Help From Extended Family Relationships Is Often Not as Accessible as It Once Was

PASADENA, CA–(EMWNews – August 6, 2008) – Vision.org writer

Gina Stepp discusses the emotional and mental fallout of terrorist attacks

that attempted to disrupt the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Monday morning, August 4th, 16 police were killed and16 others were injured

in a border attack in the Xinjiang region of China, home to the largest

Muslim population in China.

The attack comes on the heels of Sunday’s report by the United Kingdom’s

Times Online that Spain is secretly gearing up to deal with threats of

looming terrorism that may be faced by local tourist resorts during the

busy August season. And while United States officials insist that Europe is

much more susceptible to terrorist threats than America, the 2001 attack on

the World Trade Center proved that the U.S. is not immune to danger.

Whether or not such assurances of American safety are true, the emotional

and mental fallout is the same in the U.S. as elsewhere in the West.

Families and communities feel they have more reason than ever to worry

about the mental effects of trauma and depression. But do they? Some

would argue that life was even harder for previous generations — those

that struggled through the many and varied hardships of earlier times. But

there is one additional factor that is often not considered in such

arguments. Families are more likely to be scattered in modern times, and

the relatively modern invention of the “nuclear family” has already given

way in many cases to a more fragmented single-parent version. Help from

extended family

relationships is often not as accessible as it once was, and this

weakening of society’s fabric contributes to the weakening of community and

family resilience.

In other words, in Western society and culture people may be less resilient

than ever in the face of trauma, while serious threats to well-being may

actually have increased.

“Because of such considerations, communities would love to know how to

prepare people for psychologically stressful events and to increase the

potential for recovery,” says a new feature article from Vision, titled “Building

Resilience in a Turbulent World.” “Researchers in the field of

positive psychology, in turn, are busily working to find out what traits

are shared by those people who demonstrate a greater capacity to cope, in

the hope of helping others to become more resilient to stress, trauma and

depression.”

Vision presents the latest research to help families build this kind of

resilience, discussing the topic further a related Blog titled “Family Matters” at Vision

Media.

Stepp notes that some people are born with a naturally positive outlook,

and optimism is seen as a key factor in resilience, but she also points out

that researchers now know that new experiences and supportive family

relationships can literally change brain structure. This understanding

has led psychologists to understand that optimism and resilience can be

built, and that adults as well as children can, to some degree, be

inoculated against depression. However, stresses Stepp, building resilience

is nearly impossible outside of the protective influence of positive

interpersonal relationships.

About Vision:

Vision.org is

an online magazine with quarterly print issues that feature in-depth

coverage of current social issues, religion and the Bible, history, family

relationship topics and insights into philosophical, moral and ethical

issues in society today. For a free subscription to the Vision quarterly

magazine, visit their web site at

http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/default.aspx.