Parent and Adolescent Contributions to Family Hardiness in the Wake of a Natural Disaster

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McMillan, I. (2021). Parent and Adolescent Contributions to Family Hardiness in the Wake of a Natural Disaster. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Researchers have typically focused on individuals’ abilities to respond to natural disasters, while family processes post-disaster have received far less attention. Yet a family may be more than a sum of its parts and little is known about how the resilience and vulnerabilities of individual family members contribute to their overall perceptions of their families’ strength. To fill this gap, this study investigated how mothers’ and adolescents’ reports of their individual resilience and personal level of emotion dysregulation predicted their perceptions of family hardiness after experiencing an impactful natural disaster (i.e., a tornado that destroyed the adolescents’ high school). Data from a sample of 29 mother-adolescent dyads (Mage = 45.07 years and 16.66 years) were analyzed using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modelling. Results indicated that greater emotion regulation difficulties, but not individual resilience were predictive of higher levels of family hardiness among families surviving a natural disaster. Numerous problems with the family hardiness measure were uncovered suggesting the need for further conceptual, definitional, and measurement clarity for this construct. Thus, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Moreover, the mechanisms responsible for the findings of the current study remain subject for future research.

Details
Author

McMillan, Iris

Title

Parent and Adolescent Contributions to Family Hardiness in the Wake of a Natural Disaster

Physical Description

1 online resource (65 pages) : PDF

Date

2021

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Researchers have typically focused on individuals’ abilities to respond to natural disasters, while family processes post-disaster have received far less attention. Yet a family may be more than a sum of its parts and little is known about how the resilience and vulnerabilities of individual family members contribute to their overall perceptions of their families’ strength. To fill this gap, this study investigated how mothers’ and adolescents’ reports of their individual resilience and personal level of emotion dysregulation predicted their perceptions of family hardiness after experiencing an impactful natural disaster (i.e., a tornado that destroyed the adolescents’ high school). Data from a sample of 29 mother-adolescent dyads (Mage = 45.07 years and 16.66 years) were analyzed using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modelling. Results indicated that greater emotion regulation difficulties, but not individual resilience were predictive of higher levels of family hardiness among families surviving a natural disaster. Numerous problems with the family hardiness measure were uncovered suggesting the need for further conceptual, definitional, and measurement clarity for this construct. Thus, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Moreover, the mechanisms responsible for the findings of the current study remain subject for future research.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Psychology

Degree

M.A.

Subject Area

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Jennifer

Committee Members

Armstrong, Laura
Montanaro, Erika
DeHaven, Mark

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

McMillan_uncc_0694N_12812

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2513