Ordinary Magic

Question 1

OM1: Where lie the origins of resilience research?

Answer 1

1960s and 1970s: initiation systematic study of resilience phenomena in children (pioneers were profoundly influenced by World War II). Individuals who became leading scientists studying resilience in children at risk:

• Norman Garmezy: a young American soldier
• Emmy Werner: one of the many children/adolescents who experienced the bombing of Europe firsthand
• Michael Rutter: one of the “seavacuees”, British children who were sent across the ocean to safety in North America to escape the bombing

Question 2

OM1: What questions did Gruenbergs Public Health Model ask?

Answer 2

1. Who gets sick, and who doesn’t get sick? → Who stays well and recovers well?
2. Why? → How?
3. What can we do to make the sickness less common? → What can we do to promote and protect health and positive development?

Question 3

OM1: What risk factors/predictors did Gruenbergs Public Health Model identify?

Answer 3

Risk factors/predictors of mental and behavioral problems:
- genetic risk or being related to people with serious mental disorders,
- exposure to stressful life experiences,
- status indicators of precarious (uncertain) life circumstances (premature birth, low ses, low education, teenage parents)

Question 4

OM1: What are the 4 waves of resilience research?

Answer 4

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE WAVES ARE NOT EXCLUSIVE TO THE TIME FRAME AND ARE ALL STILL PRACTICIONED TODAY
**Wave 1 (1970-): descriptive (what questions)
**Descriptive, beginning to systematically define, measure, and describe the phenomenon of good function or outcomes in the context of risk or adversity and attempting to identify the predictors of resilience
- What is resilience
- How do we measure it
- What makes a difference

**Wave 2 (1990-): process (how questions)
**Shifted attention to the processes of resilience and to how questions
- What are the processes that lead to resilience
- How do protective, promotive, or preventive influences work
- How is positive development promoted in the context of risk

**Wave 3 (2007-): interventions
**Focused on promoting resilience through interventions, while testing theories from the first two waves about what matters for resilience and
- How can resilience be promoted
- Are theories about the processes leading to resilience on target

**Wave 4 (2017-): dynamic systems
**Characterized by dynamic, systems-oriented approaches
- How do genetic differences play a role in resilience
- Do individuals have differential sensitivity to traumatic experiences
- Are the same individuals also sensitive to traumatic experiences
- Are the same individuals also sensitive to positive interventions
- How is brain development protected from high levels of stress and stress hormones
- Is it possible to influence important human adaptive systems to foster resilience
- How do communities and societies nurture resilience

Question 5

OM1: What is the origin of the word resilience?

Answer 5

• The word resilience stems from the Latin verb resilire (to rebound), in English the word resiliency refers to the property of elasticity or springing back → the conceptual similarity among resilience concepts in multiple fields likely stems in part from shared origins in general systems theory

Question 6

OM1: What is resilience?

Answer 6

• Resilience refers to the adaptation and survival of a system after perturbation, often referring to the process of restoring functional equilibrium, and sometimes referring to the process of successful transformation to a stable new functional state
• The concept of resilience: positive adaptation in the context of risk or adversity
• Resilience: the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten system function, viability, or development
• From a general systems theory perspective, resilience does not necessarily connote “good” outcomes from the viewpoint of human rights or individual child well-being. It is possible for a “resilient” organization/government, for example, to commit atrocities against children. However, in developmental science, the concept of resilience does carry the connotation of good outcomes, requiring definitions and judgments about what constitutes positive or desirable outcomes for children

Question 7

OM1: What are the pathways for Resilient functioning?

Answer 7

• Path A: stress resistance in the context of either acute trauma occurring at time x or chronic adversity before and after time x
• Path B: recovery following acute, overwhelming trauma at time x
• Path C: normalization after marked reduction of adversity beginning at time x
• Path D: posttraumatic growth following trauma at time x

Question 8

OM1: How to identify resilience in a person’s life?

Answer 8

Judgments about exposure to adversity and judgments about how well a person is doing in the midst or aftermath of the adversity –. resilience is inferred from two sets of evaluations, one concerning the nature of the threat posed by their life experiences (has there been risk?) and a second one about **the quality of adjustment or a person’s development **(is this person doing okay?)

Question 9

OM1: What is necessary to observe resilience?

Answer 9

If there is little/no threat, or if there is not (yet) evidence of recovery or good outcome, then there is no observed resilience (at least not yet)

Question 10

OM1: What are and is the relation of risk factors to resilience?

Answer 10

• Risk factors are established predictors of undesirable outcomes, where there is evidence suggesting a higher-than-usual probability of a future problem
• Risk factors are often related to one another: risk predicts risk → when one risk factor is measured, there are likely to be a number of other unmeasured risk factors that are also present
• Risk factors may reflect underlying processes that are so fundamental that they undermine more than one aspect of adaptation and development. Normal development requires basic nutrition; malnutrition can produce a broad array of problems in growth, brain development, and cognition
• It is likely that one problem leads to another, so that over time, the same risk factor could account for snowballing problems in multiple domains

Question 11

OM1: In behavioral studies of resilience what are the criteria for judging outcomes?

Answer 11

In behavioral studies of resilience, criteria for judging outcomes focus on positive or negative function in terms of (1) competence or success in age-salient developmental tasks or (2) symptoms of psychopathology

Question 12

OM1: What is the Cascading or Snowball effect?

Answer 12

• Cascading, progressive, or snowball effects generally refer to spreading consequences over time from one domain of function to another, one level of function to another, one system to another, or even one generation to another

Question 13

OM2: What are the models of resilience?

Answer 13

1. Person Focused Studies
   a. Classical Model
   b. Expended Classical Model
2. Variable Focused Studies

Question 14

OM2: What are person-focused studies?

