Families today are exposed to a wide range of pressures in their everyday lives. Stress is therefore an unavoidable part of family life. Against this background, communication not only appears to be an important resource that enables families to deal effectively with stressful events, but is also regarded as one of the fundamental key factors in promoting family resilience and health.

In this research project, we want to investigate the role of family communication for family resilience in greater depth. Empirically, qualitative interviews were conducted with parents in a first step. They were asked how parent-child communication generally presents itself, how it develops in the face of stressors and resources and what contribution it can make to family resilience. In a second step, the role of communication for family resilience will be systematically analysed in a quantitative survey in summer 2020. The aims of the research project are to characterise family communication in a more differentiated way than before and to find out what explanatory contribution individual communication actions, routines, content and types make to family resilience beyond the dimensions already anchored in family resilience research.

Prof. Dr. Eva Baumann
Miriam Jaspersen

Since 2019