Family Life Education for Families Facing Acute Stress: Best Practices and Recommendations

• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Judith A. Myers‐Walls
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12452

J A. M-W Purdue University

Family Life Education for Families

Facing Acute Stress: Best Practices

and Recommendations

Acute family stress in this article is dened as

the sudden or unexpected onset of moderate to

severe discomfort or disequilibrium and feeling

of inadequacy among family members in light

of perceived insufcient available resources.

Historically, there has been some ambivalence

about stress—especially acute stress—and fam-

ily life education. More recently, authors have

suggested that the important issue determining

appropriateness is not the topic butthe approach

used by the professionals. Several approaches

are presented here that have been used by pro-

fessionals to help children and families dealing

with acute stress. They include care for self,

identify acute stress, support caregivers and

central gures in social networks, help families

understand stress and coping, help adults talk

with children, connect families with the famil-

iar, collaborate with other professionals, and

advocate for families.

•A mother and her two school-age boys park

on the top of a university parking garage,

presumably to enjoy the view. Then all three

apparently jump to their deaths. The extended

Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

Purdue University, 12856 N. 325 E., Lot 9B,North Manch-

ester, IN 46962 (jmyerswa@purdue.edu).

Key Words: resilience, stress,coping.

family, the local schools, and the local and

surrounding communities all struggle to make

sense of the event.

•A soccer team decides to explore a cave for

an afternoon and get trapped by sudden rising

water. The ensuing rescue captures the atten-

tion of the world. Individuals, families, reli-

gious communities, schools, and entire coun-

tries feel the drama and tension until a rescue

is compete.

•A community is evacuated due to a wildre

with very little notice. Fire is in their rearview

mirrors as the families leave the area. Homes,

schools, businesses, retirement homes, and

entire communities are reduced to ashes.

•A novel virus is identied in one commu-

nity that within weeks moves across a country.

Within months the virus becomes a worldwide

pandemic. Schools, businesses, and places of

worship and entertainment are closed, and

travel is restricted in an attempt to control the

spread of the disease and reduce the number

of deaths. Individuals, families, businesses,

health care workers, and even the world econ-

omy are affected by the threat to physical,

mental, and economic health and well-being.

These are examples of sudden, dramatic

events that have the possibility of leading

to acute stress reactions in family members

and local, national, and international com-

munities that are either directly or indirectly

affected by the events. In addition to these

community-wide, noteworthy events, individual

662 Family Relations 69 (July 2020): 662–676

DOI:10.1111/fare.12452