Family Dynamics and Resilience among Adolescents: Role of Mother's Working Status and Family Type

Abstract

The aim of this research was to empirically understand role of family type and mother's occupation in determination of resilience among adolescent school goers. Standardized measure of resilience was administered upon 260 school adolescents from Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh. The voluntary participants belonged to age group 14–18 years (Mean Age=16.62 years). 181 respondents were from nuclear families while 79 were joint families. Major proportion (70%) of respondents had mothers who were homemakers. Multivariate ANOVA was performed to examine the effects of family type and mothers’ working statuses. Results revealed significant main effects and interaction effects of the two variables on resilience and most of its dimensions. Results revealed that adolescents whose mothers were homemakers had relatively similar resilience scores (mostly high) irrespective of their family types. Adolescents from joint families with working mothers scored higher on resilience measure. In contrast, those with working mothers but from joint families had very low resilience scores. This study therefore throws light on the kind of impact family system can have on the adversity management strategies opted by the youth. Probably, working mothers from nuclear families enjoy more autonomy and have higher self esteem both of which can have positive influence on personality development and stress coping strategies of their children. In contrast this may not be the case for adolescents from joint family system and with working mothers as the latter may have to adhere to and adjust with principles related to child rearing.