research foundations. National Network for Family Resiliency, http://www.cyfernet.org/research/resilreview.html. Accessed on 29 March 1998.

35.

Schumm

W. R.

(n.d.). Beyond relationship characteristics of strong families: Constructing a model of family strengths. Family Perspective, 19(1), 1–9.

36.

Turner

J. B.

Kessler

R. C.

House

J. S.

(1991). Factors facilitating adjustment to unemployment: Implications for intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 19(4), 521–541.

37.

Walker

A. J.

(1985). Reconceptualizing family stress. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47(4), 827–837.

38.

Walsh

(1996). The concept of family resilience: Crisis and challenge. Family Process, 35(3), 261–281.

39.

White

Woollett

(1992). Families: A context for development. Contemporary Psychology Series. London: Falmer Press.

40.

Wissing

M. P.

van Eeden

(1997, September). Psychological well-being: A fortigenic conceptualisation and empirical clarification. Paper presented at the Third Annual Congress of the Psychological society of South Africa, Durban, South Africa.

41.

Wyman

P. A.

Cowen

E. L.

Work

W. C.

Raoof

Gribble

P. A.

Parker

G. R.

Wannon

(1992). Interviews with Children Who Experience Major Life Stress: Family and Child Attributes that Predict Resilient Outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 31(5), 904–910.