RESILIENCE FACTORS IN FAMILIES LIVING WITH PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESSES

In South Africa, a substantial burden is placed on families living with people with mental illnesses. The aim of this study was to identify resilience factors in families living in an underprivileged area, caring for people with mental illnesses. Data was obtained from family representatives (N = 34) using semistructured interviews and a set Of seven self-report, quantitative questionnaires during the course of a once-off interview. The results of the qualitative analysis show that the most commonly cited resilience factors are religion and spirituality, and personal characteristics of individual family members. Both these factors were cited by 67.6% of the Participants. The results of the Spearman correlations showed that the factor that displayed the strongest relationship with family adaptation was the quality of communication in the family unit. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.