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Community => Social Issues and Causes => Topic started by: Sandra Craft on January 07, 2016, 06:18:05 AM

Title: Children and Resilience
Post by: Sandra Craft on January 07, 2016, 06:18:05 AM
I thought this article interesting -- it's about how children develop resilience, and how that factors into the ability to cope with childhood trauma:

Part 1: The science of developing resilience in childhood (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/15/03/science-resilience)

Part 2: Changing public policies to support developing resilience in disadvantaged children (http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/15/03/public-policy-and-resilience)

Quote from: Part 1As a growing body of research is showing, the developing brain relies upon the consistent "serve and return" interactions that happen between a young child and a primary caregiver, the report says. When these interactions occur regularly, they provide the scaffolding that helps build "key capacities — such as the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate be­havior, and adapt to changing circumstances — that enable children to respond to adversity and to thrive," the report continues. The developing brain is buffered by this feedback loop between biology and environment.

But in the absence of these responsive relationships, the brain's architecture doesn't develop optimally. The body perceives the absence as a threat and activates a stress response that — when prolonged — leads to physiological changes that affect the brain and overall systems of physical and mental health. The stress becomes toxic, making it more difficult for children to adapt or rebound.

What I'm most curious about is can resilience still be built in an adult who didn't develop it in childhood, or is that bus forever gone once it's missed?

Title: Re: Children and Resilience
Post by: OldGit on January 07, 2016, 09:47:57 AM
Babies generally bounce when you drop them.
Title: Re: Children and Resilience
Post by: solidsquid on January 08, 2016, 12:51:43 PM
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on January 07, 2016, 06:18:05 AMWhat I'm most curious about is can resilience still be built in an adult who didn't develop it in childhood, or is that bus forever gone once it's missed?

Resilience can be developed in adults.  It's just not an easy task - especially since not all people start off with the same baseline.

However, it is actually part of a huge initiative involving current ongoing programs of training and ongoing research and development within the U.S. military.  I'm on the research side of things.  For the last almost 4 years now, we've been investigating using techniques like meditation and motor skills training to see if they can assist in developing some of the skills that we know aid in building resiliency such as stress response management/mitigation and focusing attention/concentration especially during stressful tasks.

However, it's still an evolving field of inquiry.  I had one research proposal to examine DHEA supplementation but due to a technical error on someone else's part, the submission was automatically rejected by the grants.gov software.  The reason we were going to examine the use of that is because people who seem to operate better under stress had a higher level of DHEA-S (the sulfated form of DHEA) in their system.

Another project we have coming up is looking into some wearable technology that supposedly allows for better concentration and attentional focus.  We'll see if it lives up to its claims.

Anyhow, there's a lot of different aspects to examine and it seems we've just scratched the surface and still have a lot to discover before there is a truly comprehensive resiliency program developed.  However, if you look in the self help section of a bookstore many authors would say they have all the answers for building resilience - but, like most self help stuff, it's crap.
Title: Re: Children and Resilience
Post by: Sandra Craft on January 08, 2016, 06:44:10 PM
Quote from: solidsquid on January 08, 2016, 12:51:43 PM
However, if you look in the self help section of a bookstore many authors would say they have all the answers for building resilience - but, like most self help stuff, it's crap.

Yeah, and it's such a large section of crap.  I was going to write that it's interesting the military is looking into it, but on the other hand, I guess not -- actually an obvious field of inquiry.