Salt Lake Community College

Becoming Resilient

Austin Granger

Psychology 1100

Professor Flocken

7/15/2020

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 Abstract

Questions to be reviewed in these research studies would come to mind such as: What level of

situation affects, be it environmental, household, stress factors attribute to the ability to rise

above adversity. How are these young students able to overcome their trials and push forward

despite it all? This can all be related to the success of minds of the future and relate to our class

in the raw sense that is has much to do with development.

A researcher by the name of Garmezy has gone into the notion

that despite a child’s background, some children rise above the occasion and preform excellent in

school. Most research done on trauma or negative life events typically focus on the negative

aspect of the events. Garmezy noticed the opposite of one particular boy he mentioned. This little

boy came from a hard background where he would bring to school a “bread sandwich” and

despite perhaps some of the negative attention he would garner, the boy was ever chipper and

hardworking; excelling in his class work. Which leaves the question to be asked, how is this so?

Garmezy’s work would unfortunately be cut short as he would develop early-onset Alzheimer’s

disease. However, Garmezy’s work would be resumed by his followers and his students. The

group that resumed the research were able to identify elements of two of the groups they were

studying: Psychological, individual factors and environmental, external ones.

Some contributing information was developed in 1989. In that

year developmental psychologist named Emmy Werner had partook in a thirty-two-year project.

Emmy took a sample group of six hundred and ninety-eight students and followed through their

third decade of life. They were all situated in the state of Hawaii, and the city of Kauai. As she

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went about her studying, she would keep an eye on factures that would expose them to stress.

Some of the stress mentioned could be maternal stress while in utero, problems within their own

family, poverty and more. She noted that about two-thirds of the children in these backgrounds

were more over stable, fulfilled, and relatively successful. However, the other third would have

been qualified as being “at risk.” Like Garmezy she would discover that not all of the test pool

would react to stress in the same way. She noted that two-thirds of them would develop “serious

learning or behavior problems by the age of ten, or had delinquency records, mental health

problems, or teen-age pregnancies by the age of eighteen.” – Emmy Werner 1989. She would not

that the remaining third developed into more over caring, confident and have a higher

competency. She noted they had attained success over many facets such as academic, social and

even domestic.

In regard to negative growth or academic achievement, there have

been a lot of research done towards that information. In another research paper written by David

Schwatz of University of Southern California; his findings correlate a lot of negative affects of

environment. “An emerging theme from this work is the risk associated with family lives

characterized by punitive discipline, parental rejection, violence exposure, and frequent stress.

Much remains to be learned, but the available findings are indicative of moderately strong links

between exposure to these adverse home environments and later academic difficulties in the

classroom.” – David Schwartz, using his sources. There is evidence he has found that correlates a

harsh home environment with behavioral issues such as: impulsiveness, aggression, and

hyperactivity. These issues may exhibit academic issues. Further more these issues can be

exacerbated by their fellow peers. David Schwartz concludes his findings with this summary:

“Our expectation was that links between harsh home environments and declines in academic

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functioning would be most pronounced for children who also experienced frequent mistreatment

by peers at school. For exploratory purposes, we also conducted additional models examining

aggression and social rejection as potential confounders.”

Much of what research that has been done can conclude the

obvious negative connotations; but to bring it back to the research that was done by Emmy and

Garmezy; there are yet despite this students who rise above their situations for the better. With

the treasure trove of data at Emmy’s disposal, she had help find what set resilient children apart.

Her research had insinuated some of it may have been through sheer luck, BUT a resilient child

may have formed a bolstered bond with someone who was supportive. Whether a supportive

person was a caregiver, teacher, or even a parent. Emmy mentioned a lot of it had to do with

large set of elements that dealt with psychology. The children’s response to their environment

really is what set them apart from other peers who suffered same issues in their childhoods. It

was stated by Emmy: “[Resilient children] meet the world on their own terms.” She would note

that they were more over independent, and more autonomous that some of their fellow peers.

