Stress, Coping, Adaptation & Resilience In Swedish and American Families
Audio File
- Differentiate between maternal stressors, methods of adapting, and levels of resilience among Swedish and American mothers.
- Identify the potential relationship between social benefits and mother’s adaptation and levels of resilience among Swedish and American mothers.
- Explore ways in which nurses could translate findings into action.
Design: Mixed method using survey data and narrative inquiry
Setting: Setting was typically in family homes in the Skåne area of southern Sweden, Central Florida, and one inner city project in a metropolitan city in Kentucky
Patients/Participants: 44 mothers; 14 Swedish, 15 middle-class Caucasian American, and 15 African American residing in an urban housing project.
Methods: Mothers completed a demographic survey, two quantitative instruments, and a private audio-taped interview, which was transcribed and rated based on a model of family resiliency. Themes were identified, verified and appropriate identification and labeling of themes among the raters confirmed.
Results: Data analysis revealed protective factors outweighed vulnerability and risk factors however, protective factors manifested themselves differently. American mothers depended factors external to themselves, whereas Swedish mothers reported internal dimensions. Vulnerability occurred differently in the mothers. Quantitative data are currently being analyzed.
Conclusion/Implications for nursing practice: Results enhance scientific knowledge about stress, adaptation, resilience, and cross national research of families with children. Analysis indicates that a relationship exists between Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Need and the adaptation of mothers to stressors in their everyday life and resilience of families. The survey and narrative responses of Swedish mothers indicate that they experience high self-esteem and many indicate attribute of self-actualization. Middle class American mother responses indicate that their ability to be resilient when faced with stressors is based on relationships belonging, friendship, & intimacy. Poor African American mother’s responses were clearly in the hierarchy’s areas of security, employment, physiologic and safety needs. Since many of the findings relate in some way to overall social benefits, additional research should be focused on developing social policy to increase select benefits that improve maternal adaptation, family resilience, and quality of family life.
NOTE: Examples of the very poignant words of the mothers in this study will be shared.
Keywords: Maternal resilience; Family resilience; Adaptation; Maslow’s Hierarchy