Answer 14

Characterized by the identification of individuals who have a life history suggesting resilience. Their lives are examined for clues to the resources or protective processes that may account for their manifested resilience. The person-focused approach includes single-case studies and aggregated-case studies of passively observed resilience, studies of individuals as they change or respond over time, and research on interventions to produce resilience among individuals at risk for serious adaptation problems → provide powerful and compelling case examples of resilience and capture the configural nature of resilience.

Question 15

OM2: What is the Classical Model of Resilience?

Answer 15

• The classic model of resilience science: high-risk people with a subgroup of people who are doing well or “okay” are identified within the risk group. The resilient subgroup can be compared with the rest of the risk group to search for clues to their resilience → Children of Kauai studies: aggregate studies

Question 16

OM2: What is the Expanded Classical Model?

Answer 16

• The expanded classic model: classifies groups according to both risk/adversity and adjustment/adaptation. Groups are formed by cross-classifying people into categories of risk (e.g. high, medium/mixed, or low on a criterion of risk or adversity) and adaptation (e.g. good, medium/mixed, or poor on the criterion for desired outcome).
• The addition of low-risk groups makes it possible to compare resilient people with people who are doing just as well by the relevant outcome criteria but who have not experienced high risk or adversity. It is also possible to consider people who are not doing well, even though they were not exposed to the risk, a situation that suggests great vulnerability or a non-normal individual. Adding low-risk people into the analysis provides the means to distinguish protective factors or influences that either operate only during threat or become especially important under risky conditions from influences that are good for nearly everyone no matter what life circumstance

Pink = Classical model

Question 17

OM2: What are variable focused models?

Answer 17

Characterized by empirical efforts to examine and statistically test patterns among variables in groups of individuals, linking measured characteristics of people, their relationships, and their environments with their experiences, again with the goal of identifying what matters for resilience and how it works. Variable-focused approaches usually test models linking threats to specific outcomes of interest, taking into account potentially influential attributes or processes in the person, his or her relationships, or interactions with the environment that could account for differential outcomes → better suited to testing specific processes or protective influences for particular aspects of adaptive functioning.

Question 18

OM2: How do variable focused models and person focused models differ and how can they be combined?

Answer 18

• Person-focused approaches consider similarities and differences among people who show resilience compared with those who experience similar adversities and who do not fare as well or those who show similarly positive outcomes but have experienced far less adversity. These contrasts often provide clues to resources or protective processes that may help to explain resilience. The most basic person-focused approach is a case study of a person viewed as resilient; case studies are often highly compelling but lack generalizability. Aggregated case studies move beyond the single case to identify and compare groups of individuals who show good or poor adaptation under high- or low-adversity conditions in an effort to learn about common rather than unique factors that may account for resilience
• Variable-focused methods examine patterns of variation among the characteristics of individuals - their experiences, relationships, and contexts - in search of consistencies that might explain how some people or families or other systems fare so much better than others in the context of risk or adversity. Multivariate statistical strategies can be used to test different models of direct, mediated, and moderating effects, reflecting hypothesized processes of risk or competence promotion, and vulnerability or protection
• Combining person- and variable-focused strategies to gain benefits of both approaches, either by including both strategies or using hybrid models

Question 19

OM2: What are the most common classical resilience models?

Answer 19

Resilience models
- Compensatory or Main Effect Models: includes some combination of risks and assets that contribute directly to positive outcomes
- Mediator Models: risk factor → mediator → positive outcome
- Moderator Models: the possibility of variables that serve to buffer, ameliorate, or in some other way protect children from the full effects of a potential risk factor or adversity

• Two kinds of moderators: one is a risk-activated protective factor, while the other reflects various potential moderators of risk that are not triggered by the threat but nonetheless alter the effects of a risk factor in either direction (worsening or ameliorating the impact of the threat.)
• The risk-activated moderator is analogous to an airbag (protective factor) that is triggered by an accident (the risk factor) and reduces damage (moderates impact)

Question 20

OM3: What is PCLS?

Answer 20

Project Competence Longitudinal Study (PCLS) AKA the Minnesota Study.

Norman Garmezy in collaboration with his colleague Auke Tellegen in the late 1970s. The overarching goal of the Project Competence research was to understand the observable phenomenon of variation in the adaptation of individuals at risk for maladaptation. Resilience was conceptualized, referring to positive adaptation in the context of risk or adversity.

• Hallmarks of the PCLS include the central focus on competence in developmental perspective, the support of the Minneapolis Public Schools for the project, and the study of a normative cohort that varied widely in SES.

Question 21

OM3: What are the findings of the PCLS study?

Answer 21

• Findings from this study support the basic premise that competence begets competence, in that competence in childhood forecasts later competence, both in the same general domain and also in newly emerging domains. Competence was defined in terms of age-salient developmental tasks, such as academic achievement, getting along with peers, rule-governed conduct, and later on in terms of friendship, romantic relationships, work success, and (for those with children) good parenting. results corroborated the multi-dimensional nature of competence over time.
• Personality traits were also broadly associated with competence in multiple domains, with evidence suggesting that a general ability for self-control (emotional,social, motivational) played an important role in life success. domains of competence also showed cascading effects across time, domains, and generations.
• Among the young people who grew up with adversity and high risk due to stressful life experiences or the vicissitudes of poverty, resilience typically was associated with more human and social capital, particularly in the form of good cognitive skills and positive relationships with caregivers or other caring adults.
• Competent young people from high-adversity backgrounds had many of the same advantages as competent youth from low-risk backgrounds, suggesting that there may be basic protections for human development that promote competence in general and have protective effects in the context of adversity.
• Some factors appear to be especially important when adversity is high: good cognitive skills, for example, appear to be protective, whereas a stress-reactive personality appears to be a liability.

Question 22

OM3: What are the varied pathways to resilience?

