The ABC-X model of family stress in the book of Philippians.

Throughout history, families have dealt with stress and crises. Hill's 1949 ABC-X model of family stress remains a useful tool for identifying the different components that affect how successfully families cope with stress. Paul's letter to the Philippians expands and illustrates this model. Therapists working with Christian families and individuals can use this model and Paul's epistle as a structure to help identify the type of stressor being experienced, explore family resources, and evaluate the individual's or family's meaning of the stressor, helping them to respond successfully to stress. The study of family stress began in the 1930s as scholars investigated how individuals and their families coped with economic loss and other upheavals of the Great Depression, noting that some families adapted more successfully than others (Boss, 2002). Hill, as a result of studying families who dealt with the stress related to father absence during World War II, developed his ABC-X family crisis model in 1949 (Hill, 1958), which was one of the earliest theoretical explanations of how families vary in their responses to stress (Boss, 2002). Although subsequent theorists have expanded and reconfigured his model (e.g., Carter & McGoldrick, 1999; McCubbin & Patterson, 1983; Patterson, 2002), Hill's basic conceptualization remains a useful tool for identifying the components that determine how successfully a family manages stressful events. This model also provides a useful lens through which to interpret Paul's epistle to the Philippians, and conversely the epistle provides an opportunity to illustrate the model.