Resilience

Building resilience is a major issue nowadays with mental health issues among children being so prevalent, or awareness of the negative effects of mental health problems being so much more than in the past.

Though resilience is a significant factor in poor socio-economic groups it should not be taken forgranted in wealthy schools or rich students. To understand this it is necessary to look at the high risk working class schools and the analysis made of students in these more extreme circumstances of student hardship. Similar circumstances can arise in high socio-economic groups if certain fundamental protective factors are not incorporated into education. UOCA's education system will ensure these protective factors are there for all.

Resiliency’s roots are in children who successfully coped with biological and psychological risk factors. Protective factors that aid in the recovery of troubled children and youths when they get to adulthood are also a part of resiliency. In a nutshell resiliency is “the process of, capacity for, or the outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances.” (Masten, Best and Garmezy (1990)).

A very important study which sums up resilience to a great extent was conducted by Emmy Werner on the Kauai community in Hawaii and stretched longitudinally over 30 years. One third of a group were designated as high risk children because they were born into poverty, lived in troubled environment in the family due to alcoholism, chronic discord or mental illness (Werner and Smith 1992). Two thirds of these vulnerable children developed serious learning or behavioural problems by age 10 and by 18 had mental health or delinquency problems. It was noted that the resilient children from an early age were given positive attention by their family and much affection. As toddlers they had a positive social orientation and sought out novel experiences. In primary school they showed many interests, and engaged in a lot of activities not gender specific, they also got along better with other students and showed higher reasoning. In high school they had developed a positive self concept and internal locus of control. They were assertive, independent, achievement orientated and responsible.

The study found that few of the resilient children had experienced long separations from their primary caregiver, that they received plenty of positive attention and had positive role models in adults. Also structure, rules and assigned chores on a daily basis was a factor in resilient children. Emotional support outside their family in the form of close friends, a network of kin or elders and teachers built resiliency. Participation in extracurricular activities at school or through youth and church groups was noted amongst resilient children. This may be because it gave them more meaning and control over their fate.

The resilient children by their mid 30s had grown up into adults who in education and vocation had exceeded other high risk children and equalled the affluent low risk group. The presence of an intact family unit in childhood was found to be a major protective factor in the lives of delinquents. Five out of six delinquents went on to commit crimes as adults came from homes where one parent was absent for prolonged periods. Enlistment in the military and marriage seemed to act as a protective factor for young delinquent adults. Interestingly only one out of six troubled youth had serious coping problems by mid 30s and of the ones that had seen through their troubles a significant minority had developed resilience through fundamentalist Christianity. It may be that the rigid moral structure provided a protective factor in dealing with some of their mental confusion in the world.

Werner (p.452) analysed resilience into clusters of protective factors that led high risk children into successful adaptation in adult life. First were “temperamental characteristics of the individual that helped him or her to elicit positive responses from a variety of caring persons”. Second was development of skills and values allowing efficient use of abilities, which could be chores to realistic vocation plans. Third was caregiving styles of parents that fostered self esteem and reflected competence. Fourth were adults who “fostered trust and acted as gatekeepers to the future”, this included church and teachers. Fifth were major life transitions, such as leaving school, getting a job, adult education, national service, religion, marriage, all of which could act as major protective factors. Glantz (1999 Ch.9) emphasises self esteem, spirituality and moral reasoning as assisting resilience.

Werner (p.452) sums up that high risk children who have overcome childhood adversity “their individual dispositions led them to select or construct environments that in turn reinforced and sustained their active, outgoing dispositions and rewarded their competencies. In spite of occasional deviations during transitional periods such as adolescence, their life trajectories revealed cumulative interactional continuity.”

Parental educational level was linked to child’s scholastic competence, problem solving and reading level and as a result can be seen as a protective factor. Interestingly many high risk resilient children left the troubled environment they came from as soon as they could and moved into more stable and affluent areas thus by positive association they protected themselves (Scarr and McCartney, 1983).

