RESILLIENCE

Resilience is the ability of people to cope with stress and catastrophe. It can also be defined as “exhibiting positive behavior even when even in adversity, threats tragedy etc.” it is the ability to bounce back after a disruption. It also means mental toughness, emotional toughness. Commonly used terms closely related to this word are; psychological resilience, emotional resilience, hardiness, resourcefulness and mental toughness.

Resilience is also a construct concerning the exposure of adversity and the positive adjustment outcomes of that adversity. Adversity could be defined as any risk associated with negative life conditions that are statistically related to adjustment difficulties, such as poverty, experiences of disasters e.t.c. positive adaptation after these experiences can be termed as the absence of psychiatric distress.

Resilience can be defined in many different ways, adequately accounting for cultural and contextual differences in how people or other systems expressed resilience. This is also where a different definition comes up as “the outcome from negotiations between individuals and their environments for the resources to define themselves as healthy amidst conditions collectively viewed as adverse.”

Resilience can be viewed as:

* Good outcomes regardless of high risk status * Constant competence under stress * Recovery from trauma and * Using challenges for growth that makes future hardships more tolerable.

Resilient people are expected to adapt successfully even though they experience risk factors that are against good development, and these risk factors are related to poor outcome or negative outcomes e.g. poverty, low socioeconomic status, low academic achievements for students in any level etc.

Resilience can also 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. An experience in acute trauma, may show extreme anxiety, sleep problems and intrusive thoughts etc. the realm of research shows that age and a supportive family influence recovery.

A protective factor related to protecting or moderating the negative effects of environmental hazards or a stressful situation in order to direct vulnerable individuals to optimistic paths by external support, Werner (1995) distinguished three contexts for protective factors as : (1) personal attributes, including outgoing, bright, and positive self-concepts; (2) the family, such as having close bonds with at least one family member or an emotionally stable parent; and (3) the community, like receiving support or counsel from peers.

In other scenarios demography e.g. gender and resources e.g. social support are also used to predict resilience. There are a number of factors that have been identified to promote resilience, they are:

* The ability to cope with stress effectively and in a healthy manner * Having good problem solving skills * Seeking help * Holding the belief that there is something one can do to manage your feelings and cope * Having social support * Being connected with others, such as family or friends * Self-disclosure of the trauma to loved ones * Spirituality * Having an identity as a survivor as opposed to a victim * Helping others * Finding positive meaning in the trauma

RESILIENCE BUILDING

The American Psychological Association has suggested “10 ways to build resilience” i.e.

1. Maintaining good relationships with close family members, friends and others 2. Avoid seeing crises or stressful events as unbearable problems 3. Accept circumstances that cannot be changed 4. Develop realistic goals and move towards them 5. Take decisive actions in adverse situations 6. Look for opportunities of self-discovery after a struggle with loss 7. Developing self-confidence 8. Keep a long-term perspective and consider the stressful event in a broader context 9. Maintain a hopeful outlook, expecting good things and visualizing what is wished 10. Taking care of one’s mind and body, exercising regularly, paying attention to one’s own needs and feelings and engaging in relaxing activities that one enjoys, learning from the past and maintaining flexibility and balance in life are also cited.

RESILIENCE IN CHILDREN

Resilience in children refers to individuals who are doing better than expected, given a history that includes risk or adverse experience. Resilience in children requires two conditions (1) the child must have experienced some sort of risk or adversity that has been linked with poor outcomes and (2) the child is generally doing okay despite being exposed to that risk or adversity, they are not showing that poor outcome.

Resilience is the product of a large number of developmental processes over time that has allowed children who experience some sort of risk to continue to develop competently while other children have not. Protective factors that are important for resilient children are e.g. good cognitive functioning (like cognitive self-regulation and IQ) and positive relationships with competent adults like parents or mentors. Age, culture and a certain point in history can also influence resilience.

Also resilient children can be thought of as those who show competence in age-salient developmental tasks even though they have experienced some risk or adversity that threatened that competence. Others have focused on different criteria for ‘doing okay’ such as the absence of mental health problems like depression or conduct problems. Others have focused on happiness or the experience of positive emotions.

One writer Bernard concluded that resilient children have high expectations, a meaning for life, goals, personal agency, inter-personal problem-solving skills.

How communities can help foster resilience; 1) Availability of social organizations that provide an array of resources to residents 2) Consistent expressions of social norms so that community members understand what constitutes desirable behavior 3) Provides an opportunity for children and youth to participate in the life of the community as valued members.

The role a family has in fostering resilience in a child

Fostering resilience in children requires family environments that are caring and structured, hold high expectations for children’s behavior, and encourage participation in the life of the family. Most resilient children should have a strong relationship with at least one adult, not always a parent, and this relationship helps to diminish risk associated with family discord. Bernard found that even though divorce produces stress, the availability of social support from family and community can reduce stress and yield positive outcomes. Any family that emphasizes the value of assigned chores, caring for brothers or sisters, and the contribution of part-time work in supporting the family helps to foster resilience.

Resilience and emotion
Some studies confirmed the association between resilience and positive emotion. Examining the role positive emotion plays in resilience, Ong et al. (2006) found that widows with high levels of resilience experience more positive (e.g., peaceful) and negative (e.g., anxious) emotions than those with low levels. The former group shows high emotional complexity which is the capacity to maintain the differentiation of positive and negative emotional states while underlying stress. Ong et al. (2006) further suggest that the adaptive consequence of resilience is a function of an increase in emotional complexity while stress is present. Moreover, high resilient widows showed the likelihood of controlling their positive emotional experiences to recover and bounce back from daily stress. Indeed, positive emotions were found to disrupt the experience of stress and help high resilient individuals to recover efficiently from daily stress (Fredrickson et al., 2003). Some studies argue that positive emotion helps resilient people to construct psychological resources that are necessary for coping successfully with significant catastrophe, such as the September 11th attacks. As a result, positive emotion experienced by resilient people functions as a protective factor to moderate the magnitude of adversity to individuals and assists them to cope well in the future. In addition to the above findings, a study (Fredrickson et al., 2003) further suggests that positive emotions are active elements within resilience. By examining people’s emotional responses to the September 11th, Fredrickson et al. (2003) suggests that positive emotions are critical elements in resilience and as a mediator that buffer people from depression after the crises. Moreover, high resilient people were more likely to notice positive meanings within the problems they faced (e.g., felt grateful to be alive), endured fewer depressive symptoms, and experienced more positive emotions than low resilient people after terrorism attacks (Fredrickson et al., 2003). Similar results were obtained in another study regarding the effects of 911 attacks on resilient individuals’ healthy adjustment. People with high levels of resilience are likely to show low levels of depression, and less likely to smoke cigarettes or use marijuana (Bonanno et al., 2007). Moreover, low resilient people exhibit the difficulties of regulating negative emotions and demonstrate sensitive reaction to daily stressful life events (e.g., the loss of loved one). They are likely to believe that there is no end for the unpleasant experience of daily stressors and may have higher levels of stress. In general, resilient people are believed to possess positive emotions, and such emotions in turn influence their responses to adversity.