DIS 499/599: Overview: Module 1: Topic 2: Lesson
Week 3: 1/28 - 2/3
1. To complete this assignment successfully you should carefully study the 2 models of coping and adaptation that follow.
2. Keep the models in mind as you move on to the next activities in this topic.
1. DOMINANT MODEL OF ADJUSTMENT AND COPING
Objectives
*
To become aware the model which has dominated popular understanding of the
experience of families with members with disabilities
*
To recognize the contributions of this model
*
To identify the problems and areas of misfit with experience of this model
*
To identify the characteristics and contributions of models to understanding
* To experience the need for models to change and grow as our understanding and experience changes
The model we are looking at here is the Kübler-Ross (1969) stage model:
Significant Change
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Preparatory Depression
Acceptance
Some of the
positive aspects of this model is that it "allows" people to
experience a range of emotions, and consider the progression normal.
It gives a framework for people to understand what they are going
through, and gives them the eventual expectation that things will feel better.
It gives explanations to people working with families for the reactions
of people to the supports and services offered.
A negative aspect of this model is that it is linear--people are supposed to progress in a direction, ideally ultimately reaching adjustment. This model does allow for some movement back and forth, but is primarily progressive and linear. The model was developed to deal with death--a single terminal event, where life with a person with challenges is on-going. This model was developed to deal with loss--with a negative event. The model sets up expectations for families that may not parallel the real experience for the family--i.e., at one point they are supposed to be in denial; they are eventually supposed to come to acceptance; they are experiencing a sense of loss. This model can often lead to stereotyping families, labeling them as "stuck" in one of the negative stages--anger, denial, etc.. This can feel patronizing, because it presumes that the helper knows what the family is going through.
2. A CURRENT MODEL OF ADJUSTMENT AND COPING
Objectives
* To build familiarity with the model currently dominating research on family adjustment and coping (ABCX)
* To identify the times of greatest stress for families
* To understand the cyclical or recurring nature of emotion for families
Before the 1980's,
most of the research on families focused on risk.
The emphasis was on factors that weakened families, different stressors
that resulted in negative adjustment of families.
You will find a large number of articles dealing with divorce rates among
families with children with disabilities; articles dealing with out-of-home
placement, with depression among mothers, with abuse and neglect, etc.
The instruments used in research included the Beck Depression Inventory,
the Parental Stress Index, and others we will examine in the section on
assessment.
In the early 80's, researchers such as the Turnbulls and colleagues at the Beach Center in Kansas, George Singer and Larry Irwin in Oregon, Carl Dunst in North Carolina began to ask a different question. What about the families that didn't fall apart? What about the families who reported that the experience of having a child with a disability was a positive experience? The families who indicated they had become stronger? The focus changed to the study of family resiliency. What are the factors that intervene as families live with the situation and interpret its meaning for themselves?
Looking for models that would explain positive adjustment, researchers rediscovered the work of Reuben Hill from the late 1940's. He had studied families where the stressful event was the separation of soldiers who had to fight in World War II from their wives and children. Why did some families adjust well and others badly? His model is known as the ABCX Model, where A is the stressor or stressful event, X is the outcome (or sometimes the crisis, when negative), and B and C are intervening variables. B is the supports available, either internally, such as knowledge or experience, or externally such as extended family or services.
A = Stressful Event
B = Resources, Supports
C = Perception and Interpretation of the Event and It's Meaning
X = Outcome
C is a very
interesting part of the model. It
is the perception of the event or the meaning the family gives to
the event or situation as they live with it.
This adds an important cognitive component to the process.
In other words, you have a stress on a family; the way they adjust is
influenced both by the supports they have in place to deal with the situation
and the way they interpret the situation. George
Albee of the University of Vermont adds in the factor of social oppression, to
his model of coping and adjustment, but in the usual interpretation of Hill's
model, that would be included as a negative amount of support under the B
component.
This model made
more sense of what people knew from experience to be true--that some families
get weaker and others get stronger. But
what about the fact that the situation goes on and on for a family with a member
with a disability? That stressors
come and go? That things get better
and then sometimes get worse? That
all this happens over time?
A variation to
Hill's model was developed by McCubbin and Patterson that is known as the Double
ABCX model. Basically this
model included a feedback loop. The
outcome of one situation feeds back into the next situation.
If a family faced with repeated stressors has good supports and a
positive interpretation, they build their sense of confidence in being able to
handle new situations, and you get what McCubbin and Patterson called bonadaptation.
Things tend to spiral upward, more and more positively.
On the other hand, if you have inadequate supports and negative
interpretation, things can spiral downward, into maladaptation.
But what about the reality that things can be going well and you can be interpreting things positively, and then reality sends you a big whammy? Is there any pattern that can lead families to know when the "whammies" are going to hit? Is there any cycle for families? Wikler's research found that times of transition are particularly stressful to families. (When do you think these might be? They are the logical times of starting school, changing from one level of school to another, leaving school and entering adulthood, etc.).
Alan Hilton , a
parent and teacher from the state of Washington, has a variation on the Double
ABCX model that consists of expanding and contracting circles.
In his model, the negative emotions are always out there, "waiting
to get you." He includes both
parents in the circle, with the negative emotions around the outside.
When things are going well, when the supports are effective and the
interpretations are positive, the circle is very big, and the negative emotions
are very distant. But when a
stressful event occurs, the circle contracts, and all the negatives are suddenly
on top of you again. You can be
positioned close to one particular negative emotion, such as sadness or anger,
so that you tend to experience it more often.
The more supports you have and the better interpretation of things you
have, the faster you can push the circle back out wider again.
One of the
problems with all these models, is that the person or child with challenges is
often interpreted as the stressor, with the parents and other family
members receiving the impact. Try
looking at the stressor as the situation the family is experiencing, with
the person or child with challenges as part of the family being stressed
and responding positively or negatively.
Remember that models are only frameworks to help us interpret the reality of our experience. They can evolve or change dramatically. They shouldn't be viewed as the reality itself. Keep in mind that services tend to be dominated by outdated models longer than the theory. We should be prepared to let go of one model and go with a new one as soon as it makes more sense to us.
This lesson was created by Susan Yuan, PhD, for "Family Support, Self-Determination and Disability" and is used here with her permission.
Once you have completed this activity you should:
Go on to Online Reading
or
Go back to Topic 2
Email instructor: Becky.Raabe@nau.edu.
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