Answer 22

Studying individuals through time also highlighted the varied pathways of resilience. Some children from adverse backgrounds showed striking competence throughout the study, manifesting a steady course of resilience, while others struggled during adolescence and then recovered to do well. In other words, there were early bloomers and late bloomers. The transition to adulthood appeared to be a window of opportunity for young people who had gotten off track to take a more positive road, often heralded by a change of heart or surge in the motivation to succeed, facilitated by opportunities and adult guides.

Question 23

OM4: What is the role of economic disadvantage in resilience

Answer 23

• A large literature documents the developmental risks across the lifespan associated with poverty, socioeconomic deprivation, homelessness, and/or hunger across many domains of function from health to educational success
• The combination of risk factors for development associated with poverty or low SES (socioeconomic status) suggests that multiple and complex processes likely are involved in any developmental problems associated with SES
• Data also evidence tremendous variation in the shorter- and longer-term outcomes in health and behavior problems associated with economic disadvantages and stressors

Question 24

OM4: What are Executive Function Skills?

Answer 24

As individuals develop, they acquire the skills to direct their capabilities toward achieving goals → self-control skills in terms of self-regulation. Some of these functions occur automatically, out of conscious awareness, while others require voluntary effort.

Voluntary management of one’s own mental and physical capabilities to meet a goal often are referred to as “cognitive control processes” or executive functioning (EF).

EF capabilities depend on integrative neurocognitive processes that develop over time, and most notably on prefrontal processes in the brain. EF encompasses a variety of skills essential to success in everyday life and over the longer term (paying attention, switching attention from one thing to another, suppressing an impulse or automatic response no order to make a preferred or novel response that is more adaptive, keeping multiple rules in mind, inhibiting short-term impulses for long-term gains, making yourself do something boring, etc.). EF skills develop and change over the life course in conjunction with brain development and experiences.

Question 25

OM4: What is the role of homelessness and economic statement to resilience?

Answer 25

• Homelessness in American children is a broad indicator of high cumulative risk to development that is strongly linked with the risks of deep or chronic poverty to health, education, and development
• there is considerable variation among children who fall into this category, regarding the level of risk or adversity in their lives as well as how well the individual child or other members of the family are functioning → many children who move into or out of homelessness do surprisingly well in school and their resilience provides clues to promotive or protective influences (some of these children may simply have more resources and fewer risks than other children experiencing homelessness, others may be actively protected by an effective parent or teacher, while others may be less susceptible biologically to the potential stress or adverse experiences)
• Risks often accumulate in the lives of children and families, this burden often takes a cumulative toll on development, yet there is impressive evidence that outcomes vary among children exposed to similar risks related to poverty and mobility
• Dose matters, and so does the developmental timing of exposures to adversity or deprivation, but resources and protective factors also matter → children with more effective parents and other stable, caring relationships fare better, as do children with better cognitive and self-regulation skills and opportunities to attend good early childhood programs and schools
• Successful interventions appear to effectively address exposure and stress, as well as resources and protections

Question 26

OM5: What is the Buffalo Creek Disaster and its adverse effects?

Answer 26

The Buffalo Creek Disaster occurred on February 26, 1972, in Logan County, West Virginia. A coal slurry impoundment dam failed, releasing 132 million gallons of waste water. This flood killed 125 people, injured over 1,100, and left more than 4,000 homeless

Buffalo Creek disaster: dose effects were observed, with young people exposed to greater death and devastation showing more symptoms. Anxiety and trauma symptoms, such as fearfulness, nightmares, or jumpiness, were particularly salient, and anxiety symptoms forecasted more lasting effects. Girls generally were rated higher on anxiety symptoms, whereas boys were rated higher on aggressive-disruptive behavior, or “belligerence”.

Question 27

OM5: What is the australian bushfire and its adverse effects?

Answer 27

The Ash Wednesday bushfires occurred on February 16, 1983, in Victoria and South Australia. These fires were among the most devastating in Australian history, with over 180 fires ignited by hot winds and extreme drought conditions. The fires resulted in the deaths of 75 people and the destruction of more than 3,700 buildings

The fires were fueled by dry conditions and strong winds, making containment efforts extremely difficult

separation from mothers and maternal symptoms were more important predictors of child well-being than dose itself, underscoring (emphasizing) the protective effect of proximity to attachment figures in terrifying situations. On the whole, this study suggests that resilience is normative

Question 28

Explain cumalitive risk in the context of mass trauma?

Answer 28

• Evidence shows that there is generally higher risk for symptoms, suffering, and other consequences of mass trauma when children are exposed with greater frequency or intensity and there is a piling up of severely threatening or traumatic experiences
• Considering the context of ongoing or new adversities that may precede or follow a specific disaster or acute traumatic exposure
• Combined effects of this kind can be viewed as dose effects or as evidence of sensitization to trauma triggered by earlier exposures
• Time may not “heal all wounds” but dose effects often diminish with time → long-term follow-ups of major disaster suggest that recovery is normative, although there often are lingering effects for some individuals

Question 29

OM5: What is the effect of disaster path, epicenter or indiscriminate disasters?

Answer 29

• In disasters with clear paths of destruction, literal distance from areas of the greatest devastation can serve as a proxy for exposure. In situations without a single epicenter or path of destruction, assessments of severity and number of traumatic experiences are often utilized to index the degree of exposure, tallying exposure to specific adverse experiences such as rape, loss of loved ones, torture, or witnessing death.
• Psychological proximity also shows dose effects, where the closeness of relationships and identification with victims of a catastrophe or perceived danger to self and loved ones is associated with greater effects on survivors. Emotional proximity can have more effects than physical proximity

Question 30

OM5: What is the role of Media Exposure in crises?

Answer 30

Exposure through media can be extensive during and following a crisis and there are dose effects related to media exposure. Media exposure has the potential to be monitored and moderated by parents, teachers, producers and broadcasters, individuals, and societies, in ways that direct exposure to disaster cannot be controlled.

