Despite the numerous benefits derived from major technological and medical innovations of the past century, we continue to live in a world rife with significant social problems and challenges. Children continue to be born into lives of poverty; others must confront daily their parent’s mental illness or substance abuse; still others live amid chronic family discord or child abuse. For some of these children, life’s difficulties become overwhelming. Their enduring trauma can lead to a downward spiral, until their behavioral and emotional problems become lifelong barriers to success and wellbeing. Almost no one today would deny that the world is sometimes an inhospitable, even dangerous, place for our youth. Yet most children—even those living in high-risk environments—appear to persevere. Some even flourish. And this begs the question: why, in the face of such great odds, do these children become survivors rather than casualties of their environments? For many decades, scholars have pursued answers to the mysteries of resilience. Now, having culled several decades of research findings, the editors of this volume offer an in-depth, leading-edge description and analysis of Resilience in Children, Families and Communities: Linking Context to Practice and Policy. The book is divided into three readily accessible sections that both define the scope and limits of resilience as well as provide hands-on programs that families, neighborhoods, and communities can implement. In addition, several chapters provide real-life intervention strategies and social policies that can be readily put into practice. The goal: to enable children to develop more effective problem-solving skills, to help each child to improve his or her self-image, and to define ways in which role models can affect positive outcomes throughout each child’s lifetime. For researchers, clinicians, and students, Resilience in Children, Families and Communities: Linking Context to Practice and Policy is an essential addition to their library. It provides practical information to inform greater success in the effort to encourage resilience in all children and to achieve positive youth development.

Resilience is a much-talked-about topic these days. The view that resilience is an important aspect of mental well-being has been gaining attention among health professionals and researchers. Tatyana Barankin and Nazilla Khanlou draw from the latest research and theoretical developments on resilience in children and youth and present it in a way that is relevant for a diverse audience, including parents, educators, health care providers, daycare workers, coaches, social service providers, policy makers and others. Among the unique contributions of this book is that the authors consider the development of resilience at three levels. Growing Up Resilient explores the individual, family and environmental risk and protective factors that affect young people's resilience: individual factors: temperament, learning strengths, feelings and emotions, self-concept, ways of thinking, adaptive skills, social skills and physical health family factors: attachment, communication, family structure, parent relations, parenting style, sibling relations, parents' health and support outside the family environmental factors: inclusion (gender, culture), social conditions (socio-economic situation, media influences), access (education, health) and involvement. Tips on how to build resilience in children and youth follow each section. The ability for children and youth to bounce back from today's stresses is one of the best life skills they can develop. Growing Up Resilient is a must-read for adults who want to increase resilience in the children and youth in their lives.

In this book, the authors argue that a public health framework rooted in ecological theory and based on principles of risk, protection, and resilience is a useful conceptual model for the design of social policy across the substantive areas of child welfare, education, mental health, health, developmental disabilities, substance use, and juvenile justice. Recommendations for ways to advance a public health framework in policy design, implementation, and evaluation are offered.

"In Fostering Resilience and Well-being in Children and Families in Poverty, Dr. Valerie Maholmes sheds light on the mechanisms and processes that enable children and families to manage and overcome adversity"--

Children live in a world of ever-increasing stress factors, including global terrorism, pervasive exposure to violence, increasing substance use, and economic and social instability. To help them maneuver successfully through such a challenging world to adulthood, community-based resilience interventions are becoming more important than ever. Currently, resilience-based interventions are expanding to examine not only the internal strengths children and adolescents bring to a variety of situations, but also to explore how to leverage community and family resources in the context of a culturally diverse world. Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children reviews a variety of innovative approaches and actions that can be used at the community level to promote resilience in children and adolescents. Key themes throughout the book focus on how to: Shift the paradigm from illness to strengths and health. Assess and improve environments to minimize harmful influences and increase protection. Adapt to and build on strengths of cultural and linguistic variation in an increasingly diverse society. Move toward collaborative approaches that involve youth, families, schools, and community members who partner at all levels of program conception, implementation, evaluation, and improvement. For researchers, clinicians, and students, Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children will be an essential tool in their efforts to promote the health and success of youth.