My personal stance is that resilience is learned and depends very much on the environmental circumstances a child is brought up in, furthermore intervention programs can have a huge impact on developing resilience even in high risk children and so drastically altering their lives. It appears nurturing and role models in early years backed up by structure, responsibility and community involvement later develop the best protective factors in people. This conclusion is largely supported by the empirical research of Werner (?). However Kim-Cohen et al (2004 p.664) would disagree as a result of his extensive study of twins which he suggests show resilience is partly heritable and that positive adaptive capacities run in families. They do add that a stimulating learning environment can strongly influence cognitive resilience and intellectual development. Deveson (2003 p.50) quotes a pre-school program that aimed at maximum interaction and stimulation where ongoing assessments showed at the age of 27 only 7% needed mental health treatment compared to 40% in the control group.

Research has shown that the experiences of the first 10 years of life have the greatest impact on adult life. Resilience is an important issue in schools as up to 25% of students suffer from depression or other mental illness. Child suicide, especially amongst boys has only recently peaked and is now declining largely due to the increased awareness of mental health. Drug, alcohol use and sexual relations are common and often are the result of an inability to deal with emotional problems caused by peer group pressure - a lack of resilience.

Lack of resilience is often connected to low socio-economic status, poor nurturing at home, lack of stimulating learning environment, lack of close loving relationships. Improving these circumstances can build resilience.

RISK FACTORS that can make a child feel disconnected from their school and so vulnerable are poor social skills, mental problems, learning difficulties particularly reading, parents neglectful or abuse, tragic event, poverty, poor prior education, bullying, ethnic differences, no adult role model, not involved in extracurricular activities, no central core of values developed (Haggerty 1994 p.161 – looking at black students at risk).

The implications for teachers in the classroom are that there are definite steps that can be taken to help build student resilience. This is obviously vital in ensuring high risk children have the best chance of succeeding. For instance with a depressed and withdrawn student by being more friendly to the student, creating a playful less threatening environment, integrating student with the class, putting in groups to build relationships (inquiry and discovery activities that stimulate the intellect while encouraging group cooperation), ask student to do other school/community activities where values such as service and responsibility are developed (involvement in the church so developing faith and morality could be also encouraged), talk to student to find out specific problem they may have with the school or in the class, set goals with student and give alternative studies/assessment, ask about home life but be careful as this may be a private area best dealt with by a qualified counsellor, and recommending counselling or pastoral care (Phillips 1993, pp.176-184).

Teachers should be aware that the student may not want to be helped because of fear, embarrassment, illness, resentment, inadequacy, apathy, hopelessness, anger, or prejudice. Therefore sensitivity is required in approaching the subject.

If a student who may be returning to school after time away because of mental health issues the following steps are recommended, have a talk to them about their needs in the school now, offer additional tuition to catch up, talk to the parents, have a counsellor monitor them, check if they have to take medication, reintroduce them to the other students, check that they are not teased or made fun of by the other students, possibly explain to the class that student has been ill and needs looking after, and adjust work load to level that student can cope with (Withers 2001 p.152 looks at wilderness and adventure therapy to assist mentally ill children).

UOCA is unique almost in the world by wishing to build up student resilience through an age old Indian system of yoga and meditation, that teaches the student self-reliance, calmness, inner strength and peace, such that they can deal with stress and other aggressive or emotional problems using a technique that is scientific and proven over thousands of years. This inner strength in the mind allows concentration to develop and higher spiritual truth to be revealed that assists in dealing with conflict in a loving and compassionate manner for a higher good. Self inquiry is part of the method of meditation which stimulates the mind and provides answers to problems. Self discipline is also developed with this. On a physical level the yoga asanas and pranayama alleviate both physical spinal problems and as a corollary also mental defilements creating inner peace and harmony. UOCA schools will incorporate this combined with a healthy vegetarian diet, peaceful music and with integrated community activities involving the parents so as to ensure that students are not isolated or left out. An individual psychological assessment of each student by a school team including trained psychologists will ensure that no student is neglected and necessary interventions including a mental health yoga fitness plan is part of all students education.

