This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience, a construct connoting the maintenance of positive adaptation by individuals despite experiences of significant adversity. As empirical research on resilience has burgeoned in recent years, criticisms have been levied at work in this area. These critiques have generally focused on ambiguities in definitions and central terminology; heterogeneity in risks experienced and competence achieved by individuals viewed as resilient; instability of the phenomenon of resilience; and concerns regarding the usefulness of resilience as a theoretical construct. We address each identified criticism in turn, proposing solutions for those we view as legitimate and clarifying misunderstandings surrounding those we believe to be less valid. We conclude that work on resilience possesses substantial potential for augmenting the understanding of processes affecting at-risk individuals. Realization of the potential embodied by this construct, however, will remain constrained without continued scientific attention to some of the serious conceptual and methodological pitfalls that have been noted by skeptics and proponents alike.

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The Construct of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guidelines for Future Work

The study of resilience in development has overturned many negative assumptions and deficit-focused models about children growing up under the threat of disadvantage and adversity. The most surprising conclusion emerging from studies of these children is the ordinariness of resilience. An examination of converging findings from variable-focused and person-focused investigations of these phenomena suggests that resilience is common and that it usually arises from the normative functions of human adaptational systems, with the greatest threats to human development being those that compromise these protective systems. The conclusion that resilience is made of ordinary rather than extraordinary processes offers a more positive outlook on human development and adaptation, as well as direction for policy and practice aimed at enhancing the development of children at risk for problems and psychopathology.

Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development.

The development of competence holds great interest for parents and society alike. This article considers implications from research on competence and resilience in children and adolescents for policy and interventions designed to foster better outcomes among children at risk. Foundations of competence in early development are discussed, focusing on the role of attachment relationships and self-regulation. Results from studies of competence in the domains of peer relations, conduct, school, work, and activities are highlighted. Lessons are drawn from studies of naturally occurring resilience among children at risk because of disadvantage or trauma and also from efforts to deliberately alter the course of competence through early childhood education and preventive interventions. Converging evidence suggests that the same powerful adaptive systems protect development in both favorable and unfavorable environments.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/53/2/205.pdf

The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments. Lessons from research on successful children

https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/pdf/S1364-6613(04)00317-1.pdf

Cognitive and affective development in adolescence

https://www.evidenceaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1-s2.0-S0140673605610276-main.pdf

Prevalence of serious mental disorder in 7000 refugees resettled in western countries: a systematic review.

Competent outcomes in late adolescence were examined in relation to adversity over time, antecedent competence and psychosocial resources, in order to investigate the phenomenon of resilience. An urban community sample of 205 (114 females, 90 males; 27% minority) children were recruited in elementary school and followed over 10 years. Multiple methods and informants were utilized to assess three major domains of competence from childhood through adolescence (academic achievement, conduct, and peer social competence), multiple aspects of adversity, and major psychosocial resources. Both variable-centered and person-centered analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized significance of resources for resilience. Better intellectual functioning and parenting resources were associated with good outcomes across competence domains, even in the context of severe, chronic adversity. IQ and parenting appeared to have a specific protective role with respect to antisocial behavior. Resilient adolescents (high adversity, adequate competence across three domains) had much in common with their low-adversity competent peers, including average or better IQ, parenting, and psychological well-being. Resilient individuals differed markedly from their high adversity, maladaptive peers who had few resources and high negative emotionality. Results suggest that IQ and parenting scores are markers of fundamental adaptational systems that protect child development in the context of severe adversity.

/pdf/competence-in-the-context-of-adversity-pathways-to-1dg71p3no9.pdf

Competence in the context of adversity: pathways to resilience and maladaptation from childhood to late adolescence.

