Understanding Family Resilience in Aceh
Marty Mawarpury, Sarah Hafiza
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala
Keywords: Family, Resilience, Aceh.
Abstract: Resilience has been conceptualized on an individual level and regards to the family unit. Resilience is the
fundamental concept to understand why some families are devastated while others adapt or even grow
stronger. In this research, resilience is defined as a dynamic process leading to positive adaption in the face
of significant adversity in family. The aim of this study was to obtain the picture of family resilience in
Aceh. Using quantitative with survey technique method involving 400 Acehnese family that obtained
through random sampling. Family resilience questionnaire used to collect data, with Cronbach alpha 0.94.,
and using descriptive statistic for analysis. The results of the study showed that family resilience in high-
category was 79.5% of Acehnese family. At the moderate level were 77%, and other 5% were at a low level.
It can be concluded that Acehnese family have a good level of family resilience. Beside, employment status,
marital status, education, and religion have correlation with the level of family resilience.
1 INTRODUCTION
Aceh is a province with two events of prolonged
conflict and massive disasters that occurred in 2004.
The impact of these two events is needed in people's
lives today. Various social problems that occur in
the community such as the divorce rate that
continues to increase and causes of divorce are
economic factors, quarrels, the presence of third
parties, infidelity, and narcotics cases (Serambi,
1/31/2019). In addition, there have been widespread
cases of damage, especially in the domestic sphere.
Young marriages and health problems that make
interventions have to be done for fairly complex
social problems. A (Family Resilience,
https://aceh.tribunnews.com/2019/02/21/darurat-
ketahanan-kamily).
A family is a unit in society that is an object as
well as a subject of development. By the shifting of
development that places economic development with
social development, makes family development of
objects/development goals. In the industrial era 4.0,
technological development is a big challenge for
family resilience and welfare. Such information is
fast entering the family room. Socio-Economic
Survey Data (Susenas) based on the purpose to
access the internet, the majority of children aged 5-6
years access the internet for entertainment, which is
91 percent. The rush of digital information has
brought profound changes to the family's noble
values. These changes sometimes bring a new
paradigm for young people in looking at the family.
Permissiveness to pornography, deviant sexual
behavior, the birth of children out of wedlock, until
early marriage is a serious impact. Kominfo data,
every day there are about 50 thousand activities of
internet users in Indonesia accessing pornographic
content. Another fact, the phenomenon of early
marriage is also quite high.
This is a big challenge in creating a strong and
quality family. Especially in welcoming the
demographic bonus, a phenomenon where the
population structure is very beneficial in terms of
development because the population of productive
age is very large, while the proportion of young
people is getting smaller and the proportion of old
people is not much. Therefore, at present, the
resilience and quality of the family must be the main
concern to produce reliable human resources as one
of the nation's development assets. The strength of
national development is rooted in the family element
as a micro-community in society. A prosperous
family is a basic foundation for the integrity of the
strength and sustainability of development. On the
other hand, vulnerable and scattered families
encourage weak foundations of the life of the state
community.
262
Mawarpury, M. and Hafiza, S.
Understanding Family Resilience in Aceh.
DOI: 10.5220/0009447502620268
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 262-268
ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
The disruption era initiated the birth of many
new models with more visionary and transformative
approaches, methods and strategies. This era invites
and demands us to dare to adapt and change.
Because if not, we will be crushed, then finally
disappear without a trace. This reality is certainly a
challenge for all parties, including the family. In this
era of disruption, families are required to be oases,
oceans of warmth, and a paradise for children. The
family as the smallest part of society must be a place
where inspiration, motivation, and positive
suggestions reside.
Family resilience involves the complex
interaction of several processes over time; from the
way, a family as a functional unity reacts to a critical
situation to its capacity to deal with transient
conditions of disorganization to newly developed
strategies when difficult times emerge, in the short
and long term. Resilience can be defined in various
ways, but a common thread throughout the scientific
literature involves coping in the face of adversity.
