Final Theory Paper

Running Head: FINAL THEORY PAPER 1
Final Theory Paper
Amanda Ablan
University of Georgia

FINAL THEORY PAPER 2
Every human being is a part of a family, whether from a biological family or through the
creation of their own family. A family is a universal term used to describe a complex structure
and a group interdependent people whom which share life and adversity (George, 2018a). The
family unit is a resource that helps us stay healthy and grow during a time of adversity (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 112). In the movie, The Glass Castle, the plot illustrates a family that
expands on this definition of family as they experience adverse life challenges, willingly choose
to live as nomads, and still manages to show love to one another. The Walls’s family includes
the mother, Rose Mary, the father, Rex, and their four children, Lori, Maureen, Brian, and
Jeannette. These characters’ express intimacy with one another throughout the entire film despite
the extreme trauma they face. Their experiences and traumatic events that occur are eased by the
strong sibling relationships each child has formed. The four siblings each share mutual support
and encouragement through the countless number of moves and transformative events. The
Walls’s is a family unit that shows resiliency through unique and powerful ways of living.
The Connection Between Intimacy and Sibling Relationships
Intimacy and the sibling relationships are two topics of focus that connect The Glass Castle
with the Family Stress and Resiliency model. The theory explains the act of individuals
experiencing vulnerabilities, stressors, and crises that challenge their coping skills (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 209). The Walls’s family continuously experienced crises as they had no
money for food, no permanent home, and a drunken father who is overly aggressive and
protective. Through daily struggles, the family faced, they held onto protective factors, such as

intimacy, to keep optimal functioning. Taken from the SAGE Handbook of Family
Communication, intimacy is not something that we have, so much as it is something we perform
and become in and through the performance (Turner & West, p. 107). The Walls’s is not a family
of expressing their feelings through words or phrases like “I love you,” rather they show it
through actions. Jeannette and her father, Rex, are in two main scenes in which they express love
and intimacy. When Jeannette was younger, Rex took her to look at the sky and persuades her
that the bright planet of Venus is his Christmas gift to her. This was an intimate scene as
although Rex did not have enough money to buy her a real gift, because he spent it on alcohol,
he chose to give his daughter a gift she will always remember. Throughout the film, Rex and
Jeannette continued to share this love for fantasies and dreams. They planned to build their
dream house, a glass castle, and spent years working on the structure and ideas for their “new
house.” These scenes exemplified how the father showed intimacy to Jeannette through his
actions. He showed her how to have hopes and dreams, and they shared this special bond as they
both desired to one day live in a glass castle. Turner and West (2014) stated that young children
have complete dependence on their parents, and they enact the intimacy behaviors they learn
within the context of their family” (p. 117). This statement shows how even though in reality,
getting a star as a gift and building a glass castle is not ideal, Jeannette was at an age where she
was dependent on her father and learned from these intimate moments she shared with him.
These actions relate to the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory as the Walls’s family shows
resilience when expressing intimacy, which is the path a family follows as it adapts and prospers
in the face of stress (George, 2018b).
The sibling relationships within the Walls’s family can also be tied to the Family Stress and
Resiliency Theory. Through all the hardships and hungry nights the family faced, the siblings