Staff face resilience problems in schools because of alienation, stress, not coping with class/students, problems at home, workload, lack of friendships, feeling disconnected from school culture, or disagreements with other staff. Staff resilience can be built up helping to make staff feel connected to their school. This can be done by seeing a mentor/principal, getting help from the school counsellor, improving bonding exercises and socialising between staff, giving them time off, having a special program to integrate staff into the school, giving additional help and professional development training, team teaching in problem classes or swapping teacher from problem classes, disciplining the problem students across their year level (Phillips 1993, ch.11).

It is important that teachers have an understanding of resilience in dealing with their students, particularly vulnerable high risk children who are going through a crisis. There are many strategies that can be used to assist the students – most of which relate to creating a safe, nurturing classroom environment that stimulates learning and discovering knowledge. “Young children are not merely passive recipients of the socialising influence of their parents, families and environment, but that children can act in evocative and proactive ways to shape their environments and make themselves more resilient.” (Kim-Cohen 2004 p.664)

Developing protective factors can equally apply to adults and teachers as the effects of resilience, as Werner showed, last throughout ones life. The peer teaching session demonstrated that few diploma of education students knew what resilience was, however when prompted through the activities in groups they quickly grasped its meaning and what protective factors could assist children. It was observed that the male students tended to respond more slowly and seem more inhibited but once they grasped the concept seemed to understand it better than the females. In conclusion it appears that if teachers are given a basic education in resilience they should quickly be able to apply it to the classroom, but if not educated some may never realise the necessity of it. UOCA schools will include a similar individual psychological assessment of each teacher by a school team including trained psychologists so ensuring that no teacher is neglected and necessary interventions including a mental health yoga fitness plan is part of all teachers professional development education.

Bibliography

Human Development Collected Readings 2004, Semester 2, 1. Risk, Resilience and Recovery by E. Werner and 2.Genetic and Environmental Processes in Young Children’s Resilience and Vulnerability to Socioeconomic Deprivation by J. Kim-Cohen, T. Moffitt, A Caspi, A. Taylor

Deveson, A. (2003) Resilience. Allan and Unwin NSW

Fuller, A. (2002) Start : school transition and resilience training / writers: Andrew Fuller. DET. Melb.

Glantz, Meyer D. and Johnson, Jeannette L. (1999) Resilience and development: positive life adaptations. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York

Haggerty, Robert J. (1994) Stress, risk, and resilience in children and adolescents: processes, mechanisms, and interventions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & New York

McGrath, H. Noble, T., (2003) Bounce Back! A classroom resiliency program (for lower primary to junior secondary). Pearson Longman, NSW

Masten, A, Best, K. and Garmezy, N (1990) Resilience and development: Contributions from the study of children who overcome adversity: Development and Psychopathology, 2, 425-444..

Phillips, Beeman N., (1993) Educational and Psychological Perspectives on Stress in Students, Teachers and Parents. CPPC Vermont

Scarr, S. & McCartney, K. (1983). How people make their own environments: A theory of genotype-environment effects. Child Development, 54, 424-435

Werner, E and Smith, R, (1992) Overcoming the odds: high risk children from birth to adulthood. Ithica: Cornell University Press

Withers, G and Russell, J (2001) Educating for resilience: Prevention and Intervention strategies for young people at risk, ACER Camberwell

www.apa.org

www.drugstrategy.central.sa.edu.au/14_resilience

www.cdl.org/resources/reading_room/self_worth.html

www.askdrjami.org/resiliency.html

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAM EVALUATION SHEET

*To be completed as a group and submitted (individually) as a part of Assessment Task

Group Members ___

Topic: Resilience Date of Presentation: _____

Comment on how well your Professional Learning Team performed in relation to:

[for example] Circle only one response.

1. Understanding the issue