Some of these children were stated to seek out new experiences and were naturally inclined to

building positive social orientations. In a scale test that would aim to measure locus of control, it

was said that the resilient children would score two deviations away from the standard groups.

It would be important to take into account the effects of parenting

on children. The strength between parenting and child behaviors is often looked at. A lot of

research takes into the account the child’s parental upbringing and the upbringing of their social

peers. In one studies findings, there has been evidence to suggest aspects of early parenting

accounts for a rather large portion of variance in young children’s self-regulating. Another

statistic was provided by different article: “In 2014, 62% of children younger than 18 lived in a

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household with two married parents – a historic low, according to a new Pew Research Center

analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The share of U.S. kids living with only one parent

stood at 26% in 2014. And the share in households with two parents who are living together but

not married (7%) has risen steadily in recent years.” – Pew Research Center. By the same

research center, it was suggested that this heavily influences the family’s overall makeup. It is

suggested that children undergo a lot of stress during a divorce, and this can have an affect on

their academic upbringings; even parenting styles that differ between the households can make it

difficult for the child to have a consistent upbringing. Social advancement can be a large aid to a

child’s overall success as well. It was suggested by Pew Research Center that married parents

bring in more finances overall and can typically afford to place their children in extracurricular

activities. These activities have been shown to improve the overall success of children if they are

in the right social environment.

These factors are important to consider when speaking on resilient

children. Some of these children mentioned in these studies for all intents and purpose have a

leeway that aids in their developmental upbringing. And yet we still have a considerable sized

pool of disadvantaged kids who make it out alright. Sometimes unfortunately this isn’t’ always

the case in resilient children. It was mentioned that Emmy discovered that sometimes resilience

could wane overtime. She noted that some resilient children were especially unlucky in their

situations, having multiple strong stressors at key vulnerable points would impact their

resilience. In some cases, this would be the downfall and end their fortitude. However, her

studies also suggested that some children who did not start off with as much constitution ended

up having more resilience as they would learn and grow. She suggested they were able to

overcome adversity just as much as the ones who were resilient the entire time.

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 Another researcher by the name of George Bonanno has also done

studies in resilience for nearly twenty-five years, as stated in the article. His work had been an

aid in providing data on how some people deal with adversity greater than some others. His work

aimed to find out where this variation might be a product of. His theory of resilience starts with

an observation: “all of us possess the same fundamental stress-response system, which has

evolved over millions of years and which we share with other animals. The vast majority of

people are pretty good at using that system to deal with stress. When it comes to resilience, the

question is: Why do some people use the system so much more frequently or effectively than

others?” One of the key elements he has found in his research is perception on events. He

proposes it as a question as some minds divert from one another in its answer: “Do you

conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow.” He would go on to

later use his research to suggest that those living in that type of adversity aren’t guaranteed to

continue suffering going onward. Moreover, he states it is more important whether that adversity

becomes trauma or not. The positive news is that it can be taught though, in relations to his

findings. His research would suggest that people can be taught to better regulate their emotions

and internalize their environment in a more constructive way. Bonanno would go on to train

people/children and suggested this training had lasting positive effects.

It is considerably enlightening to know that there is an innate

desire in some children of resilience to better themselves, or to push forward without much

outside interference. But it is better to know that those who are struggling can also be taught to

be resilient despite their peers or their confinements. With all of this extensive research, it is

evident that this trend will continue, and perhaps even move onward in future generations.

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References:

Maria Konnikova (February 11, 2016) How People Learn To Become Resilient. The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-secret-formula-for-resilience

David Schwartz (April 16, 2012) The link between Harsh Home environments and Negative Academic
Trajectories. PubMed Central https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3470830/

Eleanor E. Maccoby (February, 2000) Parenting and its Effects on Children: On reading and Misreading
Behavior Genetics. Annual Reviews
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.1

Pew Research Center (December 17, 2015) Parenting in America Pew Social Trends
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/17/parenting-in-america/