|
Article Excerpt
Throughout history, families have dealt with stress and crises. Hill's 1949 ABC-X model of family stress remains a useful tool for identifying the different components that affect how successfully families cope with stress. Paul's letter to the Philippians expands and illustrates this model. Therapists working with Christian families and individuals can use this model and Paul's epistle as a structure to help identify the type of stressor being experienced, explore family resources, and evaluate the individual's or family's meaning of the stressor, helping them to respond successfully to stress.
**********
The study of family stress began in the 1930s as scholars investigated how individuals and their families coped with economic loss and other upheavals of the Great Depression, noting that some families adapted more successfully than others (Boss, 2002). Hill, as a result of studying families who dealt with the stress related to father absence during World War II, developed his ABC-X family crisis model in 1949 (Hill, 1958), which was one of the earliest theoretical explanations of how families vary in their responses to stress (Boss, 2002). Although subsequent theorists have expanded and reconfigured his model (e.g., Carter & McGoldrick, 1999; McCubbin & Patterson, 1983; Patterson, 2002), Hill's basic conceptualization remains a useful tool for identifying the components that determine how successfully a family manages stressful events. This model also provides a useful lens through which to interpret Paul's epistle to the Philippians, and conversely the epistle provides an opportunity to illustrate the model.
BACKGROUND OF FAMILY STRESS RESEARCH
This article will adopt Boss's (2002) definition of stress as a condition where the demands of one's environment exceed one's resources, causing a decline in coping ability, and her definition of family as "a continuing system of interacting persons bound together by processes of shared rituals and rules even more than by shared biology" (p. 18). These combined definitions thus view family stress as a condition where the demands of the environment exceed the individual and collective resources of the family, causing a disturbance in the family system (Hobfoll & Spielberger, 2003).
Stress is a normal part of family experience, in light of the inevitability that the family will grow and develop, causing change to occur within the family system (Boss, 2002). This change, which can be either positive or negative, is essentially equivalent to family stress (McKenry & Price, 2005). The impact of change on the family depends upon how adequately a family either manages or adapts to stress and how effectively the family's resources allow them to cope (Madden-Derdich & Herzog, 2005; McKenry & Price, 2005). Generally, family stress becomes problematic when the level of stress causes a disturbance within the family system or its individual family members (Boss, 2002; McKenry & Price, 2005).
Copper and Dewe (2004) state that stress often negatively affects an individual's physical health and psychological well-being in addition to causing a negative impact on the individual's family-life and work-life, such as an increase in sick leave, burn-out, insurance costs, and even premature death. These costs not only affect the stressed individual but also the family and surrounding community. Because stress is so detrimental to society, Copper and Dewe (2004) believe that studying stress is our "moral responsibility" (p. 118).
THE ABC-X MODEL
Hill's (1958) model of family stress helps to explain why some families "sink" or fall into crisis when dealing with stress while other families "swim" or cope. His model consists of three variables, A, B, and C, which interact to bring about a product, X (Boss, 2002). The framework for the ABC-X model is as follows, "A (the event) interacting with B (the family's crisis-meeting resources) interacting with C (the definition the family makes of the event) produces X (the crisis)" (Hill, 1958, p. 141).
Stressor Events (The A Factor)
The stressor event is defined as an occurrence, positive or negative, that either changes or has the potential to change the family system (Boss, 2002; McCubbin & Patterson, 1983; McKenry & Price, 2005). Any change in the family system can cause stress, including change in the family's values, roles, functions, and boundaries (McKenry & Price, 2005). Boss (2002) notes the amount of stress is related to the type of stressor event.
Stressor events are classified according to their source, type, duration, and density (Boss, 2002; Madden-Derdich & Herzog, 2005). First, the source of stressor events can be either internal or external. Internal stressor events start within the family and are controlled by the family, e.g., deciding to have a child. External events start outside the family and are not under the family's control, e.g., a hurricane or terrorism (Boss, 2002; McCubbin & Patterson, 1983).
Second, Boss (2002) suggests three types of stressor events: 1) normative or nonnormative, 2) ambiguous or clear, and 3) volitional or nonvolitional. Normative events are predictable because they are cultural expectations or are a part of the developing family, e.g., a child starts school or a grandparent dies (McKenry & Price, 2005). Normative stressor events rarely lead to crisis because most families are able to predict and prepare for the changes that will take place whereas nonnormative events are highly stressful because of their lack of predictability. Examples of nonnormative stressor events are the loss of a job or a car accident (Boss, 2002; McKenry & Price, 2005).
Ambiguous stressor events are those for which the family is unable to clarify what is happening, to whom, and for how long. When the facts surrounding...
|
