The influence of family income on students’ family resilience in Croatia

Abstract The study basically examines if there are differences in the factors of students’ family resilience regarding the level of their families’ income. Two additional hypotheses have also been tested, concerning influence of income level on students’ expression of problems and difficulties to family members and on religiosity. The study has been done on a sample of students from the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia. The results have shown that students from families with no income or below-average income, are likely forbidden to show certain emotions in their family. On the other hand, students from average or above-average income families consider the fact that everyone can ‘vent’ without upsetting the others and is able to discuss problems until the solution is found as a significant factor of family resilience. The hypothesis concerning relationship between religion and income has not been confirmed. The average family income was taken from publicly available databases. The category of family income and decisions about its spending is very important for the quality of life, but also for communication within the family. The results offer guidelines for interventions which encourage family involvement, especially in financial contributions to their children’s wellbeing