Resilience in the Perspective of Adolescents

Abstract

Resilience refers the process of overcoming the negative effects of risk exposure, coping successfully with traumatic experiences, and avoiding the negative trajectories associated with risks. The process of resilience may also vary for different groups of adolescents. Resilience for urban and suburban youth, for example, may differ from resilience for rural youth. Similarly, resilience may differ for high- and low-socioeconomic-status youth, for males and females.According Alvord and Grados (2005), numerous definitions of resilience require conditions of an identified risk or challenge followed by some defined measure of positive outcome. However, debate remains concerning what constitutes resilient behavior and how best measure successful adaptation hardship. Resilience is not an one-dimensional, dichotomous attribute that an individual has or does not have. It has been suggested that a resilient individual must show positive outcomes across multiple aspects of life over a period of time (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1997). Moreover, resilience indicates the possession of several skills, in varying degrees, that help a person cope (Alvord & Grados, 2005).Resilience refers a class of phenomena characterized by good outcomes in spite of serious threats adaptation or development. Resilience has been characterized as the ability to:* bounce back and cope effectively in the face of difficulties* bend, but not break under extreme stress* rebound from adversities* handle setbacks, persevere and adapt even when things go awry* maintain equilibrium following highly aversive eventsHistorically, the origins of resilience have deep roots in the field of medicine; however, research on resilience in the behavioral sciences began emerge around 1970 (Cicchetti, 2006; Cicchetti & Curtis, 2006; Masten, 2007, 2011; Masten & Obradovic, 2006). According Masten (2011), pioneering scientists contended that critical aspects of human function and development, crucial for understanding and promoting prevention of, resistance to, or recovery from psychopathology, had been profoundly neglected. Four decades of resilience research followed as scientists took the challenge of this phenomenon (Masten, 2007). There have been three waves of research on resilience in development. The first wave of research came from scientists wanting understand and prevent the development of psychopathology (Masten, 2011; Masten & Obradovic, 2006). These pioneer researchers acknowledged the importance of children who seemed progress well under risky conditions (Masten & Obradovic, 2006). The second wave of resilience research concentrated on detecting the processes and regulatory systems that accounted for protective factors associated with resilience (Masten & Obradovic, 2006). The third wave arose due a sense of urgency for the welfare of children growing up with adversities focusing on promoting resilience through prevention, intervention, and policy.Over a relatively short time span, research in resilience has expanded significantly and has led fascinating analyses and conclusions. Bonnie Benard, an important contributor recent summaries of this body of knowledge, suggests that there are four key messages that have come out of resilience research:* Resilience is a capacity all youth have for healthy development and successful learning.* Certain personal strengths are associated with healthy development and successful learning.* Certain characteristics of families, schools and communities are associated with the development of personal strengths and, in turn, healthy development and successful learning.* Changing the life trajectories of children and youth from risk resilience starts with changing the beliefs of the adults in their families, schools and communities.Adolescence (from Latin adolescence, meaning to grow up) is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs during the period from puberty legal adulthood (age of majority). …