The academic literature usually proposes that
resilience is either a process or an outcome and can
develop over time with life experience. In the
context of this research, resilience is defined as a
dynamic process leading to positive adaption in the
face of significant adversity. The measurement of
resilience is somewhat hampered by the range of
definitions and theories that abound, and the field is
not as well advanced as the measurement of
wellbeing. One concern about the measurement of
resilience is that, by most definitions, resilience can
only be demonstrated in the face of adversity, which
in turn makes the ethical exploration of resilience
problematic. Instead, measures usually approximate
actual resilience by capturing 'perceived resilience',
or by having participants rate their level of
agreement with statements that typically describe
resilient people.
According to Henry, Morris, and Harrist (2015),
family resilience has three waves. The first is Family
adaptation to stressors -strengths, meanings, and
contexts. The second, Conceptualization, research,
and application. And finally, Conceptual clarity;
FamilyResilience Model (FRM); prevention &
intervention. Family resilience is of particular
importance to inner-city women in that the inner-city
environment is often characterized by high rates of
crime, violence, and poverty (Anthony, 2008; Flouri,
Tan, Buchana, & Griggs, 2010). Many women who
reside in the inner-city face the challenges of raising
a family with less than adequate housing, financial
and social support resources (Halliday & Wilkinson,
2009). Chen and Clark (2010) found that family
resilience was a mediating factor of parental health
and that families with higher scores tended to utilize
more support services.
Resilience has been conceptualized on an
individual level, so has it been conceptualized with
regards to the family unit. Walsh (1998)
conceptualizes family resilience as the ability to
recover from adversity stronger and more
resourceful. Walsh (2002) expands on this
conceptualization of family resilience as involving
more than just being able to manage and survive a
stressful event but also using adversity to forge
transformative personal and relational growth. This
conceptualization recognizes the potential for
personal and relational transformation and growth
that can be forged out of adversity. Family resilience
as conceptualized by McCubbin and McCubbin
(1996) is the family’s ability to utilize behavioral
patterns and functional competence to negotiate,
cope, and even thrive through hardships and crises.
Hawley and DeHaan (1996) conceptualize family
resilience as a path followed as families adapt and
prosper in the face of stress, both in the present and
over time. They believe resilient families respond
positively to stressful conditions in unique ways,
depending on factors such as developmental level,
the combination of risk and protective factors, and
the family’s shared outlook. Several years later,
Patterson (2002) also conceptualized family
resilience as the adaptive process families utilize to
adapt and function competently following exposure
to significant adversity or crises. Although these
conceptualizations have many similarities, the main
constructs of each hold different amounts of
importance as identified by the developers.
The Walsh Family Resilience Framework (2003)
identified nine key processes and grouped them into
three dimensions of family functioning: family
belief systems, family organization, and
communication/problem-solving processes. The first
dimension – family belief systems – involves 1)
shared meaning-making efforts, 2) positive outlook
and 3) transcendence and spirituality, which
facilitate shared efforts to understand adverse
situations, their impact, and efforts to overcome
challenges. Family resilience is promoted by shared
beliefs that increase general functioning,
collaborative strategies, and movement toward
effective recovery and growth. The second
dimension – family organization – involves
transactional processes that strengthen 4) flexibility,
5) connectedness/cohesion, and 6) economic and
social resources. All contribute to the reorganization
necessary for adaptive responses to meet stressful
Understanding Family Resilience in Aceh
263
challenges. The third dimension –
communication/problem-solving processes–
involves 7) clarity, 8) emotional expression, and 9)
collaborative problem-solving. These processes
facilitate resilience by clarifying information about
adverse conditions, by sharing both painful and
positive feelings and by facilitating problem-solving
and proactive planning. These fundamental
processes express them-selves with different
modalities and measures among families, with
varied values, resources, and adverse challenges
2 RESEARCH METHOD
This research used quantitative methods with survey
techniques involving 400 Acehnese families that
obtained through simple random sampling. Family
Resilience Questionnaire (FRQ) compiled by Walsh
in 2003 used to collect data and used descriptive
statistics for analysis. Walsh Family Resilience
Questionnaire (FRQ) consists of 31 items divided
into three dimensions of family functions, namely
family belief system, family organization, and
communication/problem solving processes. FRQ has
5 Likert Scale answer choices (1 = rarely; 5 =
usually). Reliability was measured using the
Cronbach alpha technique of .94. This study
employed descriptive statistics for analysis to seek
the family resilience level of Acehnese. Also, the
Chi-Square Test for Independence was used as an
additional analysis to seek the correlation between
the level of family resilience with demographic data
such as sex, age, employment status, marital status,
education, and religion by using SPSS20.0 software
analysis.
