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  • Essay / Protective Factors and Implications of Resilience

    Table of ContentsThe Roots of ResilienceProtective Factors and Implications of ResilienceConclusionThe term resilience literally means “bouncing back” from adverse conditions. Resilience as a concept can be viewed from two different perspectives: resilience as a personal trait and resilience as a process. Resilience can be described as a relatively stable personal characteristic or set of characteristics, which develop not only from life adversity, but also from the experience of everyday life stress. From this definition, it is clear that resilience increases the chances of succeeding in difficult circumstances. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Resilience can be considered to occur if the person quickly returns to a previous state following trauma or negative life events. According to Masten and Reed (2002), resilience refers to a class of phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk. Resilience must be inferred because two major judgments are necessary to identify individuals as belonging to this class of phenomena. First, there is a judgment that individuals are “doing well” or better than well with respect to a set of behavioral expectations. Secondly, there is a judgment that there were extenuating circumstances which posed a threat to good results. The study of this class of phenomena therefore requires defining the criteria or the method to ensure good adaptation and the past or current presence of conditions that threaten good adaptation. In general, research on resilience has tended to define it as a trait rather than viewing it as a dynamic process. The transition from the personal trait approach to the process approach is based on a number of factors such as the fact that resilience is a broad range of factors. subject, its meaning can only be derived from its relation to specific conditions and specific end results. Furthermore, “the process approach allows researchers to better understand the “dynamic and interactive” nature of the process, in which the protective mechanisms of protective factors operate and change to promote positive outcomes in negative circumstances. This has both theoretical and practical implications for resilience-based interventions. The Roots of Resilience The idea of ​​individual resilience in the face of adversity has been around for a very long time, as reflected in myths, fairy tales, art and literature over the centuries. centuries that feature heroes and heroines. When psychology began to develop as a systematic science in the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was clearly an interest in individual adaptation to the environment, as evidenced by theories ranging from natural selection to psychoanalytic psychology of the ego. Freud (1928), for example, noted the remarkable human capacity to triumph over adversity even on the path to execution, describing gallows humor as "the ego's victorious assertion of its own invulnerability." . , competence, and self-efficacy in 20th-century psychology have focused on the positive aspects of adaptation in development. In 1962, Lois Murphy denounced the negative orientation of research on individual differences in children: "It is somewhat"It is paradoxical that a nation which has exulted in its rapid expansion and its scientific and technological achievements should have developed such a vast 'problem' literature in its studies of childhood." Murphy's words were a harbinger of change. A decade later, the systematic study of resilience in psychology emerged from the study of children at risk for problems and psychopathology. A year later, the same group of researchers created tools to examine the systems that support the development of resilience. Some of these investigators were struck by the observation that there were children supposedly at high risk of problems who were doing quite well. Subsequently, these psychiatrists and psychologists began to write and speak about the importance of these children. Their observations were a call to action for research into the phenomenon of well-being in the context of risk. In the 1970s, Emmy Werner was one of the first scientists to use the term resilience. Resilience also emerged as a major theoretical and research topic from studies of children whose mothers had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1980s. The main area of ​​research on resilience, since its beginnings, has been the factors of protection that explain the adaptation of individuals to adverse conditions such as abuse, urban poverty or miserable life events. Finally, conceptions of resilience as absolute or comprehensive, as opposed to relative or boundaries, have also changed over the years. In some early writings, those who succeeded despite multiple risks were referred to as "invulnerable." This term was misleading because it implied that risk avoidance was absolute and immutable. As research has evolved, it has become clear that positive adaptation despite exposure to adversity involves a developmental progression, such that new vulnerabilities and/or strengths often emerge with changing life circumstances. life. Thus, the term “resilient” is used prominently to describe the success of high-risk children. Protective factors and resilience Protective factors are defined as characteristics of the child, the family and the broader environment that reduce the negative effect of adversity on the child's outcome. A number of factors, including child IQ, emotion regulation, parenting, low parental discord, advantaged socioeconomic status, effective schools, and safe neighborhoods, are associated with positive outcomes in a high risk context. Protective factors refer to people's characteristics or circumstances that predict better outcomes in high-risk conditions; in fact, they can be considered important assets when risk or adversity is high. Examples include caregiver and peer support and strong social-emotional skills. Protective factors can be identified by two main approaches, namely variable-based analyzes and person-based analyses. In variable-based analyses, researchers use multivariate regressions to examine continuous adversity scales and risk modifiers in relation to their outcomes and to determine whether this is a main effect or an effect. an interaction effect. One of the first efforts to use this variable-based approach was the groundbreaking paper by Garmezy, Masten, and Tellegen (1984), demonstrating that high IQ was protective: increased life stress appeared to affect much less intelligent children than their low stress levels.Peers IQ. In person-based analyses, comparisons are made between a group of children who are classified based on their final outcomes and risk profiles. In both variable-based and person-based analyses, one of the hallmarks of the current generation of resilience research is attention to process: if studies are to truly be informative for interventions, they must go beyond beyond the simple identification of variables linked to competence and understand the specific underlying mechanisms. .Regarding risk transmission, for example, maternal depression can affect children through various environmental processes, including negative family interactions and routines, as well as child behavioral and emotional problems. Similarly, protective factors such as quality child-caregiver relationships could benefit a child in many ways, including feeling supported, feeling cherished as an individual and a strong set of personal values. Protective factors at the individual level are personal. characteristics, traits and resources, such as personality traits, intellect, self-efficacy, adaptation, good cognitive skills, adaptable personality, attention skills, self-regulation, common sense of humor, easy-going temperament, appraisal of abuse, and life satisfaction. Protective factors at the family level include adequate financial resources and supportive relationships, such as family coherence, stable care, warm parental relationships, minimal conflict, an organized family environment and support from the spouse. Community-level protective factors include easy access to resources, effective schools, relationships with peers, relationships with non-family members, social support and high collective efficacy neighborhoods, involvement in social organizations, availability of health care and religion. Longitudinal and cross-sectional research studies provide evidence of the links between protective factors and resilience. In terms of protective processes, positive peer relationships and engagement in secondary school can mitigate the deleterious effects of maltreatment. Furthermore, the protective potential of positive parenting is evident not only in early childhood, but also in later years, through adolescence and even early adulthood. . For example, among children exposed to harsh maternal parenting, a high level of grandmother involvement may reduce the risk of maladjustment in grandchildren. Studies have documented the benefits of early exposure to high-quality child care, where caregivers have positive personal characteristics and provide emotionally supportive care. In later years as well, supportive relationships with K-12 teachers can be protective. Positive peer relationships are an important protective factor. Peer-assisted learning can lead to a significant increase in achievement, and affiliation with peers who model responsible behavior (e.g., good students and good citizens) can mitigate, to some extent, the effects of exposure to violence. Besides peers, social aspects are particularly important. neighborhood organization processes that involve characteristics such as a high level of cohesion, a feeling of belonging to the community, supervision of young people by adults in the community and.