formed a strong foundation that allowed them constant stability. Stated in the Journal of
Marriage and Family, siblings form another dimension to a child’s experience in family life and
they can support each other during stressful events (Mostafa, Gambaro, & Joshi, 2018). The
Walls’s siblings are rarely separated throughout the film and are involved in many events where
their strong bond is needed. In the movie, their grandma discretely pulled Brian into a room and
attempted to assault him sexually. When the other siblings realized what was happening,
collectively they began to attack the grandma and protect their younger brother. The attack
shows that even that even though she was their grandma, the children would fight for their
siblings no matter the circumstance. The siblings represent concrete support to one another
which is a protective factor of resilience in the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory (George,
2018b). In the movie, all the kids put their pinky’s together, squeezed, and said, “if we are going
to get out of this, we are going to have to do it together” (Kao & Cretton, 2017). The sibling’s
loving and fearless relationships contributed to the family intimacy and allowed the Walls’s to
prosper through their daily hardships. Taken from, “Risk and Protective Effects of Sibling
Relationships Among African American Adolescents,” actual dimensions of sibling
relationships, such as support and emotional intimacy, may serve as protective factors. Protective
factors can act as buffers against the negative consequences of exposure to a risk factor, and they
can promote healthy adjustment (Soli, McHale, & Feinberg 2009). Having protective factors
within a family unit is essential for the family to move forward and grow stronger as a whole.
Overview of The Family Stress and Resiliency Theory
The Family Stress and Resiliency Theory is a framework for understanding how strength is
developed, or not developed, through adversity (George, 2018b). This theory helps explains the
actions and consequences of Walls’s family in The Glass Castle as each member faces stress but

becomes adaptable and allows themselves to make meaning in adversity. Four main parts of the
theory corresponds to what it is and how it can relate to other sources, such as The Glass Castle.
The four parts include assumptions, which are the ideas that scholars believe to be true about
families, background, origin, or where it came from, and major concepts, which are the terms
and definitions used to explain the theory’s framework (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 5). Each
theoretical concept is independently illustrated throughout the movie and through the events that
the Walls’s family encounters.
Origin
The origin of this theory began with the question of why some families and individuals could
make it through a crisis despite going through a stressful event (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p.
112). This lead to a three-wave formation of the theory and what processes it took to be
completed and be the theory it is today. Wave one deals with the origination of family stress
theory, wave two expands the theory and incorporates time, multiple pile-ups, and the family’s
sense of meaning and cohesion, and the third wave, that is still emerging, further develops the
ideas of family resilience (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 112). The process of this theory to form
its final version relates to the series of events in the movie that leads to the Walls’s family
dynamic in the end. In the beginning of the movie, the children were blind to what was going on
with their alcoholic father, but as they got older, they began to resent him and feel hatred towards
him. Surprisingly, when the father had passed away at the end of the movie, the Walls’s family
dynamic changed and they became a healthy, collective family. Jeannette said, “My dad is the
smartest man that I know, he is also a drunk, and can be extremely cruel, he dreams bigger than
anyone I have ever met and never tries to be someone that he is not, he never wanted me to
either” (Kao & Cretton, 2017). This statement shows how the Walls’s have overcome many

triumphs, have grown closer as a family unit, and it shows the ultimate resiliency. Resiliency is
the capacity to overcome adversity or to thrive despite challenges or trauma (Allen & Henderson,
2017, p. 211). This process of the Walls’s family becoming close relates to the origin of the
Family Stress and Resiliency model and how it has progressed. The combining of Family Stress
Theory and Family Resilience Theory has progressed over time into a comprehensive framework
that allows us to understand the role of individual members, the family unit as an entity, and
various community processes affecting how families deal with every day and traumatic stressors
(Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 212).
Assumptions
One of many assumptions of the Family Stress and Resiliency theory is that families inevitably
deal with things that make them grow; both problems and their solutions (Allen & Henderson,
2017, p. 219). When looking at a family unit and the long duration of time spent with them, it is
impossible not to be confronted with hardships together. Whether the hardships come from the
marital, sibling, or parental subsystem, all families experience this, and all members of the
family are affected. Allen and Henderson stated that every family has a sense of history and
understanding that helps them heal, using rituals, spirituality, and cultural and ethnic traditions
(2017, p. 210). Finding a sense of history and understanding is the second assumption that
connects the theory to the movie, The Glass Castle. The Walls’s use spirituality and symbols to
help them heal, such as the color yellow and the stars. Each time the Walls’s moved to a new
house, the mom, Rose Mary, would paint the front door yellow and say, “yellow stands for
happiness and creativity” (Kao & Cretton, 2017). Rose Mary strives to model happiness for the
kids, through the color yellow, and not idealize the material things of this world. She uses yellow
throughout the movie to create a space of optimism and joy in their overwhelming lives. The use

