Despite well-documented challenges, most families bringing up children with disabilities ‘do well’. However, child
behavior problems increase the risk of poor family outcomes. Behavior problems can disrupt family routines and
relationships, and tax family adaptive resources. Arguably, families who do well despite the stressors associated with
bringing up a disabled child with behavior problems display ‘resilience’. A challenge for family researchers is to account for
such resilience: why do some families do well when others, exposed to similar stressors, struggle to keep their family life running?
In this study we investigate the proposition that such resilience is context-bound. Our principal hypothesis is that families of
disabled children with behavior problems do well, or at least better, under conditions of high social support and low financial
hardship