Family Stress Theory [electronic resource] : Review and Critique / Suzanna D. Smith.
In the Double ABCX Model, family stress is defined as an imbalance in demands (the A factor: stressor event, related hardships, prior strains), and capabilities or resources (the B factor). The family's definition (C factor) of the imbalance influences its impact. When the family is unable to b...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1984.
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| Summary: | In the Double ABCX Model, family stress is defined as an imbalance in demands (the A factor: stressor event, related hardships, prior strains), and capabilities or resources (the B factor). The family's definition (C factor) of the imbalance influences its impact. When the family is unable to balance demands and capabilities without making a change in its structure and interaction patterns, a crisis (X) occurs. The Double ABCX Model as a theory of family stress presents some problems: unclear definitions of concepts; a structural, static model; and the fact that the theory is actually not a theory, but a scale model. These conceptual and theoretical weaknesses limit the usefulness of this model. Potential solutions to some of these problems can be found in a transactional paradigm which represents human behavior as a relational process between the person and the environment, and which captures the dynamic process of response to stress. Family paradigms as regulators of family-environment transactions, stages of the coping process, and variables affecting coping are promising areas of study. (NRB) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED255819. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations (San Francisco, CA, October 16-20, 1984). |
| Physical Description: | 21 p. |
| Audience: | Researchers. |