Question 31

OM5: What are the determinants of dose?

Answer 31

Dose matters, so it is important to consider the determinants of exposure dose. “Subjective dose” refers to variations in individual sensitivity to the same experiences. For children, two of the most widely observed determinants of exposure in mass trauma situations are age and sex. In disasters and war, older children often have higher exposure. They understand more about what is happening, they have more freedom of movement, greater media exposure, and they are called on to help or get involved more than younger children.

Analyzed data from a Developmental Victimization Survey (Becker-Blease, Turner, Finkelhor, 2010) shows that age was associated with reports of higher exposure to disasters, both within each age group (ages 2-9 and ages 10-17) and across the two groups. Sex has a complex relation to exposure. Males and females may experience different events, be more or less likely to report them when they happen, or interpret them differently, and they may also experience different treatment or stigma as a result of similar experiences.

Question 32

OM5: What are the Exposure Processes regarding disaster?

Answer 32

There are many exposure pathways by which disaster and war experiences could affect child function and development, including direct injuries and starvation; radiation poisoning and contaminated water; and the psychological stress of witnessing death, torture, or destruction; experiencing threats of death or injury; and loss of caregivers, siblings, friends, or pets. Indirect pathways include the effects of severe trauma on parents and other loved ones and the impact of destroyed communities, school, or opportunities on the life course.

Question 33

What are the factors determening impact of disaster?

Answer 33

• Dose and developmental timing matter, as do individual differences in sex, personality, and cognitive tools. Context matters, in terms of family, friends, community, culture, and the conditions for recovery
• -

Question 34

OM5: Why do disasters have impact on development?

Answer 34

• When major protective systems are destroyed - parents are killed, the brain is injured or deprived of essential nutrients and learning opportunities, friends are lost, the fabric of community is torn, faith and hope are extinguished by atrocities - children do not function or develop well
• If major protective systems are sustained or restored, many children show recovery, especially over the long term, although there can be lifelong or intergenerational consequences of prolonged or extreme trauma exposure → it is essential in the aftermath of disaster or war to protect or restore the adaptive systems that protect and promote child development

Question 35

OM6: What is The “Short List” of Widely Reported Factors Associated with Resilience in Young People and Implicated Adaptive Systems

Answer 35

Question 36

OM6: What is the Short List on resilience factors and adaptive systems about?

Answer 36

Resilience in young people is associated with a set of attributes of child, context, or their relationships that turn out to be well-established general predictors of positive development.

The short list looks like the factors associated with good development in general, fundamental adaptive systems (the product of biological and cultural evolution) that protect human development under many different circumstances. The short list reflects the focus of initial waves of resilience science by developmental investigators, and particularly the work of social scientists.

Question 37

What is Attachement Theory?

Answer 37

During the latter part of the first year, human infants form a special bond with the primary caregiver (and other caregivers to a lesser degree) that serves the functions of safety, emotional security, and learning. This organized relationship is typically bidirectional, reflecting an organized pattern of behavior between the caregiver and the infant. Once the attachment system organizes in a caregiver-child pair, then a threat perceived by either party can activate the system and trigger attachment behaviors. A frightened child will cry and/or seek contact/proximity to the caregiver for comfort. The attached caregiver perceiving a threat will seek proximity to the child and attempt to soothe or comfort the child. In contrast when the world is perceived as safe, a child will venture out to explore and the caregiver will allow the exploration without anxiety.

The attachment system is associated with strong motivation and emotions. Attachment plays a lifelong role in human adaptation, the proclivity of humans and other species that show attachment to bond is so fundamental that they may show such bonds across species, with objects, with homes, etc. Over the course of development, the balance in attachment relationships shifts.

Question 38

OM6: What are Self Regulation skills?

Answer 38

Self-regulation skills, including self-management of attention, arousal, emotions, and actions play a central role in human adaptation, development, and resilience. Developmentally appropriate self-regulation skills are associated with both concurrent adjustment (competence in developmental task domains and fewer mental health problems) and future adjustment. Individuals who may be more reactive to adversity may need effective internal and external sources of self-regulation to retain or recover good function. Self-regulation capacity includes an array of skills and adaptive systems that develop and fluctuate over the lifecourse.

Question 39

OM6: What is the role of EF skills in resilience?

Answer 39

• EF skills appear to be a key protective influence for high-risk children, enabling them to succeed in a context of severe adversity or poverty
• Long-term longitudinal evidence emphasizes the significance of early emerging evidence of self-regulation skills for later competence and adjustment
• Caregivers and other socializing agents, including extended family and teachers, play critical roles in the early development of self-regulation
• In attachment theory, effective caregivers shape the development of self-regulation through their sensitivity, responsiveness, monitoring, and co-regulation efforts
• Development of self-regulation skills accelerates during the preschool years, but continues well into early adulthood. The most advanced EF skills, such as self-reflection, evaluating one’s own life, and planning for the future, may require that the neural systems supporting self-control are quite mature, which happens fairly late in brain development → the phenomenon of “late bloomers” in resilience may reflect this late surge of capacity for self-reflection and planning, combined with opportunities that societies may offer for finding a new path in the transition to adulthood. Thus, while preschool years offer an important window of opportunity for the development of self-control skills, there may be later windows for redirecting the life course that are tired to later-emerging cognitive capabilities and opportunities

Question 40

OM6: What is Effectance?

Answer 40

• There is a biological predisposition to engage with the environment in ways that promote learning and adaptation → Robert White (1959) termed the motivation effectance and the experienced feelings of satisfaction associated with perceived accomplishment related to this motivation system efficacy. Experiencing pleasure in mastery functioned to reward efforts to achieve successful interactions with the environment

Question 41

OM6: What is Self-Efficacy and its role in resilience?

