How to foster individual resilience early in life to prepare for future
crisis events
Literature Review
Shamuel Kohen
Crisis and Emergency Intervention
May 19, 2024
Abstract
Early life is a crucial stage in children's development of
resilience, and the information they are ingrained with will aid them in
overcoming challenges and hardships later in life. How to foster individual resilience early in
life to prepare for future crisis events must be looked at from an inside-out
or bottom-up approach. This approach looks at biological, DNA contributions to
resilience extending outward to a temperament that may or may not lead to
resilience. The biological and temperament resilience is followed by looking at
family contributions to building and fostering resilience in children, and
lastly, educational methods in aiding children in dealing with stressful
situations that eventually will lead to resilience and positive outcomes to
survive a crisis and thrive.
Keywords: Resilience training, goals, childhood, crisis, learning
Introduction
The study of resilience and its application to
resilience education to overcome crises and bounce back is a highly
sought-after goal by parents and educators alike. In today's crisis-ridden
world, the need to overcome and thrive can be found across the board,
from governments to community organizations to cultural groups and subgroups
and, finally, families and individuals.
In a world that seems to be in a never-ending crisis
mode, resilience keeps countries, governments, organizations, and families
looking forward with hope for a better world. The topic of resilience promotes
hope, optimism, survival, and overcoming and growth. This review focuses on
literature that gives families an idea of how and where resilience comes from
and how to foster it in children from an early age to provide them with tools
to understand the subject of resilience. Resilience fostering is a complex
topic, but understanding the biological and emotional factors that contribute
to resilience will provide the tools needed for demystifying resilience and
educating families and individuals to consider many factors and not rely on a
one-size-fits-all solution for resilience fostering. The current state of
resilience research seems to be broad, with various views and opinions, and
vast amounts of research are pretty extensive, with a few agreements on the
basics but disagreements on the details of how to proceed into the future with
fostering resilience.
Literature review
Fostering
resilience early in life
Arshad
et al. (2020) state that there has been an increase in interest in studying
resilience over the past decades. Arshad et al. (2020) found that the results
of their study were that the resilience of children is mainly predicted by the
mother's age and community support, including the child's gender on the
Rothbart temperament scale. In addition, Arshad et al. (2020) noted that
children exposed to natural disasters had higher resilience when compared to
children who were not exposed to natural disasters regarding their future crisis
resilience.
In
contrast, De Maat et al. (2022) found that the extent to which a child will
deal with the crisis in the context of their resilience has to do with multiple
factors that play a part in their resilience rather than the type of stressors
such as natural disasters and wars. De Maat et al. (2022) state that a child's
temperament has much to do with resilience.
However, De Maat et al. (2022) do agree that, to some extent, adverse
life events affect resilience; however, the extent to which a child will be
resilient will primarily be due to a child's temperament rather than the type
of stressor. De Maat et al. (2022) state that many children have been
researched after a crisis, that they came out with a positive outlook, and that
the crises for the long term did not have a negative outcome. According to De
Maat et al. (2022), this can be attributed to a child's temperament playing a
part in who will come out positively or negatively regarding their resilience.
These
findings are significant because one suggests that resilience is gained through
experience, while the other is also determined by temperament. One can not
overlook a child's temperament when predicting resilience after crises.
According
to Southwick et al. (2014), resilience is a person's ability to adapt when
facing tragedies, hardships, traumas, and other crises. In addition, he states
that resilience involves two parts: one, experiencing challenges and crises
such as floods, violence, and wars, and two, coming out with a positive
attitude even in the face of adversity. Southwick et al. (2014) state that
resilience has to be viewed from a contextual point of view, and it
changes over a person's lifespan and should be looked at as a
phenomenon, not a personal trait. Some examples in a resilience context are
that a child can be resilient in some situations but have very little
resilience in others.
Similarly,
Gartrell et al. (2014) defined resilience as a child's ability to use
social skills to overcome the adverse effects of stress and return to a state
of normality in a person's life. The two definitions agree that overcoming a
crisis is the base of resilience. However, Southwick et al.'s (2014) definition
involves the context of the situation, not just the general understanding of
resilience that is accomplished through overcoming stress from a
crisis. Context matters and is vital when research tries to explain how to
overcome a crisis with resilience. Where a person can overcome one type
of crisis, for example, a war, they may have a more challenging time being
resilient to the loss of a spouse for example.
