Resiliency

A significant protective factor that captures a great deal of promise in the prevention research focuses on resiliency. Resiliency deals with the fact that it is inevitable that all people will, at one time or another, encounter various levels of adversity. How well people "bounce back" or rise above their adversity to maintain a positive and productive perspective on life is resiliency. Therefore, preventionists are very interested in establishing conditions that can maximize a person’s resiliency.

"A phrase occurring often in the literature sums up the resilient child as one who "works well, plays well, loves well, and expects well." (Prevention should emphasize protective factors, Bonnie Benard, Turning the corner from risk to resiliency, Western Center News, September 1991)

The following are three articles written by Bonnie Benard, Western Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Resiliency requires changing hearts and minds

New research adds to knowledge on resiliency

Resiliency paradigm validates craft knowledge

"A prominent child psychiatrist, E. James Anthony, once proposed this analogy: there are three dolls, one made of glass, the second of plastic, the third of steel. Struck with a hammer, the glass doll shatters; the plastic doll is scarred. But the steel doll proves invulnerable, reacting only with a metallic ping." (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"In life, no one is unbreakable. But child-health specialists know there are sharp differences in the aftermath of divorce or physical abuse, for instance, some may be illness-prone and slow to develop. But there are also so-called resilient children who shrug off the hammer blows and go on to highly productive lives.(The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"‘There are kids in families from very adverse situations who really do beautifully, and seem to rise to the top of their potential, even with everything else working against them,’ says Dr. W. Thomas Boyce, director of the division of behavioral and developmental pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. ‘Nothing touches them; they thrive no matter what.’" (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"The preponderance of the literature has to do with why children fail, fall ill, turn delinquent. Only recently, doctors realized they were neglecting the equally important question of why some children don’t get sick. Instead of working backward from failure, they decided, there might be as much or more to be learned from studying the secrets of success."(The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"One of the definitive studies was conducted by Emmy E. Werner, a professor of human development at the University of California, Davis, and Ruth S. Smith, a clinical psychologist on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. ...Like other researchers, they found that children who started out with robust, sunny personalities were often twice lucky: not only were they better equipped to cope with life to begin with, but their winning ways made them immediately lovable. In effect, the ‘nicer’ the children, the more readily they won affection - both nature and nurture smiled upon them." (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"There were also other important resiliency factors, including self-esteem and a strong sense of identity. Boyce says he encounters some children who even at 2 or 3 have a sense of ‘presence’ and independence that seem to prefigure success. ‘It’s as if these kids have had the ‘Who am I’ questions answered for them,’ he says.(The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"One of the more intriguing findings of the Kauai research was that resilient children were likely to have characteristics of both sexes. Boys and girls in the study tended to be outgoing and autonomous, in the male fashion, but also nurturant and emotionally sensitive, like females."(The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"Some other key factors were inherent in the children’s surroundings rather than their personalities. It helped to have a readily available support network of grandparents, neighbors or relatives."(The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"In most cases, resilient children have ‘clusters’ of protective factors, not just one or two. But the sine qua non, according Werner, is a ‘basic, trusting relationship’ with an adult. In all the clusters in the Kauai study, ‘there is not one that didn’t include that one good relationship, whether with a parent, grandparent, older sibling, teacher or mentor - someone consistent enough in that person’s life to say, ‘You count,’ and that sort of begins to radiate other support in their lives.’" (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"Even children of abusive or schizophrenic parents may prove resilient if they have had at least one caring adult looking out for them - someone, as Tom Boyce says, ‘who serves as a kind of beacon presence in their lives.’" (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"Children may not be as manageable or resilient as laboratory monkeys. If anything, they are more susceptible in the early year. But with the right help at the right time, they can overcome almost anything." (The Miracle of Resiliency, Newsweek Special Edition, Summer 1991)

"Several researchers have also identified the ability to separate oneself from a dysfunctional family environment - ‘to stand away psychologically from the sick parent’ as the major characteristic of resilient children growing up in families with alcoholism and mental illness." (Prevention Should Emphasize Protective Factors, Bonnie Benard, Western Center News, September 1991)