ABSTRACT
One key fi nding of our American Families of Faith research project is that (instead of being defeated by challenges) strong families fi nd ways to effectively cope with and grow closer through stressful situations. Interestingly, six decades ago, Jeff Hill’s uncle, family sociologist Reuben Hill, began to conceptually and empirically examine why some families succumb to crisis as a result of a stressful situation, while other families remain resilient. While stress can lead to crisis, crisis can also lead to familial resilience and the ability of the family to better cope with future stressors. Different families obviously have different strengths and weaknesses. Hill (1958) referred to family strengths and assets as resources. In the context of this book on religion and families, we note that for families that identify as highly religious (including most of those in the American Families of Faith project), their religion is a multi-faceted resource that can help through providing meaning (e.g., through spiritual beliefs), coping behaviors (e.g., through
sacred personal and familial rituals), and social support (e.g., through local faith community). In those families, couples, and individuals for whom religion is central, turning to religion is a frequent collective response to a stressful situation. We next examine religious coping in more detail.
