All families experience stress: the adjustment period when an infant is born; the many problems engendered by adolescents; role, dual-career, and work demands; environmental and societal problems; sexuality; divorce ; marital tension; and the stress inherent in single parenting and step-parenting. In addition, families are frequently confronted by unexpected, stress-causing catastrophes: chronic illness and death; addiction; abandonment by a spouse; unemployment; rape; national and international political crises; and natural disasters.
Stress and the Family is a comprehensive, well organized two-volume set which shows how the family produces and reacts to stress-causing situations and problems, and identifies a wide range of stress sources - those "normal," gradual, and cumulative life stressors commonly related to intimate family interaction and development, and those sudden, unpredictable, and often overwhelming stress-causing events or circumstances arising outside the family micro system. In particular, the contributors focus on functional and dysfunctional methods by which family members
cope with stress. In addition to providing the reader with up-to date information on research on stress in the family life cycle, these volumes offer therapists, policymakers, educators, and students a variety of effective intervention strategies for helping families identify resources and deal successfully with stress.
Each chapter in both volumes follows a careful plan. First, a case vignette is presented which highlights the particular transition or catastrophic event. Then the latest research in the area under investigation is discussed, functional and dysfunctional patterns of family coping in specific stress situations are analyzed, and the implications and strategies which concern both therapists and policymakers are presented. Throughout the volumes, the emphasis is on how family strengths can be developed and marshalled to combat the destructive effects of stress.