The strengths of families coping with serious mental illness.

This article outlines a descriptive study that sought to document the strengths of families with members suffering from serious and persistent mental illnesses. The families of the mentally ill were compared with normative families on the variables of family stressors, family coping, and family health. The results indicate that although the families of the mentally ill have significantly more stressors than normative families, they have clear strengths relative to family coping and the family health subconcepts of adaptability and conflict management. The impact of the serious mental illness was found in their affective evaluations of the family unit on the family health subconcepts of cohesion and satisfaction.