November 21, 2025

On 20th November 2024, the ComLink+ scheme celebrates its one-year anniversary, having provided support to about 14,000 families across areas such as pre-school education, employment, and home ownership. Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli described the scheme as a significant step towards enhancing resilience and promoting social mobility in Singapore, particularly for low-income families.  

While financial initiatives like the ComLink+ scheme are crucial in alleviating the immediate pressures faced by low-income families, resilience research highlights the importance of focusing on the nuanced dynamics of family hardiness, in the face of economic hardship. Family hardiness refers to the family’s coping abilities and its collective attitude to be resilient in face of hardships. 

In ‘The moderating role of trajectories of family hardiness in the relationship between trajectories of economic hardship and mental health of mothers and children’ (Current Psychology, 2023),  Mr Daniel Wen and Associate Professor Esther C. L. Goh (both NUS Social Work) delineate trajectories of family hardiness across time. Additionally, they investigate whether the trajectories of economic hardship previously delineated would predict less severe, non-clinical levels of depression and anxiety in mothers and children. 

Wen and Goh identify three trajectories of family hardiness, namely the high stable, low rapidly increasing and moderate increasing group. The high stable trajectory of family hardiness represents families that are working well together consistently over time, while the low rapidly increasing trajectory of family hardiness represents families that are struggling to find ways to work together to cope with their situation, and are desperately trying to enhance their ability to work together. Lastly, the moderate increasing trajectory of family hardiness represents families who are working together moderately well, and improving in their ability to work together in response to challenges.  

The researchers found that the trajectories of family hardiness moderated the relationship between trajectories of perceived economic hardship and symptoms of mental health in low-income mothers and children. Interestingly, different trajectories of family hardiness are protective for different aspects of mental health. For example, the high stable family hardiness trajectory was protective against depression among mothers, yet when it came to anxiety, a moderate increasing family hardiness trajectory was found to be protective, reducing the likelihood of higher levels of mother’s and child’s anxiety. One possibility is that having a consistently high trajectory of family hardiness provides a stable support system for mothers, which helps shield them from depression even when facing ongoing economic difficulties. In contrast, a moderate but increasing trajectory of family hardiness might be better at addressing anxiety, as it adapts and builds resilience over time, thus reducing the risk of heightened anxiety for both mothers and children. 

The findings highlight the importance of considering family resilience dynamics over time. Incorporating ongoing evaluations of family hardiness rather than just a single point in time may provide a more accurate understanding of how a family’s resilience can impact mental health outcomes. 

Read the article here.