How do families cope with major societal stressors: a qualitative study of family coping during the pandemic?

Background: Major societal stressors such as wars, natural disasters and pandemics severely disrupt family life. However, not all families are impacted equally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys highlighted how most of UK society coped. Methods: Forty-three participants were interviewed about family experiences during the first 3 three months of lockdown: 25 parents and 18 family-supporting professionals. The interviews were conducted in two phases: during the start of the pandemic in April 2020, and during the first easing of restrictions in July 2020. Interviews were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Results: Six major themes were identified: health & wellbeing, family dynamics, work & employment, education, home environment and adherence to government restrictions. Families faced challenges in creating a balance between parents work and childcare. A wide range of risk and protective factors, and the influence of pre-existing experiences, contributed to whether a family entered a Virtuous supportive or a Vicious maladaptive cycle of? Negative pre-existing experiences worsened some families adaptation but helped other families to have resilience . Conclusion: This study extends the Family Stress Model by illustrating the potential for resilience among high-risk families, highlighting the adaptive calibration model, and Double ABC‐X model as mechanisms that enable some families to transform adversity into strength. These findings may be useful for professionals supporting families and for the development of recommendations for potential societal stressors in the future. Keywords: societal stressors, COVID-19, lockdown, family, professionals, wellbeing , resilience