Family of Youth with Behaviour Problems Resilience and Interventions that Promote It − Perspective of Professionals from Social Welfare System

Abstract

Family resilience is a multidimensional concept whose understanding is an ongoing challenge for research and practice. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the
resilience characteristics of families at risk in which a child manifests behaviour problems, and into interventions that promote family resilience, from the perspective of professionals
who work with such families on a daily basis. The research involved 11 professionals working in the Centre for Social Welfare or in non-governmental organizations in the field
of social welfare. Data were collected using the focus group method and analysed using thematic analysis. Results show that the professionals recognize the complexity of risks and challenges of working with these families. They see family resilience as a relational construct and do not have a common understanding of how to conceptualize it. According to them, key features of interventions that promote family resilience are focus on family’s strengths and a systemic, timely, connected, and comprehensive approach in interventions. They emphasize that the existing system has certain vulnerabilities the result of which is that the system is sometimes an additional risk factor for families. The contribution of the research lies in the consideration of key features of interventions for families at risk and the construct of family resilience for families in which a child manifests behaviour problems.