Psychological Resilience - Expressions of Resilience

Expressions of Resilience

Resilience can be described by viewing:

1. Good outcomes despite high-risk status,
2. Constant competence under stress,
3. Recovery from trauma, and
4. Using challenges for growth that makes future hardships more tolerable.

Resilience describes people who adapt successfully even though they experience risk factors that ‘stack the odds’ against them showing good developmental outcomes. Risk factors are related to poor or negative outcomes. For example, poverty, low socioeconomic status, and mothers with schizophrenia are correlated with lower academic achievement and more emotional or behavioral problems. Risk factors may be cumulative, carrying additive and exponential risks when they co-occur. Even when these risk factors occur in the lives of children, resilient individuals are those who show developmental competence nonetheless. They avoid the negative outcomes that are usually associated with those risk factors. These positive outcomes are attributed to some protective factors, such as good parenting or positive school experiences.

Resilience is usually thought of as the end product of an effective coping mechanism(s) when people are under stress, such as divorce. In this context, resilience describes sustained competence exhibited by individuals who experience challenging conditions. For example, most children who experience parental divorce (a risk factor) go on to show competent development in age-salient developmetnal tasks (e.g., good conduct, success at school, having friendships). Protective factors usually distinguish resilient children from non-resilient ones who experience the same adversity. Resilience, itself, is not a protective factor. Rather, protective factors suggest adaptive systems or processes in the person's life that allow them to show competence despite the threats of risk factors. Some protective factors for children in single-family, for example, are adults caring for children during or after major stressors (e.g., divorce), or self-efficacy for motivating endeavor at adaptation.

Finally, resilience can be viewed as the phenomenon of recovery from a prolonged or severe adversity, or from an immediate danger or stress. In this case, resilience is not related to vulnerability. People who experience acute trauma, for example, may show extreme anxiety, sleep problems, and intrusive thoughts. Over time, these symptoms decrease and recovery is likely. This realm of research shows that age and the supportive qualities of the family influence the condition of recovery. The Buffalo Creek dam disaster, for example, had longer effects on older children than on younger. Additionally, children with supportive families show fewer symptoms (e.g., dreams of personal death) than children from troubled families, as revealed by a study on victims of the 1976 Chowchilla, California bus kidnapping.