Resiliência familiar em contexto de pobreza urbana

: a percepção das famílias sobre forças familiares, resiliência individual e stress percebido

Abstract

The general goal of this work is to study family resilience in families living a situation of urban poverty, based on their perception of family strengths, individual resilience and perceived stress. Considering that study resulted from the need felt by the professional practice of adopting a positive view on the functioning of these families and their members, another goal was, therefore, added to study which consists on apprehending its implications on the population under analysis so as to enable intervention. The sample is made up of 61 adults of both genders, with ages from 18 to 77, from a population of 31 families living in poverty in the municipality of Lisbon. The following self-reporting tools were used: the inquiry on family strengths Questionário de Forças Familiares (Melo & Alarcão, 2011); the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003; Portuguese version by Anjos & Ribeiro, 2008); the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Tamarck & Mermelstein, 1983; Portuguese version by Rocha & Ribeiro, 2008, cit. by Rocha, 2009); and last, a social and demographic inquiry. The results show that participants are able to perceive the strengths of their family - the family processes associated to resilience - meaning that they can identify the positive aspects of their functioning. Furthermore, they’ve shown to have a good perception level on the individual resilience scale as well as an average level on the perceived stress. These results underline how important it is to think of a family centered intervention based on strengths, which is likely to operate a positive social change in a situation of urban poverty.

Date of Award	Sept 2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Teresa M. L. da Silveira Rodrigues Ribeiro (Supervisor)