Having a definition of resilience
that everyone can agree on does not seem to be done in a consensus, thus making
it hard to define it when attempting to develop a program or when an attempt is
made to foster resilience. A consensus does not seem to exist amongst the
professionals on exactly what resilience is and how to foster it.
Promoting resilience
Furu (2023) states that in the
past years, many crises have been breaking out globally, and the interest in
resilience building has sparked a great interest in the research world. The
interest, for example, is a person's capacity to endure hardships, adapt to
changing situations, or transform their behavior during challenges, problems,
and a changing world. Furu (2023) promotes "Early Childhood Education and
Care" ECEC to develop resilience in children in this changing world.
Furu (2023) highlights climate
change as the cause of many global problems that families and children face. In
addition, Furu (2023) states that resilience should be considered survival when
coping with change and to thrive by adapting to a person's circumstances.
Lastly, Furu (2023) describes physical resilience as the ability to seek
safety, shelter, and food and psychological resilience as the emotional and
mental capability to handle situations and adapt. Early promotion of resilience
through education and government policies should enable children to develop
resilience. Furu describes environmental factors that cause problems and
promotes governmental initiatives to assist children and families in developing
resilience.
Galano (2023) takes a different
stance and states that intimate partner violence is a more common problem that
causes crises, and programs need to be focused on more immediate
issues, such as IPV. Although climate change and natural disasters are real,
Intimate partner violence is much more prevalent in society and can be felt immediately
in society. Galano (2023) states that fifteen million children live with
violence in the household.
Although they have adverse
effects on them, whether they live through or witness IPV and have emotional
and behavioral issues, these children also exhibit resilience and have
positively adapted even though they have been exposed to IPV. In
addition, Galano (2023) states that interventions are also a time to promote
resilience education, and the interventions have been developed with
resilience education in mind. Galano (2023) states that promoting resilience
through positive interactions and environment adds a positive element to buffer
against the violence witnessed by the child.
This is also a way to
develop resilience. Galano (2023) says that few studies have been
conducted on when resilience training should start, but such programs as
kid's clubs should start at the preschool level. Galano (2023) states that
there is a 10-session program that is developed and designed for kids ages 4-6
who have experienced IPV. The goal of the program is to help create the
regulation of emotions and adjust the mold adaptive behavior to overcome IPV
trauma. Galano (2023) promotes a
parenting intervention to build resilience, and the parent should learn how to
handle child irritability and behavioral problems about witnessing inter-family
violence.
Furu (2023) and Galano (2023) see
resilience issues from two perspectives; both identify education as a need to
develop and promote resilience in the contract. They disagree on the
primary importance of education. Should the fostering of resilience start from
governmental movements? Or should they start in the family? Galano (2023) places
resilience development from the mother first because family violence is a much
more immediate threat to the children's mental and physical health. Although
both have good arguments for the resilience-promoting methods, Galano's (2023)
focus on the home is much more realistic in developing resilience in children
for the immediate short-term goal.
Once again, we can see that the
three researchers can not agree on the exact method for promoting resilience.
One seems to discuss fostering resilience through the experience of trauma,
while another expresses education through government models and techniques.
Thus, this matter concludes that not all resilient children who go through
trauma are affected by trauma in the long run.
Biological mechanisms that lead to resilience to
deal with stress
Wilkenius (2020) states that
epigenetics is a biological mechanism that turns genes on and off and changes a
person's biological state in the long term regarding stress. However, Wilkenius
(2020) admits that there are few studies regarding humans and how stress
affects genes. Wilkenius (2020) states that their research has been
done where epigenetic alterations have been found in children
whose mothers have gone through significant stress. At the same time,
they were pregnant with the child, as in this case, it was intimate partner
violence, and it did have an effect on the child when it came to resilience.
Natt et al. (2016) research
found that pre and postnatal stress has been found to affect
resilience. Serpeloni found that when it comes to epigenetic changes, mothers exposed
to violence did have etiological changes; in addition, Serpelino (2019) studied
the mental health and epigenome-wide DNA methylation in the saliva of women
following domestic violence during their pregnancy and found that these women
had high levels of depression, PTSD, anxiety and other stress-related symptoms
the research also found that children of these women also had psychiatric
problems if they experienced maternal violence after they were born.