of yellow can be traced back to London in 1917 when according to "The Colour Treatment: A
Convergence of Art and Medicine at the Red Cross Russell Lea Nerve Home", a professor used
color to cure soldiers who were suffering from shell shock. (Berryman, 2016). He stressed the
therapeutic power of color, specifically the color yellow, and painted the walls in the hospital
yellow to represent the love of light and peace (Berryman, 2016). This “treatment” for soldiers
who have experienced trauma relates to the mother’s attempt to bring happiness and peace into
their home.
Background
The background of this theory is that it addresses the “whole picture” of how families are
prepared for, deal with, and learn from stressful events (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 209).
Throughout the movie, The Glass Castle, the Walls’s exemplified how each stressful event or
change that occurred was not caused by one single event or one member of the family. For
example, when the father hung the mom outside the second story window and threatened to kill
her, this was not caused by or dealt with one factor. The Family Stress and Resiliency Theory
states that one should look at the whole picture and each member of the family when assessing
the issue. The father was an alcoholic and was attempting to become sober which caused stress,
the mother holds resentment towards Rex as he takes all the family’s money, and the children
had not eaten in three days which can cause mental and physical instability. These issues were
not the direct cause of the fight between the parents, but together, are the underlying reasons that
caused a build-up of stress.
Major Concepts

The major concepts of the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory are stress, an upset in the
steady state of the system, coping, how well a family tolerates stress, family resilience, the path a
family follows as it adapts and prospers in the face of stress, and trauma, extreme stress (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 216). Stress was shown by the dad being overprotective and forbidding the
other family members to leave the house for school, college, or to find work. The siblings all
united and coped with their overprotective father by helping the oldest sibling save up to move
out of the house for school or to fulfill their dreams. Trauma occurred when their father died and
the realization that the family had emotionally, physically, and psychologically separated over
the years. The Walls’s reunited with each other and unintentionally created a stronger bond than
before as they mourned over the death of Rex. At the end of the movie, the family joined
together for Thanksgiving and shared joyful memories from when they were little. Bryan shared
a quote that their dad had told him, “When everyone else’s junk is broken and forgotten, you will
still have your stars” (Kao & Cretton, 2017). Bryan’s quote shows the family’s resiliency and
hope in their stars as they have experienced stress, coping, and trauma together, yet prospers
through it and stays steady at the end.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As I have researched and analyzed the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory, it has been
found to be a complex, yet reassuring theory. It is reassuring and gives hope to many families
that experience stress with the guidelines it gives of how to cope and the normalizing of a
stressful event. Just like with all theories, the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory has strengths
and weaknesses that can be looked at and critiqued. Allen and Henderson stated three main
strengths that have allowed this theory to work within the family system. It has a positive
perspective on family change and growth that emphasizes how family bonds can be strengthened

by communication and caring for one another to get past a stressful event (Allen & Henderson,
2017, p. 219). When applying this theory to scenes in The Glass Castle, instead of diminishing
the ways of how the Walls’s coped with the stressful events, I was able to have a positive
outlook on how the family united and reestablished a strong unit together. Another strength of
this theory includes normalizing the inevitability of stress within families and the
conceptualizing of family stressors per severity, which is vital for understanding different layers
of stressor events and different layers of family resources to cope with family stress (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 219). From the movie, an example of conceptualizing family stressors per
severity is the difference between when the father punched Jeannette’s fiancé in the face
compared to when the Jeannette was on fire and burned part of her body. When I was thinking
about examples to use within the paper regarding stress or trauma, this concept helped facilitate
which events were of higher severity and would have a more significant influence on the overall
dynamic of the family.
Despite the strengths of the Family Stress and Resiliency theory, there are also three main
weaknesses that come about when examining and applying this theory. When thinking about this
theory, it is difficult to simultaneously focus on both stress and resilience because resilience
alone cannot capture the ways people also experience stress (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 219).
Resilience and stress must work together and are essential for understanding families. I
understand this concept and the difficulty of focusing on two complex factors of the theory at
once, but I did not find it difficult to look at both in The Glass Castle. There were clear
connections between the stressful event and the outcome of how the Walls’s coped with it. As
stated in the strengths category, the severity of stress or trauma is a weakness as well. Research
has questioned whether you can compare normative events, such as birth or going to college, and