3 RESULT
Based on age, it is dominated by 15-25 years,
which is 270 (67.5%) subjects. Most of the study
subjects had an Unemployment/ Student of 254
(63.5%). Most of the subjects are unmarried,
amounting to 304 (76%) subjects, supported by the
highest education level was Senior High School 197
(49.3%) subjects. Almost all Muslim subjects were
396 (99%), and 4 other subjects were not Muslim.
Table 1: Distribution of Sociodemographic Factors.
Sociodemographic Factors
n
%
Sex
Male
86
21.5
Female
314
78.5
Age in years
15-25
270
67.5
26-35
106
26.5
36-45
24
6
Employment Status
In Work
146
36.5
Unemployment/ Student
254
63.5
Marital Status
Married
96
76
Single/ Widowed/ Divorced/
Separated
304
24
Education
Elementary/ Junior High
School
3
.8
High School
197
49.3
Bachelor
144
36
Master/ Doctor
56
14
Religion
Moslem
396
99
Hindu
1
.3
Buddha
1
.3
Cristian
2
.5
Table 2: Levels of Family Resilience.
Score
Category
N
%
114-155
High
318
79.5
73-113
Average
77
19.3
31-72
Low
5
1.3
Total
400
100
The table above shows the level of family
resilience of research subjects. Family resilience in
high-category was 79.5% of Acehnese family. At the
moderate level there were 77%, and other 5% were
at a low level. It can be concluded that Acehnese
family have a good level of family resilience.
Chi-Square Test for Independent Testing to see
the relationship between the level of family
resilience with sex, age, employment status, marital
status, education, and religion in families in Aceh.
Decision making on the Chi-Square Test for
Independent can be done by looking at Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided), if the significance value obtained from the
results of data analysis is less than 0.05 (<0.05), it
can be concluded that there is a relationship between
variables (demographic data) and the level of family
ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology
264
resilience. But on the contrary, if the significance
value is greater than 0.05 (> 0.05) then there is no
relationship between the variables tested (Machali,
2015).
Table 3: Chi Square Test for Independent.
Category (N=400)
Asymp.
Sig.
High
Ave
rage
Low
.527
66
18
2
252
59
3
.062
205
60
5
90
16
0
23
1
0
.005
128
18
0
190
59
5
.032
85
11
0
233
66
5
.020
2
1
0
142
51
4
127
16
1
47
9
0
.000
316
76
4
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
Based on the results of testing on demographic
data with family resilience level showed a
significance value of <0.05 of 4 demographic data,
namely on employment status, marital status,
education, and religion. This can be interpreted that
these four demographic data have a relationship with
the level of family resilience. Thus two demographic
data have no relationship with the level of family
resilience, namely sex. 527 (> 0.05) and ages. 062 (>
0.05).
4 DISCUSSION
This study aimed to obtain a picture of family
resilience using the Family Resilience
Questionnaire. According to Luthar, et. al. (2000)
said that the perspective of family resilience is how
families can dynamically, can recognize the
strengths of each other, maintain mutual relations to
deal with conflicts that arise, until the problem
becomes a reinforcement for family security, and not
as a destroyer. According to Bergh and Bjork (2012)
if the family has a strong belief system, then every
problem is not an obstacle or pressure but a
challenge that must be faced. According to Walsh
(2006), the key difference system in the family is the
main thing of the functioning of the family that
forms resilience within the family. Walsh (2006)
argues that the factors forming family resilience are
belief systems, organizational patterns and
communication patterns, besides that they are
always hopeful (Shabhati, 2012), being optimistic in
life and having good self-efficacy (Kulsum, 2013).
This has an impact on the achievement of the
problem-solving process and decision making in the
family (Wright, Walsh, and Belt in Walsh, 2006).
The results showed that 79.5% of families were
in the high resilience categorization, and the
moderate resilience categorization was 19.3%.
