Resilience 💪 in Later Years 🌿🧓
🎯 Objectives
- Understanding 🧠 Resilience 💪 Resources 📦 & Strategies 📋
- Positive Youth 👶 Development 🌱 Programs (PYDP) 🌟
- Understanding 🧠 Primary Tasks 📋 of Adulthood 🧑 🎯
🛡️ Resilience Resources & Strategies
According to Masten and Reed (2002) 📊, findings 🔍 from case studies 📋, qualitative research 🔬, and large-scale quantitative projects 📈 "converge with striking regularity 📊 on a set of individual 👤 and environmental 🌍 attributes associated with good adjustment 🎯 and development 🌱 under a variety of life-course-threatening conditions ⚠️ across cultural context 🌍."
💎 Within the Child 👶
- Good cognitive 🧠 abilities, including problem solving 🧩 and attentional skills 👀💡
- Easy temperament 😊 in infancy 👶; adaptable personality 🔄 later in development 🌱
- Positive 🌟 self-perceptions 🪞; self-efficacy 💪
- Faith 🙏 and a sense of meaning ✨ in life 🌿
- A positive outlook 🌞 on life 😄
- Good self-regulation 🎮 of emotional 💗 arousal and impulses ⚡
- Talents 🎨 valued by self 👤 and society 👥🏆
- Good sense of humour 😂🌈
- General appeal ✨ or attractiveness 🌟 to others 👥
👨👩👧 Within the Family 🏠
- Close relationships ❤️ with caregiving 🤲 adults 👨👩👧🤗
- Authoritative parenting 👨👩👧 (high on warmth 💕, structure 🏗️/monitoring 👀, and expectations 🎯)
- Positive 🌟 family climate 🏠 with low discord ☮️ between parents 👫
- Organized 📋 home environment 🏡✨
- Post-secondary education 🎓 of parents 👨👩👧📚
- Parents 👨👩👧 with qualities 💎 listed as protective factors 🛡️ with the child 👶
- Parents 👨👩👧 involved in child's 👶 education 📖👀
- Socioeconomic advantages 💰📈✨
🤝 Within the Family 👨👩👧 or Other Relationships ❤️
- Close relationships ❤️ to competent 💪, prosocial 🤝, and supportive 🤲 adults 👨🏫
- Connections 🔗 to prosocial 🤝 and rule-abiding ✅ peers 👫
🏘️ Within the Community 🌍
- Effective 🎯 schools 🏫⭐
- Ties 🔗 to prosocial 🤝 organizations 🏢, including schools 🏫, clubs 🎪, scouting 🏕️, etc.
- Neighbourhoods 🏘️ with high "collective efficacy" 💪🤝
- High levels 📈 of public safety 🛡️🚔
- Good emergency 🆘 social services 🏥 (e.g., earthquake 🌍)
- Good public health 💊 and health care 🏨 availability ✅
⚠️ Risk-Focused Strategies: Preventing/Reducing Risk and Stressors
- Prevent ⛔ or reduce 📉 the likelihood of low birth weight ⚖️ or pre-maturity through parental care 🤰💕
- Prevent ⛔ child 👶 abuse or neglect through parent 👨👩👧 education 📚
- Reduce 📉 teenage 👦👧 drinking 🍺, smoking 🚭 or drug use 💊 through community programs 🏘️❌
- Prevent ⛔ homelessness 🏚️ through housing policies 🏠 or emergency assistance 🆘
- Reduce 📉 neighbourhood 🏘️ crime ⚠️ or violence 👊 through community policing 🚔
📈 Asset-Focused Strategies
Improve 📈 number 🔢 of quality ⭐ of resources 📦 or social capital 💰🤝:
- Provide 🤲 a tutor 👨🏫📖
- Organize 📋 a girl 👧 or boys 👦 club 🏃
- Offer 🎁 parent 👨👩👧 education 📚 classes 🏫
- Build 🏗️ a recreation center 🏀🎾
🔄 Process-Focused Strategies: Mobilizing Human Adaptational Systems
- Build 🏗️ self-efficacy 💪 through graduated success 🏆 model of teaching 📈👨🏫
- Teach 👨🏫 effective coping 🛡️ strategies 📋 for specific threatening situations ⚠️ (e.g., programs 📊 to prepare children 👶 for surgery 🏥🧠)
- Foster 🌱 secure attachment ❤️ relationships 🤝 between infants 👶 and parents 👨👩👧 through parental sensitivity 💕 training or home visit 🏠 programs
- Nurture 🌱 mentoring 👨🏫 relationships ❤️ for children 👶 through programs 📊 to match children 👶 with potential mentors 🤝
- Encourage 💪 friendships 👫 of children 👶 with prosocial peers 🤝 in healthy 💚 activities (e.g., extracurricular activities 🏀⚽)
- Support 🤲 cultural traditions 🌍 that provide children 👶 with adaptive rituals 📿 and opportunities 🌟 for bonds ❤️ with prosocial adults 👨👩👧 (e.g., religious education 🙏, meditation classes 🧘)
👧👦 Positive Youth Development 🌱 Programs (PYDP)
Positive youth 👶 development 🌱 should be seen as ongoing 🔄, inevitable process 📊 in which all youth 👦👧 are engaged 🎯 and invested 💰. Youth 👶 interact 🤝 with their environment 🌍 and positive agents ✨ (e.g., youth 👦 and adults 👨👩👧 who support 🤲 healthy development 🌱, institutions 🏢 that create climates 🌤️ conducive to growth 📈, programs 📋 that foster change 🔄) to meet their basic needs 📦 and cultivate assets 💎.
