We are glad to announce that the Scoping Review of the Empirical Literature regarding Family and Social Resilience, written by rEUsilience researchers Abrar Bawati, Rense Nieuwenhuis, Merve Uzunalioǧlu, and Max Thaning, is published in the 52nd Volume of Demographic Research, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of population sciences.
This journal, established in 1999, is published by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany and includes quality research and related material from various disciplines that bear on demography including the social sciences. Furthermore, by publishing these peer-reviewed volumes, it seeks to foster the growth of an international community engaged in Demographic Research, with researchers, educators, students, data producers, and users of demographic insights across government, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector.
We are pleased to see that the “Family and Social Resilience: a scoping review of the empirical literature” could be published in here. In this Scoping Review, the authors focused on how family resilience and social resilience are captured in the empirical literature. Although the concept of resilience has gained significant prominence in both family and social contexts across academic and policy discussion in recent times, the interplay and relation between family life and social inequalities have not yet been documented. This scoping review addresses this gap by analysing 250 articles published between 1998 and 2023. While both perspectives study individuals’ resilience, (1) the unit of analysis, (2) the definitions, (3) the types and the (4) risks, outcomes and explanatory factors differ, with the greatest difference that the resources and solutions in family resilience are located within the family, while social resilience studies focus more on communities and societies and rather examine external risks and resources then within the family.
The Scoping Review concludes by stating that understanding resilience through the lens of family inequalities in socioeconomic contexts can help bridge these two perspectives. Incorporating factors such as labour market dynamics, family transitions, and educational attainment into definitions of risks, outcomes, and explanatory factors of resilience can enhance this integration. This gives additional motivation for the rEUsilience project which speaks to the conclusions of this scoping review in the approach that it takes. Therefore, we are glad that our Scoping Review could be published in a Peer-Reviewed Journal to keep the conversation on family resilience going.