these stressors are products of unique situations that are unlikely to be repeated very often. Examples include a natural disaster (e.g., Tiffany’s flood, hurricanes, tornados); the sudden death of a child; a sudden, disabling injury to a family member; or winning the state lottery. All are unexpected and have the potential to disrupt family relationships and require structural changes that can lead to greater stress for parents (Allen, 2017; Hill, 1949; see Chapter 1). These events, however, are not inherently stressful in exactly the same way for all parents. Instead, nonnormative stressors vary in their disruptive qualities depending upon the parents’ subjective interpretations and the resources (or vulnerabilities) they have available.
Off-Time Developments
People generally anticipate that certain life circumstances, such as retirement, the death of an elderly family member, and the advent of grandparenthood, will occur as part of normal family transitions at expected times of the life course (Boss, 2002; Hennon et al., 2009; Hennon & Peterson, 2007). However, when normal events occur at unanticipated times, they can become sources of disruptive distress for parents. For example, during children’s school-age years, the death of a parent or the death of a child is an off-time event and often is very traumatic for surviving parents and other family members (Murray et al., 2010). In similar fashion, parents often experience considerable upheaval and stress when learning about their teenage daughter’s pregnancy, the stigma she may face, how becoming a parent prematurely will disrupt her life, and the assumption of grandparenthood earlier than a parent expected. The premature transition of a young daughter into parenting roles also places her at risk for problems due to inexperience, maternal depression, and considerable parental stress. High levels of maternal depression, anxiety and stress can reduce the responsiveness of young mothers to infants and may have negative consequences for the development of young children (Devereux et al., 2009; Huang et al., 2014).
Initial Awareness or Diagnosis
Another type of nonnormative stressor for parents may result from acute situations involving the initial awareness or diagnosis of unexpected circumstances and deviant or abnormal child characteristics. Examples include initial awareness of delinquency, conduct disorders, attention deficit behavior, autism, physical illness, poor mental health, and birth defects (Ambert, 1997; Ben-Sasson, Soto, Martínez-Pedraza, & Carter 2013, Hennon & Peterson, 2007; Lambek et al., 2014; Ryan et al., 2007; Vernhet et al., 2019). The initial diagnosis that Pamela has autism, for example, was defined by Tiffany as an acute stressor that disrupted her life and the lives of her family members. Likewise, parents have greater tendencies to experience acute stress or crisis when their son phones home from jail stating that he has been arrested for shoplifting. When parents are initially confronted with their child’s delinquency or externalizing behavior, they often experience distress, worry, and feelings of great concern (Ambert, 1997, 1999; Caldwell, Horne, Davidson, & Quinn, 2007; Gavazzi, 2011; Mackler et al., 2015).
Chronic Stressors
Over time, as parents continue to be challenged by nonnormative stressors, these sudden, disruptive events may become converted into more moderate, chronic stressors as parents become more accustomed (or adapted) to these challenges. Chronic stressors are atypical circumstances that may be initiated by either the characteristics of children and youth or by other circumstances in the social environment. Stressors that are chronic continue over extended periods of time are difficult to amend and can accumulate.
Chronic Stressors From the Social Environment
Some of these persistent stressors result from the social context of families such as socioeconomic circumstances that compete with parenting roles. Chronic stressors such as work roles, poverty, immigration to a new culture, and marital conflict may have stressful effects, both for parents and their young. Included among such stressors are parents’ daily employment demands that compete with parenting due to long work hours, shift work, and unusually dangerous or stressful jobs (e.g., police work or combat military personnel) that contribute to parental stress and spillover into parent–child relationships (Collins, 2019; Escalante, 2019; Haines, Marchand, & Harvey, 2006; Bianchi & Milkie, 2010). Another source of chronic parental stress within ethnic-minority, immigrant families, generational dissonance, results from differential rates of immigrant acculturation as the younger generation accepts the new culture more rapidly than parents (Berry, Phinney, David, Sam, & Vedder, 2005; Birman & Poff, 2011; Gonzales, Fabrett, & Knight, 2009). Difficulties often arise when new cultural changes practiced by the younger generation cause parents to view their youth as betraying their culture of origin. The resulting increases in acculturative stress and parent–adolescent conflict may lead to greater distance between the generations (Berry et al., 2005, Birman, & Poff, 2011). Moreover, both persistent family poverty and prolonged marital conflict also can function as chronic stressors that can increase parental stress, spill over into the parent–child relationship and have detrimental consequences for the psychosocial outcomes of children and youth (Buehler, Benson, & Gerard, 2006; Finegood et al., 2017; Gerard et al., 2008; Lin et al., 2017; Santiago et al., 2012; Scarmella et al., 2008).
Chronic Stressors: Child Effects
Another source of chronic stress, specific child characteristics, often contribute to parental stress when the shock of the initial recognition of a child’s characteristic subsides and realities set in about the long-term challenges. Often referred to as the child effects perspective, this source of parental stress results from the impact of children’s health, physical handicaps, and well-being on the socioemotional lives of parents (Ambert, 1997; Bush & Peterson, 2013; Neece et al., 2012; Rich, 2017). Having children who have congenital birth defects, physical discrepancies, long-term illnesses, problematic behavior patterns (e.g., aggressiveness and disruptive behavior), socioemotional problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and schizophrenia, can create stressful circumstances for parents over the long term (Ambert, 1997; Beernink, Swinkels, Van der Gaag, & Buitelaar, 2012; Deater-Deckard, 2004; Hastings, 2002; Silva & Schalock, 2012, Vernhet et al., 2019). These accumulating conditions can result from treatment costs, social stigma, demanding supervision requirements, and constant demands for care even during the parents’ later years of life. These difficult circumstances create considerable potential for parents to experience stress, anger, embarrassment, guilt, despair, and a diminished sense of parental efficacy (Ambert, 1997, 1999; Caldwell et al., 2007).
Parents’ Recovery Factors: Resources, Coping, and Adaptation: Factor B
The level of disruptive change within parent–child relationships, the psychological experience of parents, and the length of stress or crisis may partially be determined by Factor B’s recovery factors referred to as parental resources, coping, and adaptation. Resources are the potential strengths of parents that may be drawn upon as the possible basis for progress toward renewal. In contrast, coping involves actually taking direct actions (e.g., acquiring resources, learning new skills, and asking for assistance), altering one’s interpretations (e.g., reframing circumstances), and managing one’s emotions (e.g., positively through social support or negatively through substance abuse). Finally, adaptation or resilience refers to the ability of parents and other family members to recover from stress and crisis and establish a new level of functioning (Henry et al., 2015; Hill, 1949).
Parental Resources
The first aspect of the B factor, parental resources, identifies potential factors that may contribute to pressures for change and foster distress as well as potential sources of recovery (Allen, 2017; Boss, 2002; Hennon et al., 2009; Hennon et al., 2007; Patterson, 2002). Positive resources are the traits, qualities, characteristics, and abilities of parents, parent–child relationships, family systems, and the larger social context that can possibly be brought to bear on the demands of stressors. These characteristics of individuals or the social context have potential or latent capacity to buffer