Answer 41

• Albert Bandura: Self-Efficacy → Bandura proposed that the striving for competence was motivated by “the various benefits of competent action”, shaped by learning opportunities and efficacy beliefs that develop over time
• Agency and related effort to exert control in one’s life are motivated by anticipated benefits rather than an intrinsic or inborn drive for mastery. These beliefs emerge and develop through experience . Self, self-efficacy beliefs, and a sense of agency are all socially and cognitively constructed through interactions with the environment

Question 42

OM6: What is the role of temperament and personality in shaping resilience?

Answer 42

Individual differences in temperament or personality might play a role in adaptive behavior. Studies showed that an appealing, agreeable, or easy-going personality or temperament was often (though not always) associated with resilience, whereas stress reactivity or negative emotionality (neuroticism) appeared to convey vulnerability in highly adverse circumstances. Resilient children were also described as more cooperative, having a positive outlook on life, high self-confidence or self-efficacy, an internal locus of control, and/or more emotional stability. Many of these personality characteristics have been linked to competence under low adversity as well (promotive functions).

• A short list of promotive or protective factors often associated with good or better adaptation in conditions of high risk or adversity suggests that there are fundamental adaptive systems that protect human development or promote resilience under widely varying circumstances. These powerful systems afford the capacity for close relationships, self-regulation, problem solving, learning, motivation to adapt, persistence, keeping faith or hope and making meaning of life, and keeping a sense of perspective
• Each of these systems operates in constant interaction with many other systems in human life, both within the organism and in interaction with the environment

Question 43

OM6: What is the role of Micro and Macrosystems that support resilience?

Answer 43

The individual develops in continual interaction with the environment, including the family system, sociocultural systems, and the physical environment. The genotype of the individual may not change much at all (barring mutagenic exposures) but the active genotype appears to be highly and variably responsive to experience. The interaction of the organism at many levels (including molecular, neural, and behavioral) is altered by interaction with all aspects of the environment, and these changes can be highly dependent on timing of exposure.

**Adaptive systems
**- Microsystem: smallest system, personal relationships
- Mesosystem: relationships between those people in the microsystem (teachers and parents for instance)
- Exosystem: involving the other things that could indirectly influence a child (workplace of the father, hospital, neighbors)
- Macrosystem: all the wider societal influences (systemic racism, public policy)
- Chronosystem: the time, in development and in terms of 1950s vs. now for instance
All these different systems are thought to be interrelated and therefore need to be integrated when looking at what matters for resilient functioning

Question 44

OM7: What is the neurobiological process of attachement?

Answer 44

Attachment was conceptualized as a naturally selected biological system by Bowlby and many other scientists who have expanded theory and empirical evidence on this adaptive system.

Animal models played a key role in the research on attachment from an early point in history, with many mammals serving as models of the development and biological underpinnings of attachment behaviors, as well as models of depression and other problems related to disrupted attachment, maltreatment, or deprivation

Research on maternal licking behavior and the development of rat pups (Meaney) has played a seminal role in recent research on gene expression, epigenetic processes, stress biology, and the protective effects of maternal care on development over the lifespan and into the next generation.

The quality of care experienced, in combination with individual differences in the biological makeup of the individual (monkey, rat, or person), has the potential to alter gene expression, with lasting effects on the organization and the function of the stress response system, risks for mental and physical health, and brain development, in great ways

Question 45

OM7: What are the implactions beyond attachement in the neurobiological attachement theory?

Answer 45

• The rat model also suggests that developmental timing of parenting experiences are important (lasting effects when it occurs during a specific early window of development), yet the stability of such epigenetic changes does not mean that later change, even in adulthood, is impossible. The experience of good mothering for rat pups also is associated with better learning later in development, at least in low-stress environments
• Analysis of the promotive and protective effects of caregiving and the attachment bond that accompanies this care: Rhesus and other macaque monkeys → normally form strong attachment bonds to their mothers, with both partners maintaining close proximity during early life. Rhesus monkeys deprived of maternal care or reared with peers during important periods of early development develop a multitude of problems, including poor social skills and dysfunctional biological stress-regulation systems. Primates also vary in temperament, with some monkeys inclined to be more outgoing and bold, while others are fearful and anxious. However, when monkeys bred for fearfulness and high-stress reactivity are cross-fostered for rearing by experienced and highly effective mothers, they develop normal competence and adaptive function.
• Good parenting could have a protective function for offspring that have a biological vulnerability conveyed by genetic risk or temperamental variation
• Oxytocin and vasopressin facilitate social engagement and appear to work together. It is suggested that the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a key role in reciprocal attachment bonds in addition to its well-known roles in birth and lactation, moreover it is argued that oxytocin is involved in adaptation to stress in various ways, facilitating protective forms of social engagement, neurogenesis and tissue repair, and other adaptive responses. Evidence suggests that oxytocin moderates the protective effects of social support during stress exposure

Question 46

OM7: What is the Neurobiology of Adaptive Thinking and Problem Solving?

Answer 46

• Adaptive thinking depends on brain development and function, which depends on many other aspects of biological function and development
• Toxic stress impedes cognitive development. Deprivation of essential nutrients or interactions with a stable caregiver or learning opportunities all have profoundly negative effects on the development of adaptive cognitive capacity
• For example, if the level of glucocorticoid hormones involved in the biological stress regulation remains too high for too long, brain structure and function can be affected, with many consequences for development
  -** The hippocampus, involved in many aspects of cognition, including memory, is especially susceptible to harm from high levels of unmitigated stress (thus, a young child who is unprotected from stress by an effective parent or, worse, assaulted with stress by an abusive parent is at risk for suffering cognitive consequences to learning and intellectual capacity**
• School is coming to be viewed as a “neurocognitive-developmental institution” → evidence grows that exposure to schooling changes cognitive function in ways that can be measured through imaging and other neuroscience methods

Question 47

OM7: What is the role of EF and Self-regulation?