Thus, when conducting research
into the effects that violence has on a child's DNA and resilience, prenatal
and post-prenatal stress that affects resilience should be taken into account
in the overall picture of resilience in early life studies. It is easy to
overlook pre-birth mothers' stressors and should also be an essential point in
the overall context of resilience research. In support of Wilkenius (2020), Horner's (2017) research
discusses resilience in the context of neurobiology and biogenetics and claims
that this may also contribute to resilience as it relates to children.
Horner (2017) asks if
resilience is related to biology or the environment that promotes anxiety and
stress, which fosters the toughening up of a child and thereby aids resilience
development. Horner's (2017) research aimed to identify if DNA and biogenetics
played a part in brain function resilience. Horner's (2017) study found that
genetic markers contribute to the development of resilience and that, in fact,
biology also has a big part to play and should be considered.
Biological DNA, stress
hormones, and brain functions must be considered when promoting resilience
in children. Biological factors play an essential role when we consider how to encourage
and foster resilience in children and how stress hormones affect the child's
resilience. Stress hormones will positively or negatively affect resilience and
overcoming traumas.
The biological contribution to
resilience is an essential finding because understanding that biology also
plays a part in resilience will help us better understand this topic. If all
resilience topics involve outside education methods to foster resilience, we
ignore the hormonal effect that could hinder or promote resilience in the long
run.
Resilience as a family
According to Walsh (2016),
resilience should be done through a family framework or a family
practice model, and it involves family members, guardians, or anyone within the
family structure who can positively impact at-risk youths. Walsh (2016) defines
this mode of resilience development as a family unity affair and should be
handled together so they can learn to come out of a crisis by developing
resilience as the family learns to be adaptive and learn resilience together
and create a positive and more robust unit.
Walsh (2016) says that when a
family experiences a struggle, they come out of the battle stronger, kinder,
and more loving toward each other because they went through it together,
thereby becoming resilient and enhancing the family's bonding.
According to Petty (2014), there are ten
ways a family can foster resilience by developing empathy, knowing who to go to
when they need to talk, listening to one another, learning to look ahead and be
optimistic, accepting of each other, and identifying their strength; if they
make an error, they can redo and start again by behaving correctly towards each
other, learning responsibility, be inclusive and allow participation and
finally teaching children problem-solving skills.
Understandably, to foster
resilience, the family must work together to overcome a crisis, but many
families need the skills or education to know where to start. By offering a
family these ten essential steps to build on, families can feel more like they
have some control over a crisis and can take part with knowledge of how to help
each other build resilience as a family unit.
Research on family contribution
and family resilience can not be dismissed. Family resilience plays a big part
in caregiving, love, acceptance, and working through a crisis as a group.
Involving the family in resilience development builds trust and bonding, potentially
speeding up the healing process and making an individual stronger.
According to Galano (2023),
resilience also develops in children who grow up in intimate partner violence
IPV and found that children who live through or go through IPV display
resilience. In addition, Galano (2023) claims that A child's irritability and
bad behavior as a result of maternal parenting were connected with
the child's behavioral problems and the child's resilience.
In addition, maternal mental
health problems were also linked to her child's resilience and were
connected to the child's negative behavioral issues. In contrast, the
child had positive resilience outcomes if the mother had an
upbeat parenting style. Galano (2023) expresses that a child witnessing
IPV contributes to the child's resilience, even if the experience is negative.
Yes, there are behavioral problems, and yes, there are emotional problems.
Nonetheless, resilience is built even in these unfavorable
conditions.
Notebaert et al. (2016) discuss
resilience from a resilience shield model or concept. Within this concept, they
view resilience as an onion or having layers. In this case, layers of
protecting oneself mentally by layers of emotional shields. Furthermore, they
looked at how each shield layer contributed to an individual's self-protection
by developing resilience within them. Notebaert et al. (2016) also noted
through their research of resilient shields that females had a higher degree of
resilience scores, and this may be due to females having a higher social
support system and better rest and sleep, as well as a higher sense of purpose
in life.
To be resilient is to become
protected emotionally by developing self-help skills. One of these self-help
skills is building a shield of protection to aid in resilience development. The
research into self-protective methods that children use to get through crises
seems natural, and so the research into self-protective measures certainly can
not be ignored for aid as a band-aid of the protection layer. The study into a
child witnessing violence also contributes to resilience as it shows the child
what to protect themselves from, and watching how adults deal with it can give
a learning child a moment to learn and develop resilience.