catastrophic traumas, such as a tornado, on the same continuum (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p.
220). The origin of this theory came from the perspective of an individual and had led to a
weakness that most family stressors occur at the individual level but families are not always
equipped to cope with these challenges by addressing them at the family level (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 230). I felt at ease when applying this weakness to the movie due to the
father experiencing many individual stressors that caused the family to stress, such as being an
alcoholic and using all the family’s money to buy alcohol. The father, Rex, is the head of the
household and in which inhibits the family not to be equipped with the resources to cope with
this stressor. Overall, the strengths and weaknesses addressed by Allen and Henderson were
more similar than not to how I felt about using the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory.
Conclusion
The Family Stress and Resiliency Theory originated and used concepts from the Family
Systems Theory, which addresses the family as a whole (Allen & Henderson, 2017, p. 103). To
understand the Walls’s family dynamic, looking at the entire family helped me better understand
the reasons behind their actions. Each character and relationships within the family contributes to
why and how they are who they are. Applying intimacy and sibling relationships to the whole
family, not just one character, allowed me to further develop how the Walls’s cope with adverse
situations. I was able to see how the different characters shared intimate moments together and
how as a family, intimacy was extended. The sibling relationships showed the power of their
stable foundation, and how it made the family steadier as a whole. A concept from the Family
Systems Theory that relates to the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory is mutual influence,
which explains what happens in any part of the family affects the whole family (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p.109). The concept of mutual influence and thinking about it from a Family

Stress and Resiliency approach gave me a greater insight to understand the Walls’s family
experiences. I was able to apply the four main parts of the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory
and critically think about how each individual concept related to The Glass Castle and the
stressful events. When looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the Family Systems Theory,
one strength is that it is useful for helping families when they are experiencing trouble (Allen &
Henderson, 2017, p. 112). The intervention strength of the Family Systems Theory correlates
with the overarching theme of the Family Stress and Resiliency Theory. The strength assisted me
in thinking about how the Walls’s could cope and get through the triumphs they faced. The Glass
Castle exemplified how the struggles of individual members within the family affected the
family as a whole and how they adapted and coped with the circumstance. The Walls’s is a
family that is unified through traumatic and stressful events, yet are able to share intimacy with
one another in a special way. The father proudly states, “You are a Walls, you were born to
change the world, not add to the noise” (Kao & Cretton, 2017).

References
Allen, K. & Henderson, A. (2017). Family theories: Foundations and applications. West Sussex,
UK: Wiley Blackwell.
Berryman, J. (2016). The colour treatment: A convergence of art and medicine at the red cross
Russell Lea nerve home. Health & History: Journal of the Australian & New Zealand
Society for the History of Medicine, 18(1), 5–21. Retrieved from
https://libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search-ebscohost-
com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=118088880
George, J. (2018a). Family systems theory. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://app.tophat.com/e/401768/lecture/
George, J. (2018b). Family stress and resiliency theory. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://app.tophat.com/e/401768/lecture/
Kao, K. (Producer), & Cretton, D. D. (Director). (2017). The glass castle. [Motion picture].
USA: Lionsgate.
Mostafa, T., Gambaro, L., & Joshi, H. (2018). The impact of complex family structure on child
well-being: Evidence from siblings. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(4), 902-918.
doi:10.1111/jomf.12456
Soli, A., McHale, S., & Feinberg, E. (2009). Risk and protective effects of sibling relationships
among african american adolescents. Family Relations, 58(5), 578-592. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40405715
Turner, L. H., & West, R. L. (2015). The sage handbook of family communication. Los Angeles:
SAGE.

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