Answer 47

Executive Functioning = EF

EF improves as brain functions involving the prefrontal cortex develop, but it also improves with educational experience, practice, and training. These improvements can be linked with observable changes in neural structure and function that can be assessed by various brain-imaging techniques.

Self-regulation in the context of high arousal or emotion, sometimes referred toas “hot cognition” or “hot EF”, holds particular interest for understanding resilience because threats and adversities typically elicit strong emotions or high arousal levels that galvanize (shock and put into action) multiple response systems. Emotional arousal itself can be viewed as adaptive in readying the organism to fight or flee (either away from danger and/or to safety of the attachment figure). However, intense emotion or arousal can interfere with adaptive thinking and action at levels well past the peak of the Yerkes-Dodson performance-arousal curve (the Yerkes-Dodson law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point). Tasks designed to be “hot” appear to engage different brain circuits, including the orbitofrontal cortex. Adaptive behavior in high-stakes situations likely requires the coordination and management of numerous systems simultaneously.

Question 48

OM7: What are the two stress-regulation systems?

Answer 48

• There are two major stress-regulation systems, both involving the adrenal gland and the central nervous system
• The autonomic sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system is associated with rapid preparation of the body for “fight” or “flight” through the effects of circulating epinephrine. This is a fundamentally adaptive system, which can be maladaptive if it is triggered at the wrong time or by misperceived threats.
• The HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; the main stress response system → the neuroendocrine link between perceived stress and physiological reactions to stress) is a slower-acting system associated with production and regulation of glucocorticoids, hormones that influence gene transcription at receptor sites in cells in the human brain and body
• The complex effects of the HPA system may afford protection from stressors in the short term but can have deleterious effects on brain function and development if they are prolonged, as they might be with chronic stress

Question 49

OM7: What is Stress Regulation?

Answer 49

A “symphony” of processes is involved in stress regulation, serving to maintain homeostasis (balance) or return the organism to healthy function across many biological systems following disturbances. The adaptive processes that help regulate homeostasis have been described as “allostasis”, however, allostasis in the service of maintaining essential aspects of homeostasis can take a toll on the body, a kind of cumulative “wear and tear” → allostatic load. Individuals vary in their capacity for minimizing or reducing allostatic load, which can be viewed as a biological form of resilience.

Question 50

OM7: What is the result of high cortisel levels?

Answer 50

• High levels of cortisol are not good for brain development, and the brain sometimes appears to down regulate or turn down the reactivity of this system if there continues to be too much cortisol detected for too long. Studies of prolonged trauma in the context of child maltreatment or war described previously suggest that some individuals become hyporesponsive to stress, which may serve the adaptive function of protecting neural function and development, despite the potential cost of failing to respond to actual threats

Question 51

OM7: How can the HPA system be affected?

Answer 51

• Disrupting the quality of care can produce dysfunction in the HPA system, whereas interventions to provide or restore effective care can restore or improve HPA function
• In human children, positive attachment relationships have been shown to buffer physiological stress responses in research on mild stressors
• Maltreated children generally have an elevated risk for dysregulated HPA function. Adults who were maltreated as children show other possible indications of lingering stress-related effects as well (one is shorter telomere length, which may be a sign of cellular aging related to early stress exposure and allostatic load)

Question 52

OM7: What is the importance of flexibility in stress respone?

Answer 52

Flexible stress response is an important sign of adaptive capacity, inflexible stress response patterns may be both inefficient and maladaptive and thus particularly problematic for development

Question 53

OM7: What is Active Coping?

Answer 53

Active Coping is done to Regulate Stress

Coping includes active strategies such as problem solving and seeking support, as well as accommodating strategies such as minimizing pain, self-encouragement or self-distraction, all which can be adaptive for managing pain or illness or the fears, stress, and anxieties that accompany severe adversities. Passive coping strategies include avoidance or disengagement, which is generally not found to be as effective as a coping strategy in the context of chronic illnesses.

Question 54

OM7: What is the role of Reward Systems?

Answer 54

Reward systems
Powerful reward systems play a role in motivating efforts to adapt and persist in the face of challenges. Positive emotions or pleasure experienced in the context of exercising agency or successfully solving a problem have reinforcing effects on effort, expectations of success, perceived efficacy, and the motivation to keep trying to adapt. Activation of the dopaminergic reward system, involving circuits in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, among others, is linked to humor, optimism, and a numerous other aspects of positive emotion and motivation associated with resilience. Dopamine release is associated with exploratory behavior, motivation, and learning about rewards and appears to play a central role in the Big Five trait of “openness to experience”.

Question 55

OM7: What is biological sensitivity to context and differential suspectability?

Answer 55

One of the most provocative areas of research in the “fourth wave” focused on the variability observed in responsiveness to experience, including both adverse and positive experiences. In discussions of brain function or development, this variability is described in terms of varying “plasticity”, referring to the capacity for change in brain structure or function contingent on experience. The functional significance of the attribute or state of the organism depends on the nature of experiences or context. General sensitivity could be advantageous in a favorable environment or disadvantageous in a negative context, the same characteristic could pose vulnerability during periods of adversity and a protective influence when the environment improves, either naturally or through intervention. However, it is also possible that there are individual differences that consistently relate to sensitivity for only positive features of the context or sensitivity exclusively for negative experiences. The same attribute could be protective for one outcome and risky for another, or change in function from one period of development to another, or vary in its functional significance from one culture to another.

Question 56

OM8: What are Epigenetics?

Answer 56

Epigenetics is the study of how genes are turned on or off without changing the DNA sequence itself. It looks at how environmental factors, like diet or stress, can affect gene expression and potentially be passed down to future generations.

Question 57

OM8: What is Genetic Risk?

