LEC 1 - A short history of resilience science Flashcards
What are examples of adverse childhood experiences (ACE)?
3 Categories
1. Abuse
- Physical Abuse
- Sexual Abuse
- Verbal Abuse
2. Neglect
- Emotional Neglect
- Physical Neglect
3. Growing up in a household where
- There are adults with alcohol and drug problems
- There are adults with mental health problems
- There is domestic violence
- There are adults who have spent time in jail
- Parents have separated
How common are ACE’s?
Around half of all adults have experienced ACE.
What is the relationship between ACE and mental health?
*ACEs are highly prevalent and interrelated.
*ACEs associated with maladaptive family functioning (e.g. parental mental illness, child abuse, neglect) are the strongest predictors of mental health problems.
*Co-occurring ACEs associated with maladaptive family functioning predict mental health problems with little specificity across disorders.
*ACEs account for 29.8% of all disorders across countries
What is cumulative risk?
Cumulative risk is formally defined as the combination of risks.
*Risk can have snowballing effects, likelihood of problems increases with the number of risk factors that are present
*Major risk factors may predict more complex risk(e.g. divorce predicting malnutrition)
What is the role of adolescent mental health conditions in adulthood?
The consequences of failing to address adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.’ [Source: WHO.int]
WHO surveys: childhood adversities and adult psychopathology → childhood adversities were highly prevalent and interrelated + childhood adversities associated with maladaptive family functioning had significant subadditive predictive associations and little specificity across disorders. childhood adversities account for 29.8% of all disorders across countries
Why is resilience important? (illustrated by worlds events)
- in the past years the global world has suffered from the covid-pandemic which has negatively impacted people physically and mentally. this impact hasn’t been equal across people, it has impacted those growing up (children specifically; and already suffering from growing up; poverty, mental health problems)
→ affected vulnerable people
- world fires, floodings, earthquakes → 2011 great east japan earthquake disaster; affected people’s mental health (they were displaced, lost houses, lost family, suffered from trauma and ptsd) people living in the region that was most affected by the earthquake were suffering; the mental health of these people were affected, especially children and people with disorders → natural disasters can have a really important impact on the mental health of people living in that region
- armed conflict and war; impact of the russian invasion on mental health of adolescents in ukraine (there has been a build-up toward this invasion starting in 2014; researchers examined the mental health of those living in regions that already showed armed conflict starting in 2014, comparing it to the mental health of people living in different regions of ukraine not subjected to armed conflict) → they found that non-violence trauma due to forced relocation or loss of social support was equally likely to increase mental health problems in victims
- Novel example: Gaza and Israel.
What is the Ecological Systems Theory?
- ecological systems theory (the effects of violence in a community can affect an individual child through the ways it affects the family environment)
- physical environment, social environment, individual
- Example: study in lebanon: experiences growing up in lebanon → 31.7% with related trauma also reported trauma in the home environment (abuse and neglect)
What is Trauma/Violence in the Home Environment
Trauma/violence in the home environment: not a specific experience but an umbrella term referring to any negative thing that happens in a home environment; trauma might change (different cultures, different timelines) → western societies: child abuse, deprivation, parents struggling with mental health or have spent time in prison → these experiences are very prevalent
Why do some children who experience adversity, violence and trauma develop poorly, whilst others do not?
How can we boost resilience to violence and trauma in children and young people
By boosting resilience through research and interventions.
What is the meaning of Resilience?
the noun resilience, meaning ‘the act of rebounding’, was first used in the 1620s and was derived from ‘resiliens’, the present participle of latin ‘resilire’, ‘to recoil or rebound’. … by 1824, the term had developed to encompass the meaning of ‘elasticity’. (ordinary magic: resilience in development)
What is the origin and aim of resilience research.
3 Questions
1. Who stays well and recovers well
2. How?
3. How can we promote and protect health and positive development.
There is more than 50 years of resilience research: norman garmezy (soldier) , emily werner (child who suffered from the bombings), michael rutter (evacuated child) → all profoundly affected by World War II, studied the effects of trauma on children growing up.
What are the 4 waves of resilience research?
