Developing Resilience in Children
Although childhood trauma can negatively impact a person’s life for many years, not all children experience lasting harm as a result of adverse early experiences. Some may demonstrate resilience, and it’s important to understand why some children exhibit this response. A helpful tool for understanding resilience is to visualize a balance. Resilience is evident when “a child’s health and development are tipped in the positive direction, even when a heavy load of factors is stacked on the negative side” (Harvard). There are a number of findings about resilience that are important to remember as we seek to tip the scale in a more positive direction.
1. Resilience requires supportive relationships and opportunities for skill building. Regardless of the hardships faced by a child, the most significant factor for children who do well is the presence of at least one stable relationships with a parent or other adult.
2. Resilience results from a dynamic interaction between internal predispositions and external experiences. The interaction between inborn biology and environmental factors (nature and nurture) builds a child’s ability to overcome adversity. Neither individual characteristics nor social environments alone are sufficient.
3. Learning to cope with manageable threats to our physical and social well-being is critical for the development of resilience. Stress can actually be very helpful in reasonable doses. This “positive stress” helps children to develop resilience and prepares them to face stress later in life.
4. Some children respond in more extreme ways to both negative and positive experiences. Certain highly sensitive individuals are especially vulnerable to toxic stress, but respond extremely positively when correctly supported and cared for.
5. Resilience can be developed at any age, but earlier is better. The brain is most adaptable early in life, but resilience is shaped by accumulating positive and negative experiences throughout the lifespan.
Harvard suggests a set of factors that help children achieve positive outcomes in the face of adversity. These include:
1. providing supportive adult-child relationships;
2. scaffolding learning so the child builds a sense of self-efficacy and control;
3. helping strengthen adaptive skills and self-regulatory capacities; and
4. using faith and cultural traditions as a foundation for hope and stability.
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-the-science-of-resilience/
