3 credits
Spring 2026 Lecture JEDIUpper Division
Examines theoretical perspectives related to family stress and resilience in multicultural and diverse family settings, and connects these perspectives to empirical work on family dynamics, coping, and dysfunction across the lifespan. Topics such as economic stress and poverty, immigrant families, single-parent families, homeless families, adoption, military families, maltreatment, and families coping with illness are explored. The class focuses on environmental, cultural, as well as biological contributions to both risk and resilience processes in individuals and families.
Learning Outcomes1Describe theory and research concerning family stress, coping and social support.
2Understand how an individual's or family's context plays a role in his/her exposure to and coping with stressors.
3Explain how individual, familial and environmental processes contribute to risk and resilience in individuals and families.
4Apply the principles of Family Stress Theory and Risk and Resilience Theory to case studies of families.
5Demonstrate an ability to understand and empathize with total life experiences (physical. psychological, social) of others by identifying possible motivations/explanations for individual and family behavior.
Prerequisites
made by Purdue students.