Essay (70 marks)
Write an essay of 500–750 words (2–3 double-spaced word-processed pages) on one of the following topics. Be sure that you are presenting the concepts in your own words and that you include current information.
Your word-processed assignments should follow APA format for preparing your essay and citing sources.
The following rubric may be helpful in helping you organize your assignment. The rubric will also be used to mark your assignment.
Option 1: Other Family Resilience Research
You have been introduced to many family resilience factors in this module; however the effects of particular family factors protecting against other types of adversity (e.g., poor school performance) have not been discussed. Find at least two peer-reviewed journal articles that examine the protective effects of family resilience on an adversity that has not been discussed in this module. Summarize your articles, and provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion, based on evidence). Compare and contrast the articles (i.e., what similarities did you find? what differences?).
Option 2: Cross-Cultural Research in Family Resilience
Read and then summarize Cohen, Slonim, Finzi, and Leichtentritt’s journal article entitled, “Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspectives.” You may use the notes and focus questions below to guide your summary. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
Find an additional peer-reviewed journal article that examines family resilience using a cross-cultural perspective, and summarize the findings from that study. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
Compare and contrast Cohen et al.’s research article with your research article. What similarities did you find? What differences?
Notes for “Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspectives”
It is important and helpful to be aware of possible cross-cultural differences when it comes to defining “family resilience.” As you have discovered in previous papers in this course, concepts can have different meanings to different people, depending upon the culture studied. Recall, for example, the problems in generalizing research results gathered from the white, middle-class, majority culture to the urban African American minority culture. The same could be said of generalizing findings from North American cultures to other cultures such as those of the Middle East. Thus, it is important to conduct research that examines specific cultures in order to find similarities and differences among particular concepts, such as “family resilience.” This paper examines what “family resilience” means to a sample of Israeli mothers. When we think of Israel, often visions of war, violence, and political unrest come to mind. But it is important that we appreciate that Israeli citizens also deal with the day-to-day stressors that most of us are familiar with, such as family illnesses and divorce. You will see by the results of this study that Israeli mothers’ concepts of family resilience are actually very similar to North American concepts, suggesting that family resilience is a fairly universal concept.
Another important issue to note is that this study is qualitative in nature. Most studies you have read so far are quantitative. A quantitative study is number-based, such as studies whereby individuals fill out questionnaires, and numerical scores for each questionnaire are generated for each participant. These numbers are then entered into a statistical program and statistical analyses are conducted. A qualitative study, on the other hand, uses methods such as interviews, observations, and case studies to gather detailed data about a particular concept.
This study on Israeli mothers used a semi-structured interview format as well as a small sample size. Leading questions, such as asking the mothers about a recent stressful event, how they interpreted it, and how their family dealt with the stressful event, were part of the interview, along with asking the women to give a general definition of “family resilience.” Much data was generated, as the 15 interviews in this study averaged two hours each. The answers the mothers gave were then analyzed using what is called “grounded theory,” a central component of qualitative analyses. This means that common themes in the women’s answers as they related to family resilience were identified, and categories were created.
The authors of this research article explain the processes involved in analyzing interview data, such as the different types of coding that take place. Researchers often use the themes identified in qualitative analyses to create questionnaires, which can consequently be used in quantitative analyses with a larger sample size. Thus, qualitative studies are often preliminary in nature, providing a basis for the development of quantitative studies.
Focus Questions for Reading
Consider using the following questions to guide your reading and written summary of this article.
What were the goals of the present study?
Why did the authors choose to interview women from Israel, rather than from another country?
What were the five main categories identified that captured the concept of resilience for the Israeli women? Give a brief description of each category in your own words
For each category identified in question 3, give an example from the article.
What was a limitation of this study? Can you think of any other limitations?
Option 3: Foster Children and Family Resilience
Read and then summarize Schwartz’s journal article entitled, “Family Resilience and Pragmatic Parent Education.” You may use the notes and focus questions below to guide your summary. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence). You may also want to consider some of the issues raised in Lucy LeMare’s case of the Romanian orphan interviews.
Find an additional peer-reviewed journal article that examines family resilience, using an educational perspective, and summarize the findings from that study. Once you have summarized the article, provide your informed reaction (i.e., your opinion based on evidence).
Compare and contrast Schwartz’s (and LeMare’s, if you have chosen to include it) research with your research article. What similarities did you find? What differences?
Notes for “Family Resilience and Pragmatic Parent Education”
What if we could teach parents how to build resilience into their families? As we have seen in past research, family resilience may protect both parents and children from adversity. Consider the case of foster children, who have often had their share of adversity. They are usually born into unstable home environments where they often experience abuse and/or neglect. This kind of family background may put these children at risk for developing emotional issues such as depression or behavioural issues such as delinquency. Furthermore, many foster children have been moved from one foster care home to another, adding to the instability of their situation. Thus, it is particularly important for foster parents to build protective factors into their parenting and into their family unit in order to help buffer the past, present, and future adverse effects of being a foster child.
Focus Questions for Reading
Consider using the following questions to guide your reading and written summary of this article.
What are some of the problems with generic present-day parent education programs?
Why might a very structured family environment work with young children, but cause adolescent children to rebel?
Describe a strength of the foster care system.
What was the purpose of the Family Resilience Project?
Re: case study: Why do you think a delay in responding to the foster child’s behavioural outbursts was less successful than responding right away?
Re: case study: Why do you think rigidity in responding to the foster child’s behavioural outburst was less successful than flexibility in responding?
Criteria for Evaluating Assignments
Here is a set of criteria that will form the basis for evaluating the essay portion of the written assignments.
Substance (75 per cent)
The essay provides evidence of critical thinking and analysis as well as synthesis of researched information throughout, and presents a logical and persuasive argument.
Research sources are relevant, current, and credible. They are clearly documented in the paper.
The introduction offers a sense of direction for the paper and presents a clear thesis statement to the reader.
The body develops the necessary aspects of the main idea and provides examples, support, or illustration for each aspect of the main idea.
The conclusion summarizes the main points and ties them to the thesis; it also presents an impact statement and/or suggests direction for future research.
Writing Style and Format (25 per cent)
Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
The writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
The format follows the APA documentation style accurately and consistently.
Last Completed Projects
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