Objective This study examines posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, trauma exposure, gender, and diagnostic comorbidity in a sample of 59 Cambodian young adults (29 male and 30 female) who survived massive trauma as children. Method: Psychiatric diagnoses were made using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R- Non- Patient version, a structured diagnostic interview, and trauma exposure was measured with a Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire. Results A significant number of those with PTSD (59%) had one or more additional DSM-III-R Axis I disorders. Major depression and generalized anxiety disorder were the most common comorbid disorders. Somatoform pain disorder was also found to coexist with PTSD but only among females. Women were also found to have higher levels of both current and lifetime PTSD symptoms. Conclusion Trauma symptoms were related to exposure and exposure was related to age, but age was not related to symptoms. The findings suggest that the significant levels of comorbid diagnoses previously found to exist with PTSD in people traumatized as adults can be found among survivors of massive childhood trauma. Also, the rate of PTSD diagnoses found in this sample 15 years after the trauma of Pol Pot is comparable to findings previously reported in studies of Cambodian youths and shows that the effects of trauma experienced in childhood persist into early adulthood.

Comorbidity of Psychiatric Diagnoses with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Survivors of Childhood Trauma

Although developmental theorists such as Sullivan (1953) and Havighurst (1972) have suggested that the formation of romantic relationships in adolescence is an important developmental task, researchers of the adolescent “problem behavior syndrome” have documented that early sexual intercourse is related to problems with conduct, academics, and chemical use. In this study multiple measures of competence and romantic relationship involvement were obtained from a normative community sample of children and adolescents. These were used in path analyses to document the concurrent and longitudinal predictions of romantic involvement and competence to examine the concurrent and longitudinal linkages of romantic interest and involvement to four other domains of adaptive behavior. Results suggest that although success in romantic relationships has roots in general peer competence, there may be both deviant and prosocial pathways of initial romantic involvement. Early romantic involvement in late childhood and early to middle adolescence may have negative consequences for academic, job, and conduct domains of competence. Later in adolescence, romantic relationship involvement loses its negative significance, perhaps as it becomes a normative developmental task. Results highlight the need for developmental research on the origins and meaning of romantic relationships, one of the most neglected aspects of peer relationships.

The changing importance of romantic relationship involvement to competence from late childhood to late adolescence

Structural equation modeling was used (a) to determine the extent to which parent-related and non-parent-related adversity were associated with increases in conduct problems between childhood and adolescence and (b) to evaluate the possible preventive, compensatory, and moderating effects of parenting quality in this regard. Subjects were 180 boys and girls from the Project Competence longitudinal study of adversity, competence, and resilience (Garmezy & Tellegen, 1984). Conduct problems, parenting quality, and socioeconomic status were assessed when subjects were in the third through sixth grades, and adversity and conduct problems were assessed again 7 years later. Results were consistent with the view that parentrelated adversity experienced between the two assessment times was associated with a small increase in conduct problems. Adversity involving siblings, extended family, and friends was not associated with changes in conduct. Effective parenting was associated with less parent-related adversity during adolescence. Effective parenting, however, did not directly compensate for the negative effects of adversity; nor did it moderate the effects of adversity. Structural equation modeling was helpful in testing for several of these effects simultaneously. Short-term longitudinal studies with baseline measures, more frequent assessments, and adequate sample size are necessary to clarify the processes suggested by these results.

Parenting quality, adversity, and conduct problems in adolescence: Testing process-oriented models of resilience

Cambodian adolescents who survived massive trauma as children were studied to examine the relation of current trauma symptoms to sex, age, trauma exposure, and other current symptoms. Exposure to traumatic life events was expected to be very high, to relate to age and to other symptoms of current psychological functioning. Questionnaires assessed traumatic life events, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric symptoms, and current functioning. Results document high levels of stress exposure and current trauma symptoms. Based on self-reports of PTSD symptoms, 37% of the subjects were estimated to fulfill DSM-III-R criteria for PTSD. Trauma symptoms were correlated with exposure (r=.31), although not with symptoms of depressed mood, anxiety, or dissociation. Age was related to high levels of recollected trauma exposure (r=.56). Further studies are needed to identify factors associated with better outcomes and to plot the differential course of PTSD symptom clusters over time.

Jon J. Hubbard

Papers

Competence in the context of adversity: pathways to resilience and maladaptation from childhood to late adolescence.

Comorbidity of Psychiatric Diagnoses with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Survivors of Childhood Trauma

The changing importance of romantic relationship involvement to competence from late childhood to late adolescence

Parenting quality, adversity, and conduct problems in adolescence: Testing process-oriented models of resilience

Adolescent survivors of massive childhood trauma in Cambodia: Life events and current symptoms