1.2 Resilience
What does it mean to be resilient? Why are some children more resilient than others?
Resilience is the ability of an individual to overcome adversity and thrive. Resilience is adapting and coping in spite of significant challenges and threats. The study of resilience grew from observations that some children cope and are competent even though they face noticeable risks and adverse conditions. Listen as Ann Masten, a leading expert in resilience research, describes the concept of resilience.
View >> Masten Resilience
Children face different opportunities and risks for development because of their own biological makeup and self-regulation capacity and because of the social and physical environment they inhabit. Nurturing parents, consistent caregivers, safe communities, adequate nutrition, and nurturing social networks are some of the fundamental protective systems that can help children thrive. In the next clip, Masten describes protective systems in more detail including different levels of protective systems that influence children and families.
View >> Masten Protective Systems
Reflect
- Think about children you have known who have had many challenges and yet seem to thrive. What do you think made a difference for those children?
- What examples of protective systems outside the family does Masten describe? Are there others you would include?
- What is the difference between a protective versus a promotive factor?
As you have read in previous modules, development in the early years provides the "roots" that influences future development. The experiences and environments surrounding a child in the early years impacts his/her growth and development, including their capacity to be resilient. Masten describes how a child's own capacity to self-regulate contributes to resilience in the following clip.
View >> Masten Resilience Self Regulation
Reflect
- Does the connection between optimal self-regulation and resilience make sense to you?
- What does Masten mean by referring to parents/caregivers as "external regulators"? Why is this important?
In the next reading, Masten highlights five important lessons learned - the "ordinary magic" - from studies on resilience over the years.
Read >> Summary of Ordinary magic: Lessons from research on resilience in human development
Reflect
- What is "ordinary magic"?
- How can we promote resilience in the daily lives of young children?
The concept of resilience can also apply to families, communities or cultures that can find and negotiate resources that foster well-being.
Violence Against Children and Resilience
Early relationships shape self-regulation and influence children's resilience, now and in the
future. how resilient children will be as adults. Nurturing early relationships are crucial to the
development of the brain's neural networks that foster resilience and successful relationships.
We know that many, many children experience environments and relationships that are harsh and sometimes violent. They may live in violent homes and be neglected or abused. Poverty, disasters, displacement or armed conflict may be a constant in a young child's life. Extra efforts with these children can make a big difference.
In Mexico the Cuidarte A.C. organization in Jalisco State developed the "Weaving Networks for Life" programme to address high rates of domestic violence and child maltreatment. The focus of the programme is on nurturing relationships and mutual care as the basis of children's mental health in spite of economic poverty and poor living conditions. A description of the programme is included in the Bernard van Leer publication Early Childhood Matters (June 2009), "Family stress: Safeguarding young children's care environment".
Read >> Strengthening emotional bonds (pp 30-35 as numbered in the document)
Reflect
- What 'ordinary magic' is Weaving Networks for Life promoting?
- How do the games and play promote resilience through building relationships?
- Would the Weaving Networks approach be adapted for your community?
Young children may experience violence in their home and community environments. Many children may survive but are vulnerable and burdened with emotional and physical health problems that carry forward. Others - the resilient ones -thrive.
The impact of violence in childhood does not have to last a lifetime. The human brain has amazing plasticity and can grow and change well into adulthood. It is possible for families to ameliorate the impact of violent environments by building children's resilience.
Early Childhood Matters (June 2006) "Violence against young children: A painful issue" highlights several examples from around the world where communities have drawn upon, and coordinated resources to address violent environments or increase children's resilience.
Read >> Violence against young children: A painful issue
Reflect
- The introductory editorial suggests corporal punishment is a controversial issue related to violence against children. Do you encounter debates about the use of physical punishment in homes and schools in your communities?
- What are some common strategies that emerge from the initiatives in Brazil, El Salvador, Kenya and Columbia that are intended to reduce corporal punishment?
- Do you think that reducing corporal punishment is likely to increase children's resilience?
Positive Deviance
Researchers have found that families can enhance resilience in children by using available resources in particularly effective ways. In disadvantaged environments that present risks to children's development, some children in the same community may be doing better than others. Identifying those in a community that flourish despite the same risks and determining what families are doing differently that contributes to their success is a 'positive deviance' approach to addressing the issue.
Read about Manno, a young mother of four living in a village in Nepal.
Read >> Learning about different kinds of fish
Reflect
- How does Manno maximize the potential of day-to-day interactions to build her children's resilience?
- Why do you think Manno is called a 'positive deviant'?
The concept of positive deviance has been applied to child research and intervention programming. In Vietnam, a Positive Deviance project was designed to address the high rates of childhood malnutrition. Specifically, the project asked why some children from poor families are well nourished compared to other children in poor families. What did these families do differently? The following reading describes the project in more detail and the subsequent results.
Read >> Case Study: Vietnam
Reflect
- What were the "deviant" behaviours that positively influenced children's nutritional status?
- In what ways can this "positive deviance" impact children's developmental outcomes?
- How might this project impact the intergenerational effects of poor nutrition?
The following slide presentation describes a study in Mozambique on the positive deviance case of students enrolled in school for the right grade at the right age.
Read >> Education in Mozambique: The exception that should be the norm
Reflect
- What were the factors associated with children's educational success?
- Based on the findings from the study, what "interventions" were put in place? What do the results of these interventions indicate?
- Does the information in this study relate to school enrolments in your own context? If so, are there similar initiatives in place?
Further Study
Ann Masten, in the following clip, provides a brief overview on the "four waves" of the scientific study of resilience.
View >> Masten Study of Resilience
In the next clip, Masten summarizes "Project Competence", an early longitudinal study of resilience.
View >> Masten Project Competence
