Parenting to Promote Resilience in Children

Resilience Theory and Research on Children and Families: Past, Present, and Promise

“…General systems theory (von Bertalanffy, ) influenced family resilience ideas as well as individual resilience theory (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013; Hawley & DeHaan, ; Masten, ). Moreover, both fields of study were spurred in many ways by the devastating effects of World War II on families and their children (see Masten & Cicchetti, ; Masten & Palmer, in press; Nichols, ).…”

“…Now, multiple pathways of resilience theory and science are converging in conjunction with the emergence of developmental systems theory as an integrative framework in resilience science (Criss, Henry, Harrist, & Lazrelere, ; Masten, , ; Masten & Monn, ; Henry et al, ; Masten & Palmer, in press). Masten and Wright (Masten, , ; Wright, Masten, & Narayan, ) have described this direction in theory and research as the fourth wave of resilience science in the psychosocial literature focused on individual resilience in human development.…”

“…Research on parenting in relation to child resilience is one of the leading edges of this work, discussed further later in this article. Another frontier can be found in recent humanitarian efforts to advance child survival and thriving, which increasingly take a two‐generation or multigeneration approach, encompassing child, parent, and grandparents or other family members (Black et al, ; Huebner et al, ; Masten & Palmer, in press). …”

“…There also is a large and growing body of research on potential processes that may account for resilience as well as vulnerability linking individual child function or development to family systems function. Examples of such processes include the following: prenatal stress wherein maternal health, nutrition, or exposure to adversity has an impact on fetal development, epigenetic changes induced by prenatal or postnatal experiences of children in families, parent–child relationships and interactions, postpartum depression and parent well‐being, many roles of parents in development (elaborated in the next section), “toxic stress” exposure in early childhood that alters brain development and behavior, economic policies for families rearing children, cultural practices, and community services for families with children (Black et al, ; Huebner et al, ; Masten & Cicchetti, ; Masten & Monn, ; Masten & Palmer, in press; Walsh, ).…”

“…Global concerns about climate change, natural and technological disasters, economic instability, war, and terrorism have spurred intensified attention to resilience, because hopes for addressing these challenges rest in the capacity of many systems to adapt, often in concert with one another (Masten, ). Concomitantly, although theory and research on resilience in families and in individual human development emerged decades ago, there is a new urgency to calls for integrating science and practice across these levels (Doty, Davis, & Arditti, ; Henry et al, ; Masten, ; Masten & Monn, ; Masten & Palmer, in press). …”