The Impact of Family Capabilities on the Wellbeing and Mental Health of Family Members
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 5030
Special Issue Editors
Interests: family; family wellbeing; human development; mental health and wellbeing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Family capabilities are the collective actions, behaviours, and resources that families use to support the wellbeing and development of their members. These capabilities include providing emotional support, effective communication, problem solving and adaptability, resource management, fostering positive relationships, and promoting growth and development. These capabilities encompass what families 'do' to create a nurturing environment, manage challenges, and promote positive outcomes for all members. However, family capabilities are currently underexplored, and work is required to develop a new understanding that challenges existing emphasis, especially for parenting and family resilience.
This Special Issue explores the critical role of family capabilities in shaping family members’ wellbeing and mental health, and the editors believe that an ethic of care [1] is crucial to this. In this context, care does not focus on proximal relationships or engrossment but is rather a process in which families care about needs, care for recognised needs, take care of needs, and receive care, and how the family cares through a commitment to wellbeing for all members. We are therefore interested in papers that critique predominant approaches to understanding family wellbeing and foreground an ethic of care as the foundation for family collective action, behaviours, and capacity to access and use the resources required for meeting needs. Contributions could focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- How care is recognised within a family, especially as a moral concern for attentiveness and listening to the needs of others.
- How families take responsibility for a recognised need, as an ethical commitment to meeting a need.
- Family competence for meeting a need, both moral competence and skills and knowledge to ensure that care is effective.
- How care is received, responsiveness to care given, and the sufficiency of outcomes.
- The family's commitment to trust and solidarity, ensuring equality in the care process.
While each of these can be explored individually, each is one element in an overall process of care at the foundation of family capabilities, and it is important to conceptualise how care is in relation to family capabilities through appropriate theorising. Theoretically, family capability is a development of the human capability approach that is grounded in the works of [2–4], and group capabilities [5]. Contributions could, therefore, also focus on the relation between the ethic of care and foundational human capabilities thinking.
We believe families with strong family capabilities are better equipped to navigate challenges, mitigate stress, and promote positive mental health outcomes for all members, including children, parents, and caregivers. Limited family capabilities can exacerbate vulnerabilities, leading to heightened risks of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and burnout. The articles in this Special Issue examine the various influences of family capabilities, specifically their actions, concerning family members’ wellbeing and mental health. They focus on various methodologies and research designs but exclude protocols. The goal is to contribute to developing a deeper understanding of how family-centred approaches can enhance mental health and overall quality of life.
References
- Tronto, J. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care; Routledge: New York, NY, USA, 1993; p. 242.
- Sen, A. Elements of a Theory of Human Rights. Philos. Public Aff. 2004, 32, 315–356.
- Sen, A. The Idea of Justice; Belknap Press (Harvard University Press): New York, NY, USA, 2009; pp. 52–742.
- Nussbaum, M.C. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach; Harvard University Press: New York, NY, USA, 2011; p. 257.
- Sauvain-Dugerdil C.; Cissé, S. Situating the family within the capabilities framework: A collective conversion factor: The role of the household configuration in the quality of life in Mali. In Social Choice, Agency, Inclusiveness and Capabilities; Comim, F., Anand P.B., Fennell, S., Eds.; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2024; pp. 356–384.
Prof. Dr. Nicolette Vanessa Roman
Dr. James Reid
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- family
- family capabilities
- mental health
- family wellbeing
- family centredness
- ethic of care
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