Family Stress Adaptation Theory of Family Stress

Family Stress Adaptation

Theory of Family Stress Adaptation

Family is the basic social unit of people sharing the same attributes. It is a group of people tied to the same kinship descent consisting of parents, guardians and children. It is necessitated that commitment and upkeep of the family be maintained, and for this reason, there has been introduced a number of theories implicating on the activities carried out in this social setting. However, amid these activities, negative attributions arise. They include marital challenges, inter-family relational problems and financial constrains, among others. These issues bring about stress related problems, leading to the development of theoretical results of how the stress should be handled and tailored. This is in conjunction to this context's topic on the theory of family stress theory adaptation by McCubbin and McCubbin.

Theory Description

The proposition of the theory asserts on the developmental perception of family science. The theoretical aspect explores the reasons behind systematic adaptation and growth of situational stressors among family units. Similarly, theses stressors have been deteriorating and disintegrating various circumstances at these special units. In understanding the core comprehension of the theory, a family's strengths, type and behavioral characteristics are to be first focused on and their role (Smith and Liehr, 2003, pg 93). Theoretical summary of the theory has led to the development of the T-Double ABCX model. It assists in the variability in the family responsive notions towards normal and abnormal stress situations. It is also attributed to the underscoring of a family importance to its patterns and functionality that are essential helpers towards adjusting and adapting to the stress situations (Smith and Liehr, 2003, pg 93).

Learnt

A significant and obvious lesson retrieved from the study of this theory is that there are major causes of stress among families. These stressors are attributed to a major crisis that submits the unit towards being apart and having other crisis to withstand. However, there are several buffer factors devised and integrated with the nursing expertise to intact families. This has been possible by the introduction of adaptive measures that strategize several models for stress adaptation (Sorensen, 2010).

Another outstanding lesson is how the theory relates to external and internal social attributes to a family. This focus has spring-boarded the fact that social isolation of a family is the first step and a key factor in dissolving a family's stress situation (Sorensen, 2010). Similarly, the connectivity of internalized family relations has had a role in sharing the perceptions during the crisis. Conjoined reputation to the crisis and deriving lessons from the crisis is a great contributor in ensuring that a family remains intact.

In a family co-existence, there are ranges of dynamics that keep on changing. These dynamics area growth factor to family functions. However, development of normal and situational stresses has caused impacting impediments towards these dynamics (Smith and Liehr, 2003, pg 91). Misfortunes, tragedies and unnecessary chaos have flourished among families with complexities related to stress affliction. The stress frameworks in comprehending their adaptation have conformed to three key components. A stress situation, its events and resources from families are some of these components used in the reception of the stressors. With the incorporation of the components and conceptualization of the model of adapting to stress, a family is puzzled out, how it conducts its functionality in stressful situations, and adaptive methods in acquiring tranquility are devised.

According to McCubbin and McCubbin, the adaptive methodology is inclusive of an active and immediate environment conjoined to societal relationships (Smith and Liehr, 2003, pg 93). In the same way, there are several overarching premises underpinned by the subjective theory. Resultant objectives retracted show-case that families face several hardships and change to natural and predictable prospects of social life. It is also evident that family units develop competencies, levels of functioning and abilities in fostering a sustainable social growth towards the family members. These also protect the unit from unexpected disruptions in transition situations. Consequently, families faced with stress situations necessitate changes in the restoration of harmony and a counter-balance amidst of the family's contribution towards community network of resources (Smith and Liehr, 2006, pg 93).

Conjunction of topic as a Nurse Practitioner

Foremost, the issue of comprehending the theory is essential in visualizing and identifying ways in which a family can manage the transitional stage of stress. Helping a family adapt to stress is directly conjoined to nursing practice. Each nursing practitioner has a depicted role in the theoretical aspect of the family stress adaptation theory. It is a meta-paradigm of nursing concerning the person under stress, environment of stress development and the health status of the stress affiliated person (Beckett, 2000). A vivid notion concerning the relation to nursing is that as a nursing practitioner, it is vital to promote a member's health, aid in recovery from any illness, maximize functionality upon health limitations, aid in maintaining linkages to societal support, support in enhancing a family's strength and assisting the said family in getting to a point of realistic appraisal (Beckett, 2000).

The theory's implication is also linked to health practice at post crisis of a person. This mainly happens when a family member is entitled to deep perception of the affecting stressors. Nurses in these situations are necessitated to understand the criticality of the illness and their trajectory response to the complex stress situation of pre and post crisis (Fitzpatrick, 2006, pg 344). Similarly, in most health institutions, there are various devices used to relate to stress adaptation that require the nurses' attention to the person undergoing adaptation. For family members undergoing stress, a Family Adaptation Device is used to take the members through the adaptive sessions. It depicts that the theory is operationalized in being most effective.