Family Resilience Among Parent-Adolescent Dyads Exposed to Ongoing Rocket Fire

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine discrepancies in family resilience between parents and their adolescent offspring and the differences in the predicting variables of family resilience between these two groups in the context of political violence. Toward that aim, we explored the interplay among exposure to security threats, gender, anxiety, individual resilience, self-differentiation, and family resilience. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional study, which included 89 dyads of parents and adolescents who had been exposed to missile fire for 13 years, employing the following questionnaires: demographic parameters, exposure to security threats, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Family Resilience Assessment Scale, and the Differentiation of Self-Inventory. Results: Repeated measures ANOVA showed no differences between parents' and adolescents' reports of family resilience. Actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) indicated that in both groups, higher family resilience was predicted by high individual resilience. Parents' family resilience was predicted by high levels of individual resilience and self-differentiation. Adolescents' family resilience was predicted by gender and individual resilience. Adolescents' self-differentiation predicted family resilience only when parents' level of self-differentiation was high. Conclusions: The findings are discussed in the context of the developmental stage of adolescence in the family life cycle as well as the importance of psychoeducational interventions.