Content area
Full text
Abstract
Using the family resilience model, we examined the association between empowerment, family member age, length of institutionalization, and resilience among family members of relatives with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) following deinstitutionalization. Participants included 56 family members whose relatives with IDD recently transitioned to community living. Results strongly indicate empowerment plays a key role in positive family adaptation. Thus, following a relative's move from an institution to the community, empowerment is a promising form of protection that holds potential to increase family resilience. The results of the current study support the family resilience model as a foundation for future research regarding how families navigate significant transitions throughout the lifespan. Implications for practice and policy are provided.
Key Words: deinstitutionalization; family empowerment; family resilience; intellectual and developmental disabilities
Families of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience unique challenges across the lifespan (see Fujiura, 2010; Given, Given, Sherwood, & DeVoss, 2013; Heller, Gibbons, & Fisher, 2015; Hewitt, Agosta, Heller, Williams, & Reinke, 2013). Although some families function well despite significant risk (Bayat, 2007), resilience among families of individuals with IDD is not well understood. Because family members are the largest providers of care for individuals with IDD in the United States (Larson et al., 2017), it is imperative that families be adequately supported. Thus, ongoing work is necessary to enhance understanding of what helps families navigate significant transitions throughout the lifespan with resilience (Henry, Morris, & Harrist, 2015).
One factor with potential to afford protection to families during transitions involving service provision is family empowerment. For the purpose of the current study, family empowerment is operationalized as family skills and knowledge to navigate complex systems in order to access needed services. Family empowerment includes family members' attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding their ability to control and affect change in their lives and for others at the family, social system, and larger community and political levels (see Koren, DeChillo, & Friesen, 1992). Despite the importance of recent research emphasizing advocacy programs to increase family empowerment (Burke, Magana, Garcia, & Mello, 2016; Burke & Sandman, 2017; Taylor, Hodapp, Burke, Waitz-Kudla, & Rabideau, 2017), little is known about if or how empowerment translates into family resilience during times of significant change. Based on the family resilience...