Why Study Resilience?

Abstract

The study of resilience has expanded significantly over the past 20 years. It is with a greater sense of urgency that resilience research has accelerated. There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon. First, as the technological complexity of our society increases, the number of youth facing adversity and the number of adversities they face is increasing. More youth are at risk. Second, there has been an accelerated interest in not only understanding risk and protective factors and their operation, but in determining whether this information can be distilled into clinically relevant interventions that cannot only increase positive outcomes for those youth facing risk, but can also be applied to the population of children in general in an effort to create, as Brooks and Goldstein (2001) point out, a "resilient mindset" in all youth. The importance of such a mind-set goes hand-in-hand with the perception that no child is immune from pressure in our current, fast-paced, stress-filled environment, an environment we have created to prepare children to become functional adults. Even children fortunate to not face significant adversity or trauma, or to be burdened by intense stress or anxiety, experience the pressures around them and the expectations placed upon them. Thus, the field has increasingly focused on identifying those variables that predict resilience in the face of adversity and developing models for effective application. The belief then is that every child capable of developing a resilient mind-set will be able to deal more effectively with stress and pressure, to cope with everyday challenges, to bounce back from disappointments, adversity, and trauma, to develop clear and realistic goals, to solve problems, to relate comfortably with others, and to treat oneself and others with respect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved). (create)