According to Hendrayu, Kinanthi, and Brebahama
(2017), this can be interpreted that individuals view
their families as being able to overcome difficult
problems or situations effectively enough, but have
not been able to maximize the use of protective
factors they have to help overcome difficult
situations or risk factors. According to Erdem and
Slesnick (2010), resilience consists of risk factors
and protective factors. Risk factors are all things that
can potentially cause difficulties in increasing or
maintaining the resilience of the family. While
protective factors are things that can strengthen
families in dealing with problems and maintain
resilience such as the ability to survive, social
support. We also observed there’s a correlation
between the level of family resilience with socio-
demography (sex, age, employment status, marital
status, education, and religion) (Table 3).
Understanding Family Resilience in Aceh
265
The results of this study indicate that females
have the highest levels of family resilience (n = 252)
than males (n = 66), but based on the results of data
analysis there is no difference in the level of family
resilience with sex. The results of research
conducted by Hendrayu, et al. in 2017 found the
results of research that there is no difference in the
level of family resilience in terms of the sex of the
child. The results of previous studies and expert
opinion also show that the sex of children, in this
case, the differences in the sex of the child can cause
differences in perceiving family resilience, seta
education, marital status and age of marriage owned
by parents also affect the level of family resilience
that is family-owned (Hendrayu, et al, 2017).
There is no relationship between the level of
family resilience with age (Sig. 062). According to
Sixbey (2005) that life experiences have an impact
on family resilience when family members get older
and experiences that indicate an increased process of
resilience in the family. Children also have an
important contribution to family resilience, which is
influenced by age, cognitive and emotional
development, self-esteem, social orientation,
achievement motivation, and social comprehension
(Canino & Spurlock, 1994; Masten & Coatsworth,
1998). In terms of employer status, there is a
relationship with the level of family resilience.
Individuals who do not work indirectly also have
low incomes. The results of research conducted by
Orthner, Jones-Sampei, and Williamson (2004)
families or individuals who have low income,
difficult to communicate regularly and sometimes
avoid talking about problems that are in the family.
Furthermore, Orthner, et al. (2004) also found that
economic vulnerability affects family functioning
because adult caregivers have greater stress on
money problems and about not being able to give
children the lifestyle benefits associated with having
income, even though it is marginal (Conger &
Conger, 2002; Rubin, 1994).
There is a relationship between the level of
family resilience and education (Sig = .20). The
majority of individuals who have completed high
school have higher family resilience than other
levels of education. This is supported by the
existence of Law number 19 of 2016, the Minister of
Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia
has a Smart Indonesia Program to support the
implementation of universal secondary education or
pioneering compulsory education for 12 (twelve)
years, from elementary schools to elementary
schools. Top Up (High School / equivalent).
According to Mashego and Taruvinga (2014);
Bradley and Hojjat (2016) that the higher education
that is pursued it tends to have a good level of family
resilience. Bhana and Bachoo (2011) also found that
individuals who had academic achievements
belonged to families who demonstrated belief
patterns that revolved around a positive outlook on
life, had clear goals, high personal efficacy (Carson,
Chowdhury, Perry, & Pati, 1999; Amatea, Smith-
Adcock, & Villares, 2006).
Marital status has a relationship with family
resilience (Sig. 032). Although the majority of
subjects are not married, they have a high level of
family resilience. On the other hand, said by
Mashego and Taruvinga (2014); Bradley and Hojjat
(2016) that the longer the age of marriage tends to
have a good level of family resilience. It was found
that the majority of subjects were Moslem and there
was a religion relationship with the level of family
resilience (p = 000). High levels of religion tend to
describe a resilient person, accept his personality
and others, and the ability to adapt to environmental
changes (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1988; Walsh,
1998). Individuals who believe that everything is
God's intervention, so with a good belief system, the
family can interpret an event as a positive thing
(Walsh, 2006). Another factor that can affect family
resilience is the ethnicity that family members have.
According to Neo, Fung, and Chang (2015), the
tribes are related to family resilience, different types
of tribes that are owned will have different ways for
families to deal with problems.
Researchers suspect other factors are more
related to family resilience in study participants,
such as the psychological condition of the family,
the relationship between parents and children, social
support (Lester, Stein, Saltzman, Woodward,
MacDermid, Milburn, Mogil, & Beardslee, 2013),
family experiences in dealing with difficulties
(Kuntz, Blinkhorn, Routte, Blinkhorn, Lunsky &
Weiss, 2014) as well as time spent in family
activities (Holman, 2014). However, in this study,
researchers did not explore more deeply about these
various factors.
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