Family Poverty and Trajectories of Children’s Emotional and Behavioural Problems: The Moderating Roles of Self-Regulation and Verbal Cognitive Ability

Socio-economic disadvantage is strongly associated with children’s emotional (internalising) and behavioural (externalising) problems. Self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability have been related to children’s emotional and behavioural resilience to socio-economic disadvantage. Despite being inter-related, self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability have not been examined jointly as promoting resilience in young children. This study investigated the roles of self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability in children’s emotional and behavioural resilience to family socio-economic disadvantage from early to middle childhood (ages 3, 5, and 7 years; N?=?16,916; 49 % girls). Using multivariate response growth curve modelling, we found that the relationship between socio-economic disadvantage and internalising problems was stronger for children with lower verbal cognitive ability. Also, poor children with high and low levels of self-regulation showed a widening gap in both emotional and behavioural problems over time. Poor and non-poor children alike benefited from self-regulation, but poor children appeared to be more vulnerable to low self-regulation. Self-regulation and verbal cognitive ability seem to be important protective factors for young children growing up in poor families.     

Resilience of children in disasters: A multisystem perspective

Interest in resilience is surging in research, policy and practice as threats from disasters rise and humanity confronts a global pandemic. This commentary highlights the importance of defining resilience for portability across system levels and disciplines in order to integrate knowledge and prepare adequately for the challenges posed to children and youth by multisystem disasters. A scalable definition of resilience is recommended: The capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to challenges that threaten the function, survival or development of the system. Major determinants of adaptation among young people in the context of disaster are highlighted, including variations in adversity exposure dose, developmental timing, individual differences and the socio-ecological systems of children's lives that can be mobilised in response. Adaptation of children in disasters depends on the resilience of interconnected systems, including families, schools, communities and policy sectors. Implications of a multisystem perspective for disaster risk reduction and preparedness are discussed with a focus on nurturing the resilience of children and their societies for challenges in the near term and long into the future.     

Retention of Hispanic/Latino students in first grade: Child, parent, teacher, school, and peer predictors

A sample of 283 Hispanic children with literacy performance at entrance to first grade below the median for their school district was studied as part of a larger research project on the predictors of grade retention in grade 1. Following retention decisions, 51 Hispanic students were retained in first grade. Low literacy skills, being young at entrance to first grade, low ego resilience, low support in the teacher-student relationship, and parents' low sense of responsibility for their children's educational outcomes predicted retention decisions. Hierarchical logistics regression investigated the contribution of six categories of variables (academic competencies; socio-demographic characteristics; social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment; resiliency, school context; and home environment) to retention. Controlling for literacy, only being young for grade and parents' low sense of responsibility for their children's adjustment to school made a direct contribution to retention. Early literacy skills were higher for children enrolled in bilingual classrooms than for children in non-bilingual classrooms. Implications for educational policy are discussed.     

Investigating the Effectiveness of an Arts-Based and Mindfulness-Based Group Program for the Improvement of Resilience in Children in Need

We discuss preliminary findings from a study that investigated the effectiveness of a Holistic Arts-Based Group Program (HAP) for the development of resilience in children in need. The HAP teaches mindfulness using arts-based methods, and aims to teach children how to understand their feelings and develop their strengths. We assessed the effectiveness of the HAP by using comparison and control groups, and standardized measures. We hypothesized that children who participated in the HAP would have better scores on resilience and self-concept compared with children who took part in an Arts and Crafts group (the comparison group), and children who were waiting to attend the HAP (the control group). A total of 36 children participated in the study; 20 boys aged 8–13?years and 16 girls aged 8–14?years. A mixed-designed MANOVA was conducted using scores from 21 participants. We found evidence that the HAP program was beneficial for the children in that they self-reported lower emotional reactivity (a resilience measure) post-intervention. No changes were noted for perceptions of self-concept. Consideration should be given to how we can attend to young people’s needs in relevant ways as resilience is a condition of a community’s ability to provide resources as much as it is part of an individual’s capacity for growth. Programs such as the HAP can engage children in a creative and meaningful process that is enjoyable and strengths-based.     