Answer 57

Genetic risk and vulnerability is one of the fundamental ways that families convey hazards to their biological children. Children of parents with partially heritable mental health problems may face a kind of double jeopardy, when genetic vulnerability or sensitivity to experience is combined with stressful experiences or poor parenting related to their parents’ problems. They may also be exposed to developmentally toxic levels of stress or drugs during fetal development as a result of parental stress or substance abuse.

Genetically vulnerable or sensitive children may develop into healthy and adaptive adults under more favorable conditions. These processes of biological and experiential risk and protection in family systems, including intergenerational transmission of risk or vulnerability, are the focus of attention in the fourth-wave studies of resilience.

Question 58

OM8: What is the role of parenting quality?

Answer 58

• Children are threatened when adversities harm family function, and especially the quality of parenting. Many risks for children are mediated by family or parent function

Question 59

OM8: What is Conger’s Family Stress Model?

Answer 59

• Conger: family stress model (to account for the effects of economic deprivation on children through their effects on the parents in these families → in the model, economic hardship and deprivation generate persistent strains and pressures that influence the emotions and function of the family, interfering with parental effectiveness and contributing to child problems

Question 60

OM8: What is the role of disasters on parental functioning

Answer 60

• Disasters, war, and terrorism can cause death and irreparable harm to families, as well as overwhelming stress that could undermine parental function

Question 61

OM8: What is the role of interparental conflict?

Answer 61

• Interparental conflict; conflict predicts child adjustment problems over time in multiple domains. Unresolved anger and conflict, in particular, appear to distress children → studies of divorce

It is the greatest direct threat to children is neglect or child maltreatment, particularly when the source is the primary attachment figure

Question 62

OM8: What forms of risk factors lead to maltreatment?

Answer 62

• Maltreatment typically occurs in a context of repeated and mixed forms and also in the context of many other risk factors for child development, including poverty and interparental conflict, unsafe neighborhoods, and inadequate nutrition and health care → the complexity of the cumulative risk makes it very difficult to isolate the nature of unique risks posed by specific forms of maltreatment and processes involved. The intensity and duration of maltreatment may often create a situation of overwhelming stress associated with potentially toxic and persisting effects on brain development and adaptive function. Memory and cognitive development can be disturbed

Question 63

OM8: What is the role of Maltreatment and Neglect in shaping a childs life?

Answer 63

• Maltreatment not only causes immediate physical and emotional harm, but also disturbs the development of major adaptive systems that promote competence and resilience, including cognitive skills, the stress response systems, and the capacity for close and secure relationships
• Neglect is harmful. Adequate care is essential for brain development and acquiring the skills for learning and adaptation. Sometimes neglect is a by-product of mental health problems or illness in parents who become functionally disabled

Question 64

OM8: What is competance and resilience of the family as a system?

Answer 64

• Family Systems Theory:
  
  • Focuses on family cohesion (closeness) and flexibility (adaptability).
  • Families have roles, rules, and routines to maintain balance and growth.
  • Routines and rituals help maintain family stability.
  • Family members interact and influence each other.
• Parental Roles and Child Development:
  
  • Parents socialize children for cultural and societal norms.
  • Parents help children develop self-regulation through coregulation.
  • Authoritative parenting style is linked to child competence.
  • Authoritative parents balance warmth, structure, and expectations.

Question 65

OM8: What is the Families role in promoting resilience?

Answer 65

• Parental Role in Child Safety:
  
  • Parents are biologically driven to protect children from harm.
  • Parents monitor dangers and take action to mitigate risks.
  • Some exposure to adversity is necessary for healthy development.
  • Adversity can promote resilience and adaptability.
  • Resilient families are better equipped to protect and promote child resilience.

Question 66

OM9: What is the role of schools in shaping resilience?

Answer 66

• Schools play vitally important roles in child development and resilience, charged with many aspects of nurturing human development, which includes building capacities for success in society
• Schools are instrumental in fostering many of the adaptive systems that have been implicated for resilience capacity, including cognitive skills, self-regulation skills, mastery motivation, and relationships with competent, prosocial adults and peers
• Schools can compensate to some degree for deprivation in the home context by providing extra nutrition adult guidance, attachment relationships, monitoring, and access to health care

Question 67

OM9: What are resilient schools?

Answer 67

• Resilient schools; schools that succeed in very difficult situations, such as schools with high-achieving children in high-risk neighborhoods where many schools fail, or schools that recover well from disasters. Effective and resilient schools share many of the qualities identified in healthy or resilient families, such as warmth, structure, routines, strong leadership, and high expectations
• Schools are a major context for interventions to promote resilience, it is an accessible and familiar context for children and parents where extra resources can be provided and programs can be located
• The goals of schools overlap to a large degree with the goals of programs aiming to promote resilience, because education is centered on building competence and adaptive skills that are fundamental to resilience capacity as well as success in developmental tasks
• Schools are a context where many of the most influential systems and people for human development intersect or interact. Schools are organizations that shape and are shaped by their constituent students, their families, the community, and society. As a result, schools have the potential to play a variety of roles in the development of capacity for resilience in individual students and the larger society

Question 68

OM9: How can schools promote resilience?

Answer 68

• How schools promote resilience: human capital development, nutrition and health care, relationships with competent and caring adults, motivation and self-efficacy, extracurricular activities
• School-based interventions to promote resilience: strength-based school counseling, after-school programs, prevention programs, preschool prevention programs, promoting resilience in teachers, disaster and emergency planning

Question 69

OM10: What are the differences between resilience in different cultures?

