Reconceptualizing Family Resilience in the Chinese Context: Implications for the Study of Child and Family Wellbeing in Economically Disadvantaged Families

Abstract Poverty is a social issue of both local and global significance. In the family literature, the family pathology perspective—such as the Family Stress Model and the Family Investment Model, which view families as deficient and problematic when faced with adversity—remains a dominant framework for examining the impact of hardship on family processes and well-being. In contrast, the family resilience approach adopts a strengths-based perspective, emphasizing families’ capacities and positive processes to adapt to developmental and ecological demands over time. However, the development and application of family resilience models have predominantly taken place in Western rather than non-Western contexts. This paper examines major family resilience theories developed in Western contexts, as well as several indigenous Chinese positive family processes, with particular attention to the role of positive family processes in enhancing child and family well-being in economically disadvantaged families. Furthermore, an integrated model is proposed that incorporates indigenous Chinese positive family processes into the dominant family resilience theoretical framework, making it applicable to Chinese families. This paper provides valuable guidance for family scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in conceptualizing family resilience within the Chinese context. Such conceptualization is essential for designing effective intervention strategies for families experiencing economic hardship and for formulating social policies that enable positive coping for families facing adversity.