Cultivating hardiness zones for adolescent girls: A reconceptualization of resilience in relationships with caring adults.

Abstract

This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.-Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye In each of 3 years of a longitudinal study of poor and working-class urban adolescent girls, Anita,' an African American girl, speaks with clarity and passion about her hopes for the future and her connections in the present. In 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, Anita asserts that she wants to be a lawyer and that "kids, kids, kids," as she says in 8th grade, are the only thing that might get in her way. In 9th grade, she determines that "I ain't going to let nothing get in the way. The only thing that could probably 'Anita, a pseudonym, is 1 of 26 girls who were designated as "at-risk" for pregnancy and dropout by their urban school in the northeastern United States. She participated in a 3-year study, "Understanding adolescents: A study of urban teens considered to be at risk," directed by Jill

Urban School Formation: Identity Work and Constructing an Origin Story

“…Both individuals and communities can express resilience (Ungar 2004) and resilience is widely understood as ''health despite adversity'' (Ungar 2004, 342). Concepts of what counts as healthy and as adversity are culturally specific and variable across individuals and communities (Debold et al 1999;Luthar and Cicchetti 1999;Olsson et al 2003;Rutter 1993;Spencer et al 2006). Yet, resilience as a concept can encompass these heterogeneous understandings across class, race, gender, and sexuality divides.…”

Young Women's Leadership Alliance: Youth–adult partnerships in an all‐female after‐school program

“…Creating a site for "truth telling" is one way that adults can help girls negotiate negative social messages and help them develop critical thinking about themselves and their social context Ward, 1996!. The relational and environmental contexts that support healthpromoting behaviors are "hardiness zones"~Debold, Brown, Weseen, & Brookins, 1999!, where girls can experience some sense of control over their lives and obtain the support and skills to pursue their goals. When applied to informal learning settings, the four approaches described above all put adults in the role of guides or facilitators, rather than instructors.…”

The Politics of Regulation: Adolescent Mothers and the Social Context of Resiliency

“…However, I suggest that because of its appeal and usage by both the popular press and practitioners (see Luther & Ciccerti, 2000), it is imperative that researchers continue to better define this term and communicate how resiliency is both multifaceted and a socio-culturally mediated process. Spencer (2001Spencer ( , 2003Spencer ( , 2006 contests the notion that resiliency is a static and uni-dimensional quality of the individual but rather, she and others (see i.e., Rutter, 1993;Debold et al, 1999;Luther & Ciccetti, 200) argue that it changes developmentally across time and can be located in the relational and environmental contexts in which individual selves emerge. While authors communicate this socially mediated understanding of resilience, little empirical research has documented the ways in which it takes shape (Olsen et al, 2003).…”

“…Weseen notes, "the push to discover what makes some children able to swim rather than sink in the turbulent waters of racism and poverty threatens to obscure the dynamics of social and economic injustice" (pg. 185, quoted in Debold et al, 1999). As the gaze of judgment is cast upon individual clients, programs are justified in the successful resilience of the few while larger inequalities are ignored.…”

“…As Debold et al (1999) contend, resilient individuals are those who "adapt in the direction of societal approval in the face of ...risk factors" (pg. 184).…”