In an effort to further our understanding of the development of resilience, we came across an article by Fonaghy et al 1994 (1) in which there were many interesting facts relating to the development of, emergence of, and application of resilience.
We know that there is stability of resilience through childhood, adolescence and throughout adult life. It is therefore hugely informative to recognise and capture the key factors of childhood resilience; to discover how some kids survive and thrive in the face of adversity.
The authors summarise general predictors of childhood resilience:
- Within-child factors, e.g. high levels of cognitive ability and social competence, an even temperament (especially a sense of humour), positive self-perceptions
- Within-home factors, e.g. soci-economic status of parents/carers, educational levels within the family, parental confidence in child care, parental responsibility
- Outside-home factors; e.g. neighbourhood influences, school aspects (especially teacher expectations, peer influences and the level of support available)
We can see from this summary that the factors of resilience in childhood are virtually identical to those that we find in adulthood. Aspects of character and internal personality characteristics are relevant (self-efficacy, confidence and social competence). In addition we see environmental support factors at play.
We can replace home factors relating to parental care with emotional and appreciative adult relationships such as partner and marital relationships (and no doubt continued extended family relationships). Outside home factors are also of critical importance. We can replace school environmental aspects with workplace factors.
The multidimensional nature of resilience in which personal, internal factors react with external factors, starts in childhood and remains stable over the course of our lives.
(1). Fonaghy, P. Steele, M., Steel, H., Higgett, A. & Target, M. (1994) The Theory and practice of resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32(2), pp.231-257
|
|
|