Positive youth 👶 development 🌱 programs come in many forms 📋 (Benson & Saito, 2000):
- Structured 🏗️ or semi-structured activities 📅🎯
- Organizations 🏢 providing activities 🎪 and positive relationships ❤️
- Socializing systems 🤝 promoting growth 📈 (e.g., day care centers 👶, schools 🏫, libraries 📚, museums 🏛️)
- Communities 🏘️ facilitating the coexistence of programs 📊, organizations 🏢 and communities 🤝
🏆 Example Programs
Big Brothers 👨 and Big Sisters 👩
A community-based 🏘️ mentoring program 👨🏫 (3-5 contact hours ⏰ per week) initiated in 1905 📅. For no fee 🆓, the program 📋 matches 🔗 low-income 💰 children 👶 and adolescents 👦👧 with adult volunteers 🤝 who are committed 💪 to providing caring 💕 and supportive 🤲 relationships ❤️. Typically, mentors 👨🏫 are screened 🔍 carefully and then provided with some training 📚 and guidelines 📋 for positively influencing ✨ youth 👶👍.
The Penn Resiliency 💪 Program 🎓
A highly structured 🏗️ life-skills 🌟 development 🌱 program offered to school 🏫 children 👶 (Gillham & Reivich, 2004 📊). A highly trained 📚 facilitator 👨🏫 conducts the scripted sessions 📋 in the classroom 🏫. The 12 sessions 📅 focus on: 🎯
- Awareness 👀 of thought patterns 🧠💭
- Modifying 🔄 explanatory style 📝
- Changing 🔄 attributions 📋 for events to be more flexible ⚖️ and accurate ✅🎯
Results 📊: Demonstrated effectiveness ✅ at preventing 🛡️ depressive 😔 symptoms and promoting 📈 optimism 😊 and better physical health 💪🏥!
✅ What Makes Programs 📊 Beneficial?
- The more ⬆️ is better - More time ⏰ committed to the youth 👶, the better the results 📈
- Earlier 🕐 is better - The younger 👶 the program participant 👤, the more likely to develop 🌱 competence 💪🌟
- Structured 🏗️ is better - Purposeful 🎯 and systematic 📋 programs can replicate 🔄 what works ✅ more easily
📊 Studies of Adult Development 🌱
Lewis Terman 👨🔬 (Terman & Oden, 1947 📚) spent most of his life studying 🔬 intelligence 🧠, which he viewed as an adaptive quality 💎 that would lead 🎯 directly to life success 🏆 and national leadership 👑.
In the 1920s 📅, Terman began an ambitious study 📊 of 1500 intellectually gifted 🧠 children 👶 (IQ>140) who were nominated 📋 by teachers 👨🏫 in California schools 🏫; the study participants 👥 nicknamed themselves the "Termites." 🐜✨
Peterson and Colleagues 👨🔬👩🔬 (1998 📊) studied the Termites' childhood 👶 responses 📝 to open-ended questions ❓ and found that an explanatory style 📋 characterized as catastrophizing 😰 (explaining bad events ⚠️ with global causes 🌍) predicted risks 📉 of mortality 💀 in this sample.
🧓 Primary Tasks of Adulthood 👨👩 (George Vaillant, 2002)
George Vaillant 👨🔬, the keeper 📚 of decades of data 📊 from the Harvard study 🎓, built 🏗️ on existing developmental theories 💭 and identified 🔍 the life tasks 📋 associated with adulthood 👨:
1️⃣ Identity 🪞
Typically developed 🌱 during adolescence 👦👧 or early adulthood 🧑, when people's 👥 views 👀, values 💎 and interests 🎯 begin to become their own rather than a reflection 🪞 of their caregiver's 👨👩👧 beliefs 💭.
2️⃣ Intimacy 💕
With the development 🌱 of identity 🪞, a person 👤 is more likely to seek 🔍 an interdependent 🔗, committed 💪 relationship ❤️ with another person 👤 and thereby achieve intimacy 🤝💕.
3️⃣ Career Consolidation 💼
A life task 📋 requiring the development 🌱 of a social identity 👥. Engagement 🤝 with a career 💼 is characterized by: 🎯
- Contentment 😊🌟
- Compensation 💰💵
- Competence 💪🏆
- Commitment 🎯❤️
4️⃣ Generativity 🌱
People 👥 become involved 🤝 in the building 🏗️ of a broader social circle 🔵 through a "giving away" 🤲 of self 💕.
5️⃣ Keeper of Meaning 📚🦉
Some people 👥 take on the task 📋 of becoming Keepers of Meaning 📖. They have perspective 👀 on the workings ⚙️ of the world 🌍 and of people 👥, and are willing 💪 to share 🤝 that wisdom 🦉 with others. 💡
6️⃣ Integrity ⚖️
Achieving 🏆 integrity ⚖️ brings peace ☮️ to a person's 👤 life 🌿. In this stage 📊, increased spirituality 🙏 often accompanies a greater sense of contentment 😌 with life ✨.
📖 References
- Snyder, C.R., & Lopez, S.J. (2007). Positive Psychology. London: Sage Publications (pp. 99-110). 📕
- Snyder, C.R., & Lopez, S.J. (2003). Handbook of Positive Psychology. London: Sage Publications (pp. 187-188). 📗