Resilience in a digital age
In addition to being exposed to
situations that build resilience through actual trauma, there are training
programs online with animations to build resilience. Martzoukou (2022) states
that children face many problems and challenges when they get online. Problems
such as online bullying, privacy issues, and false information become a source
of stress and anxiety for children. Online resilience must also be addressed
with online training to address these issues and aid in fostering resilience
when it comes to online matters.
In addition to outside sources
of stress, many parents also have concerns that their children will have to
deal with the internet or social media addiction, which will thus replace
face-to-face interactions amongst children and detract the child from physical
world activities such as sports, nature, and physical healthy behavior such as
sport and exercise.
By unplugging the child from
the internet, a parent can cause anger and stress in a child by taking away
their source of addiction to phone apps and hostile social network groups,
which the child may feel left out of group chats and meetings. In these cases,
the source of addiction or bullying became the digital age with its new
challenges and problems to add to a child's anxiety and stress that at times
leads to suicide due to bullying.
Martzoukou (2022) states that
resilience is a child's ability to handle destructive and harmful experiences
online and offline. Resilience in these situations means managing and handling
stress and turning negative emotions into positive actions. Parents and
teachers must help build resilience in children in the digital age, and there
are programs out there designed to foster digital resilience. According to Martzoukou
(2022), programs such as "Let's Fight It Together" deal with
cyberbullying by having children watch videos and participate in interactive
sessions on the topic.
These programs can give children the tools to be resilient to online
dangers. According to Setyawati et al. (2022), research done in Indonesia uses
digital media as an opportunity to foster resilience in children who
will be exposed to harmful social media harassment, pornography, fake
news, and much more. Setyawati et al. (2022) remind the readers that the
internet is a big world with a wide type of challenges that may hurt a child if
they are not ready or mature enough to handle the onslaught of negativity they
will experience. Setyawati et al. (2022) state that to build resilience in the
internet world, children must learn to be polite, not harassing, nonbullying,
and be good citizens of the world as they surf social media content and meet
other people for other parts of the world.
This research discusses the conditions Indonesian kids will face as they
navigate the internet. Prior to jumping into the internet, they are taught what
they will be confronted with and how to handle these potentially negative
situations. The research on internet resilience fostering is at its infant
stage with all its challenges and potential problems. The researchers are
attempting to find ways to mitigate the adverse effects that the children will
face but pre-warning and pre-education to foster resilience, and this trend
seems to be currently the only solution to the potential hazards to children as
they will face internet violence, pornography, and other potentially traumatic
videos.
Conclusion
The
researchers sought to find resilience from a definitions perspective to seek a
consensus where there is not. To research how biology and DNA contribute to a
child's mental health resilience and who may or may not be resilient according
to their biological makeup. In addition to the biological question, the
research literature sought the many levels and methods of developing resilience
in children. From government programs to private media organizations to family
resilience educational programs, the research into resilience and fostering
resilience does not seem to be a one-size-fits-all way to foster resilience early
on.
The research literature did not cover
the cultural context due to the extensive nature of adding culture to the mix
because each culture will define resilience in its cultural context.
This study examines the importance of
developing resilience in children. It seeks to determine how to develop
resilience in children from an early age, how to develop resilience in
adolescence, and the benefits of resilience training and development in later
years.
Resilience research also introduced a child's
temperament into resilience-fostering research, highlighting that all the
education programs developed are not a one-size-fits-all issue. Biology,
witnessing violence, experiencing a crisis, and endless educational programs
must all consider the temperament of the child, and this temperament will
determine the success or failure of any resilience program. Parents and
guardians typically know the temperament of a child, but with biological issues
left to the side for a moment, they are in a better position to direct the
child to a resilience educational program.
Temperament research has a long way to
go to better understand and reach a consensus on fostering resilience in
children to prepare them for future crises. Still, the study and development
certainly look promising. The recommendation is to come to some form of
consensus on the definition and how to unify the different methodologies and
techniques in helping to foster resilience. We know one size does not fit all,
but consensus is desperately needed regarding definition and educational
methods to promote resilience.
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