First Wave: 70 - 90’s What is resilience? Descriptive
- What is Resilience, How do we measure it and what makes a difference?
- Focused on individual factors
- Lacked understanding of processes
Second Wave: 90’s - 07’ Process (How question)
- how do protective influences work? → how is positive development promoted?
- resilience as a process
- developmental and ecological systems
- unable to inform interventions
Third Wave: 07’-17’ Interventions
- Testing theories through interventions, can resilience be promoted?
- Lacked integration of neurobiological and social systems.
Fourth Wave: 17’-current Dynamic Systems
*Integrating genetics, neuroscience, sociology; dynamic interactive systems
*Dynamic systems
What is the childerens of Kauai study?
1st wave classical study.
The Children of Kauai Study, conducted by Emmy Werner and her colleagues, is a landmark longitudinal study in resilience research. It began in 1955 and followed 698 children born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The researchers tracked these children from birth into adulthood, examining the impact of various risk factors such as poverty, family instability, and parental mental illness.
Classic model: the children of Kauai study → the children who did well had more care and supportive relationships with relatives, and teachers, better communicative skills, higher self-efficiency, more optimism, more faith, more religion
Researches found the resilient children were still resilient later on, but a portion of ⅔ who had problems at 10 were more resilient at 18 (changes in adolescence/adulthood) → late-blooming (weren’t doing well at first but did well later on)
What is the Person-focused model of resilience?
1st wave model for resilience.
3 Modes:
- single case studies → a person’s entire history is documented and read to come to the conclusion of how they developed resilience (harry potter: social environment, helped by hagrid and went to hogwarts)
- aggregate studies (kauai) → look at a group of individuals with trauma and are not doing well, comparing them to a group of individuals with trauma and are doing well
Explain the classical and expended classical model of person-focused model of resilience.
Wave 1: Person Focused Model
The classical model of resilience in person-focused research primarily views resilience as an individual’s ability to bounce back from adversity. It emphasizes personal traits like optimism, self-efficacy, and coping skills that help individuals recover from stress and maintain psychological well-being.
The expanded classical has a broader range of factors. It includes not only individual traits but also external influences such as social support, community resources, and environmental conditions. This model recognizes that resilience is a dynamic process influenced by interactions between individuals and their environments
What is a variable focused model of resilience?
Wave 2 : Process/How Question’
- Statistically test patterns among variables in groups of individuals → look at relationships and data, look at people entirely and look at who has experienced trauma, what is the effect of that adverse experience on their wellbeing
- Risk gradient: the more risk, the lower wellbeing → the more severe adversities someone reported, the lower their wellbeing → is there an effect of friendships on friendships
What is the difference between mediation and moderation?
Mediators explain how or why two variables are related
Moderators explain under what conditions or for whom the relationship between two variables changes.
- Mediation:
o A mediating variable (or mediator) explains the process through which two variables are related.
o It helps to understand the mechanism or pathway by which an independent variable affects a dependent variable. - Moderation:
o A moderating variable (or moderator) affects the strength and/or direction of the relationship between two variables.
o It helps to identify the conditions under which a certain relationship holds true or varies.
What is Positive Memory Specificity?
Associated with reduced vulnerability to depression → lowering self-cognition, thereby lowering depressive symptoms (but only in the case of stress!) → variable focus approach
What is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model?
Wave 2 Systems Model
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model explains how a person’s development is influenced by different types of environmental systems. It includes five levels:
Systems influencing children
Microsystem: Immediate surroundings like family, school, and peers.
Mesosystem: Interactions between different microsystems, such as how family life affects school life.
Exosystem: External environments that indirectly influence development, like a parent’s workplace.
Macrosystem: Broader societal and cultural influences.
Chronosystem: Changes over time, such as life transitions or historical events.
What are the resilience factors on multiple levels?
What is the Definition of Resilience?
Capacity (potential or manifested) of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten system function, viability, or development.
Positive adaptation or development in the context of significant adversity exposure
*‘The dynamic process of adaptation to stressful life circumstances’.
*Resilience after CA is inferred ex post facto: Good mental health following an adverse life event or a period of difficult life circumstance
What are the risk trajectories?