This book examines resilience in childhood, focusing on positive functioning and development, often in the face of everyday difficulties and adversities. It highlights critical areas in which children and their families can demonstrate resilience and attain positive social, emotional, academic, and behavioral life trajectories. The book describes key factors related to enhancing resilience for children, such as positive relationships with adults, positive school environments, and meaningful connections with others. It provides practical guidelines for promoting resilience in youth and reviews the critical nature of resilience across various situations, critical issues, and different developmental periods. It offers guidance on strategies for fostering resilience in children. Key topics featured include: Raising children to have grit and tenacity. Fostering resilience in children at school and within their families. Nurturing resilience in children with chronic illnesses and posttrauma. Resilient Children is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in developmental, clinical, and school psychology, family studies, public health, and social work as well as all related disciplines, including educational psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, and pediatrics.

The third edition of this handbook addresses not only the concept of resilience in children who overcome adversity, but it also explores the development of children not considered at risk addressing recent challenges as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new edition reviews the scientific literature that supports findings that stress-hardiness and resilience in all children leads to happier and healthier lives as well as improved functionality across the lifespan. In this edition, expert contributors examine resilience in relation to environmental stressors as phenomena in child and adolescent disorders and as a means toward positive adaptation into adulthood. The significantly expanded third edition includes new and significantly revised chapters that explore strategies for developing resilience in families, clinical practice, and educational settings as well as its nurturance in caregivers and teachers. Key areas of coverage include: Exploration of the four waves of resilience research. Resilience in gene-environment transactions. Resilience in boys and girls. Resilience in family processes. Asset building as an essential component of intervention. Assessment of social and emotional competencies related to resilience. Building resilience through school bullying prevention. Resilience in positive youth development. Enhancing resilience through effective thinking. The Handbook of Resilience in Children, Third Edition, is an essential reference for researchers, clinicians and allied practitioners, and graduate students across such interrelated disciplines as child and school psychology, social work, public health as well as developmental psychology, special and general education, child and adolescent psychiatry, family studies, and pediatrics.

The Hugging Tree tells the story of a little tree growing all alone on a cliff, by a vast and mighty sea. Through thundering storms and the cold of winter, the tree holds fast. Sustained by the natural world and the kindness and compassion of one little boy, eventually the tree grows until it can hold and shelter others. A Note to Parents and Caregivers by Elizabeth McCallum, PhD, provides more information about resilience, and guidelines for building resilience in children.

This edition includes new information about how strength-based relationships are critical to healthy development, especially for children who have endured toxic stress, adverse childhood events or experiences (ACEs), or trauma. Dr. Ginsburg outlines his seven crucial "Cs"--competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control--and teaches moms and dads how to incorporate these concepts into their parenting. Building Resilience in Children and Teens also presents detailed coping strategies to help children and teenagers deal with the stresses of academic pressure, high achievement standards, media messages, peer pressure, or family tension.

A myriad of models are available to guide practice before, during, and following disasters. As emphasized in this book, we value the role of research in informing our assessment, education, and intervention efforts in this area. Keeping an eye on those elements that have research backing certainly assists with quality control generally. However, more specifically, we also stress the idea that there is evidence to support a role for hope and positive expectations in the motivation and engagement process. In addition, the more that people, including youth and adults, actively participate in efforts designed to help, the more benefits they tend to receive. The role of research in providing that initial hope and inspiring more active engagement with internal and external resources before, during, and after a disaster is part of the foundation of our practice in this area. In fact, in the clinical psychology training program directed by the senior author, the idea that we attempt to inculcate with our trainees is the idea of “hope and engagement on an evidence-based foundation.” Consequently, we do advocate for models of practice that have identified “active ingredients” that are included: those particularly identified through controlled evaluation research. However, it is also the case that a number of risk and protective factors identified through a number of studies (e.g., see Chapter 2) have as yet to be systematically included.