Relationship between psychological resilience and perceieved family functioning of individuals in families with disabled members

Family functioning, which indicates the quality of interaction between family members, includes emotional attachment to the family and adaptation to change. There are many variables such as sickness, death, poverty that threaten family functioning. If a disabled person is a member, family functioning is at risk and family members may have to adapt to new conditions. A healthy family functioning plays an important role in the psychological resilience that can be defined as the ability to adapt to changing conditions and can help family members develop psychological resilience. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between psychological resilience and perceived family functioning of individuals in families with disabled members. The population of the research is composed of adults who live in Ankara and have a disabled member in their family. 141 adults selected by the purposive sampling method from the population constitute the sample of the research. The Family Assessment Device was used to measure the perceived family functioning of the participants and the The Resilience in Midlife Scale was used to measure the psychological resilience of the participants. Dependent variable of research is psychological resilience, independent variable is perceieved family functioning. Stepwise regression analysis was used to determine the effect of family functioning on psychological resilience. According to the results of stepwise regression analysis, subscales of communication and general functions are a significant predictor of psychological resilience. Therefore, if the psychological resilience of the individuals in families with disability members is to be increased, the family factor shouldn't be ignored. Key words: Family Functioning, Disability, Social Work, Psychological Resilience.