Answer 69

Resilience across cultures
Evidence drawn from diverse studies across cultures and communities of resilience in war and disaster consistently points to the importance of attachment figures, problem-solving skills, and hope or faith, among other commonly identified protective factors. These studies underscore culturally-based differences in risk and resilience, such as the stigma attached to rape of child soldiers for girls compared with boys in Sierra Leone (Betancourt).Generally speaking, the differences across these investigations, in methods and situations, as well as cultural context, tend to highlight general similarities across context, rather than differences. Another approach to the study of resilience in multiple cultures is to set up a large-scale, cross-cultural study through a collaboration of investigators and try to identify similarities and differences using the same methods in multiple contexts. The goal of The International Resilience Project and subsequent Pathways to Resilience Project was to understand globally general and contextually specific features of resilience and related adaptive processes across cultures. Their methods included qualitative interview methods along with quantitative assessments using their new measure of resilience.

Question 70

OM10: What is the risk of culture, religion and spirituality?

Answer 70

Culture can serve as a source of risk and adversity as well as protection and resilience. Clashes of cultural values can impose tremendous stress and pressure on young people navigating multicultural worlds. “Acculturation stress” can arise from the perceived difficulties of dealing with cultural differences. Culture clashes play a huge role in war and ethnic conflicts that impose overwhelming trauma on children. Horrifying atrocities have been committed in the name of religion for centuries. Betrayal by trusted adults can have worse repercussions than abuse by a total stranger, in part because of the violation of trust. Needs for belonging, attachment, structure, and meaning can also be exploited by gang leaders. Children who feel unsafe, persecuted, and neglected by family or the larger culture may seek refuge or comfort in a countercultural group or antisocial gang.

Question 71

OM10: How are developmental tasks influence by culture?

Answer 71

Expectations about what it means to do well in life are deeply influenced by culture. The expected language or rules to be learned will differ by cultural context. Survival of children depends to some degree on acceptance, support, and investment of the community, it can be essential for children to conform to community expectations and definitions of good behavior. For young people who live in contexts where they will face racial or ethnic discrimination, racial or ethnic socialization may be an important protective strategy of parents. Racial-ethnic socialization is a broad concept that encompasses a variety of messages, methods, and goals by which parents prepare children for life as a racial- or ethnic-minority member in society. Parents may teach their children to take pride in their heritage and culture, while at the same time prepare them to deal with prejudice, bias, or barriers to opportunity. Evidence is mixed, but a number of studies suggest that such training has protective effects on identity, competence, and well-being in minority youth.

Question 72

OM10: What is the immigrant paradox?

Answer 72

• The Immigrant Paradox:
  
  • First-generation immigrant youth often exhibit better outcomes, such as higher academic achievement, improved health, and enhanced psychological well-being, compared to later generations.
  • Potential Explanations:
    
    • Selection Effect: First-generation immigrants may possess unique qualities, like resilience, resourcefulness, and strong work ethic, that contribute to their success. These traits might be more prevalent among those who voluntarily migrate, as they often overcome significant challenges to reach their destination.
    • Cultural Influence: The strong cultural values and practices that first-generation immigrants bring with them can positively impact their lives. These cultural factors may promote behaviors that are beneficial for health, education, and overall well-being. However, as generations pass, cultural values may dilute, potentially leading to a decline in positive outcomes.
    • Biculturalism: Maintaining strong ties to both the original culture and the new culture can be advantageous. Bicultural individuals may benefit from the best of both worlds, drawing on the strengths of both cultures to navigate challenges and achieve success.

Question 73

OM10: What makes the immigrant paradox a paradox?

Answer 73

The paradox lies in the fact that first-generation immigrants often outperform later generations despite facing greater adversity, such as language barriers, cultural differences, and socioeconomic challenges. It seems counterintuitive that individuals who experience more hardship would have better outcomes than those who have had more time to acclimate to the new culture.

Question 74

OM10: What is a Cultural Niche?

Answer 74

• “Cultural niche”; reflect integrative conceptualizations for understanding how cultural goals, beliefs, scripts, and routines, often implemented by parents, influence daily life and thereby child socialization and development. The idea of developmental niche encompasses physical and social settings, customs and practices of child care, and the “caretaker psychology” or the theories of parents about what is important for children and rearing them appropriately

Question 75

OM11: What is the Resilience Framework for Action?

Answer 75

The resilience framework for action emphasizes positive perspective with respect to five components:

1. Mission: Frame positive goals
2. Models: Include strengths, resources, positive outcomes, and adaptive processes
3. Measures: Assess strengths, resources, positive outcomes and adaptive processes
4. Methods: Reduce or mitigate risk, boost resources and adaptive capacity, and mobilize adaptive systems
5. Multiple systems: Consider possibilities at multiple levels with expertise from multiple disciplines

The best leverage for positive change might be at the level of individual behavior or it might be at the level of biology within the individual, or at the level of parent-child interaction and other aspects of family system function. The leverage for change could be at the level of school system, culture, or national policy, or some combination of multiple system levels.
Strategic timing is important in this framework, because developing human systems go through periods when the individual, family, or community is more open to change. Early developmental timing may be particularly important because so many of the most fundamental adaptive systems in a human individual are programmed and organized early in development. Nonetheless, there are many other windows of opportunity for change, some developmentally based and some triggered by changes in context or by crisis itself.

Question 76

OM12: What are the most important conclusions on resilience?

Answer 76

1. Resilience is common
2. Resilience depends on a multitude of ordinary adaptive systems
3. Adaptive systems can be hijacked.
4. There are many paths to resilience
5. Developmental timing matters
6. Resilience can be promoted

Question 77

OM12: How can adaptive systems be hijacked?

Answer 77

The adaptive systems can be “hijacked” or diverted for purposes and goals that others could judge as negative or evil. Adaptive systems can be directed in ways that would not result in outcomes approved of by parents, communities, or societies. Some young people flounder because they do not have adequate capacity to overcome the challenges facing them, others have the capabilities for overcoming adversity but they have chosen to go down a path or adopt goals at odds with those of their families or communities.