"For decades, resilience was painted as a kind of inner strength, a trait that some people were lucky enough to have. As the science has evolved, we know resilience is about adapting, growing, and sometimes even thriving amid stress, trauma, and hardship. And that ability doesn't come from sheer willpower. It's built over time, shaped by relationships, environments, and biology."
"At first, people assumed these children had unique traits such as intelligence, motivation, or charisma. But as more data rolled in, that narrative started to shift. Psychologist Ann Masten helped lead that transformation, showing that resilience wasn't a special trait at all. It was the result of ordinary but powerful protective systems, things like strong relationships, self-regulation, and stable routines."
Resilience in children reflects adaptive processes that develop through relationships, self-regulation, routines, and supportive environments rather than an innate trait. Early observations showed some children in high-risk contexts fared unexpectedly well, which shifted focus from individual characteristics to protective systems. Contemporary science frames resilience as systemic and dynamic, woven across biology, family, school, and community systems, and varying over time and context. Effective resilience requires nurturing ordinary capacities, stable caregiving, and environments that reduce structural risks. Future resilience science needs to incorporate structural and contextual sources of risk and focus on systems-level interventions alongside individual strengths.
Read at Psychology Today
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