Fostering Resilience to Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Adolescents: Investing in Social Brain Development in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Social experiences are central to developing resilience to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Disruptions to social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic may compromise resilience, or the ability to psychologically adapt to ACEs, by blunting social brain development. This is especially concerning for children with access to limited resources. Drawing from evolutionary psychology and resilience research, we understand that the development of the social brain —a complex network of brain regions involved in social behaviors—is shaped by life experiences throughout childhood. Adolescence is a sensitive period of brain development during which rapid and lasting attunement of the brain to the environment occurs.1 Therefore, to counter potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on resilience to ACEs among vulnerable adolescents, interventions should focus on promoting social brain development through positive social experiences. Critically, this effort will support youth who are economically marginalized, and/or racially and ethnically minoritized. Not only are these adolescents highly exposed to ACEs and to discrimination-based social rejection, they often lack access to resources that foster resilience.2 Individual, family, and community level interventions can promote trajectories toward resilience by facilitating supportive relationships, providing access to social resources, and promoting social cohesion by reducing experiences of social rejection.