Against the odds: Resilience in the context of the family stress model

The special issue brings together studies that offer new knowledge and insights about individual and family factors, and multilevel combinations of factors that compensate for or counteract the processes outlined in the family stress model. Studies demonstrate the applicability of the family stress model to processes operating during markedly different developmental periods (e.g., infancy, later adulthood) and to environmental stressors whose origins are essentially noneconomic in nature (e.g., earthquake). Studies also continue the vital work of expanding and strengthening the family stress model by incorporating culturally relevant risks and protective processes at the individual, family, and structural levels. Some of the critical tasks that lie ahead include giving attention to measurement issues, the robustness and replicability of findings, and families (e.g., African American) and family subsystems (e.g., father-child dyad, siblings, marital or conjugal subsystem, extended family subsystem) that are underrepresented in the research literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).