ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a number of fundamental questions about the role and impact of stress on family relationships. For example, “What are the different types of stressors that families must deal with?” “Do all stressful events have a negative impact on the family?” Through examining various models of family stress we attempt to explain the process by which families respond to stress. These models of family stress include the ABC-X model, the double ABC-X model, the family adjustment and adaptation response model, and the vulnerability stress adaptation model. Questions about the role of communication in addressing and managing stressors are taken up as well. There are also a number of important questions about the family’s response to stress such as how do families cope with stressors? The answers to these questions reveal complex and intriguing associations between the family and the stressors that they face. Further, they show that reacting and responding to stress is a complex family process that is influenced by a variety of different interacting variables.