Creativity Research Overlooks the Study of Resilience among Young Children: A Bibliometric Network Review

Creativity researchers are increasingly interested in understanding when, how, and for whom creativity can be beneficial. Previous reviews have demonstrated that creativity research largely ignores the study of its impact on factors that promote health, and well-being among populations of adults. It is unclear, in fact, whether this gap in research also extends to creativity research among young children. This paper addresses this issue. Early childhood is a crucial stage for the cognitive development of young children who remain highly sensitive to stress, and adversity. It is therefore essential to identify and promote factors that are beneficial to early childhood resilience, thereby contributing to documenting more of the effects of creative activities on positive outcomes. This paper presents a review with a bibliometric analysis of 1000 randomly selected articles from the Web of Science, without bias towards any specific peer-reviewed journal. The analysis of 454 included articles shows that approximately 80% of the included studies focus on creativity as an outcome (replicating previous findings with a larger sample), with only 3.78% investigating creative activities as predictors among young children. In this small percentage, most of the studies addressed creative activities in young children related to resilience outcomes.     

Recognition memory for colors and faces in profoundly retarded young children

Visual recognition memory was examined in a group of profoundly retarded young children whose visual-motor developmental level was estimated to be below one year. The children were tested for recognition of a previously shown face photo or a previously exposed color either immediately or following a short-term delay by observing the distribution of their visual fixation responses to novel stimuli when paired with previously seen targets. During a study or “familiarization” period the profoundly retarded children devoted voted approximately the same amount of attention to photos of faces as they did to colored, abstract patterns, and individual differences in overall looking time proved to be reliable. During the recognition testing phase the profoundly retarded children demonstrated immediate recognition memory for both faces and colors, preferring a novel to a previously exposed target, but responsiveness to novelty declined abruptly over a short-term delay, providing little evidence for delayed recognition.     

Children's Loss of Agency under Extreme Adversity

This study explores the notion of children's agency in situations of extreme adversity. The child participants (n=117) live in the midst of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; extreme poverty; and systemic educational malfunction. Four focus group interviews were conducted with the children to explore their experiences of potential barriers to education. The findings indicated that contextual factors had a profoundly negative impact on the children, with their agentive capacity being severely compromised through their exposure to multiple, complex layers of risk. There was very little evidence to suggest that children retain any sense of their own agency in such adversity. This has implications for their resilience and for the development of policy and intervention strategies that may meet these children's needs.     

Mentors Enhance Resilience in At-Risk Children and Adolescents

Mentors can play an important role in promoting resilience among at-risk children and adolescents. Nonparental adults who serve as mentors can provide reliable support, communicate moral values, teach information and skills, inspire, motivate, enhance interpersonal relatedness, and foster self-esteem. A number of researchers have reported that at-risk children who have mentors, especially nonparental kin, exhibit fewer problem behaviors, more positive attitudes towards school, greater school efficacy, less marijuana use, less nonviolent delinquency, and lower levels of anxiety and depression. The most successful mentors are those who invest time and energy and have frequent and prolonged contact with the children they guide. The relationship between mentoring and resilience in at-risk children and adolescents may best be understood from psychological, social, and neurobiological perspectives. As described and recommended by Allen and Hauser, the in-depth analysis of narratives provided by at-risk children and adolescents, particularly over the course of their development into young adulthood, will undoubtedly help researchers to isolate specific features of mentoring that are critical for fostering resilience.     

Development,Social-Emotional Behavior and Resilience of Orphaned Children in a Family-Oriented Setting

SOS children’s villages take care of orphaned or abandoned children who are likely to suffer from multiple psychosocial problems. Nevertheless, much is not known about the developmental, social-emotional, nutritional and resilience status of young SOS children (SOSc) living in poor settings of developing countries such as Ethiopia. The present study examined the developmental, social-emotional, nutritional and resilience status of SOSc in Jimma town of Ethiopia. In total, we selected 62 children (3.5–71.8 months of age; 32 boys and 30 girls) and tested for their personal-social, language, fine and gross motor development with the culturally adapted and standardized developmental screening tool, Denver II-Jimma; and their social-emotional behavior with the ages and stages questionnaire: social-emotional (ASQ:SE). We compared their outcomes to 62 age- and sex- matched family-reared children. To estimate the nutritional status of all children, we followed the WHO child growth standards. We used an interview guide to investigate resilience of the children. SOSc performed significantly poorer on language (p?<?0.001, effect size (es)?=?0.957), gross motor (p?<?0.001, es?=?0.879) and social-emotional (p?<?0.001, es?=?1.220) outcomes. Twenty-two (35.5%) of SOSc were undernourished and 17 (77.30%) of them were stunted. SOSc demonstrated resilient behavior, and child, SOS family and community characteristics were the major protective factors which enabled them to thrive in spite of the loss of their parents. Early intervention focusing on language, gross motor and social-emotional skills may be particularly beneficial to support children in SOS villages.     

Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience

This investigation presents 1) a literature review concerning how adversity and resilience influence the development of youth from diverse cultural backgrounds; 2) an examination of measures of resilience with regard to cultural factors that relate to the nature of coping and resilience among young adults from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds; and 3) the exploration of aspects of cultural resilience: childhood stressors, global coping, adaptive coping, maladaptive coping, and sociocultural support. Results for 305 college age women indicated that cultural factors were related to measures of these five aspects of resilience. Childhood stressors were experienced differentially by individuals from different racial/ethnic and social class status backgrounds, supporting proposals that ecological aspects, notably cultural background and experiences, influence the development of resilience. A conceptual framework illustrating how culture contributes to resilience and coping is presented. Implications for the development of a measure of cultural resilience and its usefulness for developmental community interventions are discussed.     

Trauma, change, and psychological health in the 21st century

The impact of stressful life events on health has been the object of inquiry for decades. Health care professionals have studied how stressful life events may precipitate or contribute to the onset of illness. Traumatic events and experiences can profoundly affect physical and psychological well-being, which in turn may predispose an individual to greater resilience or greater vulnerability to life stresses. Examined herein is the relationship between life stresses--including social stressors, political stressors, and environmental stressors--and the critical health related issues that psychologists need to prepare for in both the science and the practice of psychology over the next decade and during the 21st century.     

Communication options for children with hearing loss

This article examines the communication options that are available for use within families of infants and young children who are hard-of-hearing or deaf. The need for language development, regardless of the specific communication mode, is stressed. The demands of the current environment of early identification and intervention often put families in a position of needing to decide among communication methods before they are fully knowledgeable and/or emotionally ready. Specific communication options are delineated and considered within a continuum of spoken and visual language. Available research related to early acquisition of language by infants and young children who are hard-of-hearing and deaf is reviewed; outcomes, when available, are presented for specific methods from reports of older children. Factors that influence families' decisions regarding the selection of a communication option are highlighted in the context of the existing literature. An ongoing evaluative process that respects the choices of families is advocated; a context in which change(s) in communication mode through childhood is viewed as a positive circumstance. The ultimate goal in the selection of any communication approach is to ensure that infants and young children who are hard of hearing or deaf and their families are language proficient and fluent communicators.     

Competence, Risk, and Resilience in Military Families: Conceptual Commentary

This commentary highlights conceptual themes in the opening section of this special issue on military families in relation to a new synthesis of developmental systems theory that emerged from developmental, ecological, and family systems theory, as well as developmental psychopathology and risk/resilience frameworks. Articles in this special issue draw on these concepts to characterize and guide the burgeoning research on military families. This perspective emphasizes that multiple dynamic systems interact across levels to shape individual development, as well as the function of families and military units. Developmental timing is important for understanding how challenges of military life may impact individuals and families. Cascade effects are noted, where stress experienced by one family or service member can influence the function of other individuals or larger systems. Capacity for resilience is distributed across systems, including families and cultures, as well as resources or supports provided by military organizations to foster adaptive responses or recovery. These systems include schools and educational programs that play key roles in fostering and supporting resilience for children. Overall, developmental system concepts have considerable utility for guiding research with military families, particularly in regard to promoting resilience. Moreover, lessons learned from military families and programs may have much broader implications for many other nonmilitary children, families, and organizations that share similar goals and challenges.     

Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development

The study of resilience in development has overturned many negative assumptions and deficit-focused models about children growing up under the threat of disadvantage and adversity. The most surprising conclusion emerging from studies of these children is the ordinariness of resilience. An examination of converging findings from variable-focused and person-focused investigations of these phenomena suggests that resilience is common and that it usually arises from the normative functions of human adaptational systems, with the greatest threats to human development being those that compromise these protective systems. The conclusion that resilience is made of ordinary rather than extraordinary processes offers a more positive outlook on human development and adaptation, as well as direction for policy and practice aimed at enhancing the development of children at risk for problems and psychopathology.     

