The Role of Family Communication in the Family Resilience of Deaf Children’s Families

Abstract

This study examines the family resilience of deaf children through the perspective of family communication. We examine the relationship between family communication patterns (including conformity and conversation orientation) with family resilience and compare differences in processes in family resilience of family types. Parents of deaf children ( n = 129) in Indonesia completed a survey of family communication patterns and family resilience. Our findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between family communication patterns and family resilience, with preference to conversation orientations. All family types were identified as having a relationship with family resilience with different uniqueness in their resilience processes. With the relationship between these two concepts, perhaps the concept of communication patterns in the family can become a theoretical framework that binds the literature on family resilience in a sample of families with deaf children. Implications and direction for future research are discussed.