1st Edition

Strong Families Around the World Strengths-Based Research and Perspectives

Edited By John DeFrain, Sylvia Asay Copyright 2007

    The strengths of families from culture to culture, when compared to each other, are remarkably similar and give us common ground around the world upon which to unite and develop mutual understanding. Strengths-Based Research and Perspectives: Strong Families Around the World, provides a conceptual framework for global family strengths, discussing the diverse strengths and challenges that families face regardless of location. This book presents 43 expert authors from 18 countries in all seven major areas in the world who explain what it means to be a family in the context of their country and the challenges their country faces in the world today.

    Focusing on the latest studies of similarities between strong families of different cultures, Strengths-Based Research and Perspectives: Strong Families Around the World presents a wide variety of disciplines, including family studies, family education, family therapy, modern languages, psychology, social work, sociology, cultural anthropology, and nursing. This insightful text centers on the Family Strengths Perspective, a paradigm that not only recognizes that there are problems in families today, but demonstrates clearly how these can be dealt with successfully. This valuable resource provides case study examples, quotations from literature and cultural mythology, tables, figures, and extensive references to give readers an in-depth understanding of the issues from strengths-based perspectives.

    Topics in Strengths-Based Research and Perspectives: Strong Families Around the World include:

    • an introduction into the Family Strengths Perspective
    • the International Family Strengths Model
    • the propositions of the Family Strengths Perspective
    • how the Family Strengths Perspective fits with other conceptual frameworks
    • families from a global perspective
    • a conceptual framework for understanding global family strengths and challenges

    Strengths-Based Research and Perspectives: Strong Families Around the World is useful as a text in marriage and family relationships classes, cross-cultural family patterns classes, strengths-based practitioner training classes, and family therapy and family educator training classes. This valuable resource will also be of great interest to family educators, family therapists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and religious counselors.

    • Comments (Suzanne K. Steinmetz)
    • Preface (Gary W. Peterson)
    • Strong Families Around the World: An Introduction to the Family Strengths Perspective (John DeFrain and Sylvia M. Asay)
    • AFRICA
    • Family Strengths: South Africa (Busisiwe Nkosi and Priscilla Daniels)
    • Family Strengths Perspectives from Botswana (Lois R. Mberengwa)
    • Family Strengths and Challenges in Kenya (Jane Rose M. Njue, Dorothy O. Rombo, and Lucy W. Ngige)
    • Strengths in Somali Families (Hawa Ibrahim A. Koshen)
    • THE MIDDLE EAST
    • The Resilience of Families in Israel: Understanding Their Struggles and Appreciating Their Strengths (Maha N. Younes)
    • The Omani Family: Strengths and Challenges (Thuwayba A. Al-Barwani and Tayfour S. Albeely)
    • ASIA
    • Chinese Family Strengths and Resiliency (Anqi Xu, Xiaolin Xie, Wenli Liu, Yan Xia, and Dalin Liu)
    • Strengths and Challenges in the Indian Family (Nilufer P. Medora)
    • How Strong Families Encounter Social Challenges in the Republic of Korea (Young Ju Yoo, Insoo Lee, and Gyesook Yoo)
    • OCEANIA
    • The Shaping of Strengths and Challenges of Australian Families: Implications for Policy and Practice (Judi Geggie, Ruth Weston, Alan Hayes, and Simone Silberberg)
    • New Zealand Families (Richard Cook)
    • NORTH AMERICA
    • Canada and Family Life (Benjamin Schlesinger)
    • Family Strengths and Challenges in the USA (John DeFrain and Sylvia M. Asay)
    • LATIN AMERICA
    • Strengths and Challenges of Mexican Families in the 21st Century (Rosario Esteinou)
    • Culture-Related Strengths Among Latin American Families: A Case Study of Brazil (Gustavo Carlo, Silvia Koller, Marcela Raffaelli, and Maria R. T. de Guzman)
    • EUROPE
    • Russian Families: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Problems and Strengths (Vladimir Zubkov)
    • The Family Strengths in Greece Then and Now (Theodora Kaldi-Koulikidou)
    • Family Strengths in Romania (Bogdan Nadolu, Ioana Delia Nadolu, and Sylvia M. Asay)
    • Epilogue: A Strengths-Based Conceptual Framework for Understanding Families World-Wide (John DeFrain and Sylvia M. Asay)
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    John DeFrain, PhD, is an extension professor of family and community development at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who has focused his professional energy for the past 35 years in better understanding how families learn to live happily together. He cofounded the National and International Symposium on Building Family Strengths, which grew into a consortium of groups organizing 35 allied conferences in the United States and around the world since 1978. His research with a team of investigators around the world has collected data on family strengths from 21,000 family members in 27 countries. DeFrain has served as consultant to courts, universities, churches, agencies, and individual families on marriage, parenting, grief, divorce, and child custody issues. He recently received the Outstanding New Extension Family Specialist Award, and the MISS Foundation Phoenix Award for service to bereaved parents who have lost children. He has coauthored more than 60 professional articles on family issues and 18 books.

    Sylvia M. Asay, PhD, CFLE, is an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. She received her Ph.D. in Community and Human Resources at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1998. She has receivd her Certified Family LIfe Educator credentials through the National Council on Family Relations. She has 13 years of post-secondary teaching experience with such courses as Infant Development, Lifespan Development, Human Sexual Behavior, and Marriage and Family Relationships, as well as Family Resource Management.