Resilience

Resilience is the ability to adjust (or bounce back) when bad things happen. Research shows resilience helps reduce the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Protective factors are internal and external resources that help us to build our resilience.

Leading researchers show that some children develop resilience – the ability to overcome serious hardship – and that others do not. Understanding why some children do well despite adverse experiences early in life is important to being able to help those who do not. That same understanding can help create more effective policies and programs that help more children reach their full potential.

Children who do well despite hardship typically have a biological resistance to adversity and strong relationships with important adults, their family, and their community. Resilience is a combination of many things, including individual characteristics and social environments, as well as the interaction between biology and environment. All these factors come together to build a child’s ability to cope with adversity and overcome threats.

Learning to cope with manageable threats is critical for the development of resilience. However, these capabilities can be strengthened and reinforced at any age.

Resources for Resilience

Boing Boing

Turnaround for Children

Resilience Research Center

Community Resilience Initiative

How People Learn to Become Resilient

Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child – Tipping the Scales