The Minority Family Stress Model (MFSM): Reconceptualizing minority stress within family systems

Abstract

As global family structures diversify and marginalized communities gain visibility, traditional health disparity frameworks like Minority Stress Theory remain limited by their individualistic focus and fail to capture how chronic marginalization impacts families collectively. In response, we propose the Minority Family Stress Model (MFSM), a family health disparity mechanism framework that situates minority stress within ecological family systems. MFSM reconceptualizes minority stress as a multi-level, relational, and dynamic process operating within families, emphasizing how minority family identity moderates the impact of external and intrafamilial stressors on family health. By capturing how families interpret, negotiate, and adapt to minority stress across individual, subsystem, and whole-system levels, MFSM addresses critical gaps in current health disparities research. This model offers a paradigm shift from viewing minority stress as an intrapsychic burden to understanding it as a family-wide force, advancing contextually grounded, family-centered approaches to research, policy, and intervention across diverse marginalized populations.