Bullying Behaviors and Victimization Experiences Among Adolescent Students: The Role of Resilience

The role of resilience in the relationship between bullying behaviors, victimization experiences, and self-efficacy was examined. Participants were 393 (191 young men, 202 young women) adolescents (M age = 15.88 years, SD = 0.64 years) from schools in Coimbatore, India, who completed scales to assess bullying behaviors and victimization experiences, resilience, and self-efficacy. Multigroup structural equation modeling, with separate groups created according to participant gender, revealed that resilience mediated the relationship between bullying behaviors and self-efficacy in young men. Young men engaged in bullying behaviors and experienced victimization more frequently than young women. The findings of the study have implication for designing intervention programs to enhance resilience among adolescents and young adults to enable them to manage bullying behaviors.     

The promotion of wellness in children and families challenges and opportunities.

This article considers the effects of marital disruption on children and families, using a risk and resilience perspective. The challenges that parental divorce poses for children are widely recognized; however, less attention has been given to strategies for promoting children's resilience and healthy developmental trajectories. The purpose of this article is to redress that imbalance by highlighting the importance of understanding pathways toward risk and resilience in children in the aftermath of divorce and the ways in which this research can be integrated into effective, evidence-based preventive interventions and proactive social policies that foster supportive parent-child relationships and psychological wellness in children and families.     

Child refugee's social skills and resilience: Moderating effects of time in refugee camp,parental education,and preschool attendance

In this cross-sectional study, we examine the relationship between social skills and resilience and the moderating effects of time spent in a refugee camp, parental education, and schooling on Syrian children who have been forcibly displaced to Turkey. Five hundred and twenty-six preschool-aged children (56.3% female, M_age = 5.79) were recruited to participate in this research. The Turkish version of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Revised (CYRM-R) and the Early Childhood Social Skills Measure (ECSSM) were used to assess refugee children's social skills and resilience, respectively. Results show that the children's social skills were positively related to resilience with length of time spent in a refugee camp, the parental education level, and preschool attendance moderating this association. These results highlight the role of social skills as a possible means of enhancing refugee children's resilience.     

Intimacy,sport and young refugee men

This article is about research with a group of young refugee men from Sudan and their relationship to football (soccer) as they resettle in Australia. It provides evidence of the resilience, independence and autonomy that such young refugees possess and what these young men's intimate knowledge of these qualities can teach us. In other words, how can we as researchers learn from these young refugees about how they perform these qualities and how may we accommodate this during ethnographic research and in sports-based intervention programs aimed at empowering such young people? Further, the article explores the role of intimacy in this process by accounting for the role of affective connections on and off the sporting field. The argument is that intimacy can help those involved negotiate the power inequities present in sports-based intervention programs and in associated research.     

Posttraumatic growth and parental bonding in young adults of parents with physical disabilites: testing mediation model of resilience

Positive parent-child relationships are associated with positive youth development, but little is known about the relationships between parental bonding, resilience, and posttraumatic growth, which is positive change resulting from the struggle with trauma. This study examined a mediation model among 119 female young adults with disabled parents. The model included resilience as a mediator of the relationship between the paternal Care and posttraumatic growth. The results revealed that resilience did mediate the relationship between the paternal Care and posttraumatic growth. The findings indicate that paternal Care helps to foster female young adults’ resilience, which benefits their growth after suffering adversities.     

A child's experience of parental depression: encouraging relational resilience in families with affective illness

In this article, we describe an approach that parents with affective illness can use to foster the emotional resilience of their children. Building on current research that emphasizes the need to formulate concepts of risk and resilience in terms of family or relational processes, we propose that affectively ill parents can promote resilience in their children by helping them express the affect they experience as a result of parental illness-related behavior. Risk and resilience are conceptualized in terms of a family's ability to process emotion or affect: a family's need to constrict affect is a risk factor, while the family's ability to elaborate affect encourages relational resilience. An object relations model is used to discuss the ways in which encouraging this elaboration of affect, especially negative affect, contributes to resilience in children. We describe ways in which a preventive intervention helps to increase parents' emotional responsiveness to their children. Using extensive narrative data from followup interviews with families and children, constriction and expansion of emotion in children concerning affectively ill parents are documented, by multiple interviewers, over a span of more than 5 years.