Evidence of resilience in families of children with autism.
Families of kids with autism often grow closer and find new meaning—track these wins and use them in treatment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bayat (2007) sent surveys to families of children with autism.
Parents answered questions about family life, stress, and positive changes.
The team looked for signs of resilience, not just struggle.
What they found
Most families listed bright spots.
They felt closer, saw the child as a gift, and grew spiritually.
Resilience showed up as stronger bonds and new meaning.
How this fits with other research
Gur et al. (2024) later found family quality of life drives 68 % of resilience.
Bolbocean et al. (2022) showed this holds even during COVID-19 stress.
Greenlee et al. (2024) flipped the lens: autistic kids themselves show bounce-back, and younger kids do it better than teens.
Together the papers say: resilience lives in the whole family system, not just the parent.
Why it matters
You can stop asking only “How stressed are you?”
Start asking “What’s going well?” and write the answers in the care plan.
Use those strengths to pick goals parents will actually chase.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Family resilience is a growing field of inquiry, investigating factors that contribute to a family's becoming stronger in spite of dealing with adversity. Despite the growing interest in studying family resilience, the topic has not been explored in families with children who have disabilities. This report, a part of a larger study--using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies--is an examination of factors of family resilience in the families of children with autism. Evidence of family resilience such as family connectedness and closeness, positive meaning-making of the disability, and spiritual and personal growth were identified and examined in this part of the study. METHOD: The study uses a survey methodology, analysing responses to several rating scales and written responses to three open-ended questions. Survey respondents consisted of 175 parents and other primary caregivers of a child with autism--ages between 2 and 18 years. RESULTS: Results suggest identification of specific resilience processes, such as: making positive meaning of disability, mobilization of resources, and becoming united and closer as a family; finding greater appreciation of life in general, and other people in specific; and gaining spiritual strength. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents evidence that a considerable number of families of children with autism display factors of resilience--reporting having become stronger as a result of disability in the family.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2007 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.00960.x