Prevention and Intervention Strategies for Promoting Resilience in Disadvantaged Children

Abstract

This article addresses the emergence of a resilience-based prevention practice perspective that focuses on positively affecting the development of disadvantaged, at-risk children. Significant progress has been made in understanding risk and resilience processes; however, use of the field's advances in applied settings has lagged. The article will attempt to bridge this gap by reviewing relevant issues in program design, implementation, and evaluation from a resilience perspective. Risk and resilience dynamics are briefly highlighted to illuminate theoretical routes for promoting positive adaptation. Trends in constructing preventive programs are underscored, focusing on ecological routes to behavioral and environmental change. Finally, prevention and early intervention programs for disadvantaged children ages 3 -9 illustrate issues in program conception and effectiveness. Methodological concerns in evaluation of these programs are discussed, and future recommendations are given.In the past 2 decades, enthusiasm for investigating childhood resilience and preventive interventions has developed on parallel trajectories. Both areas have enjoyed growing public attention and have begun to coalesce fragmentary research attempts into cohesive bodies of research. Yet growth has not occurred without stumbling blocks. The study of resilience has struggled to emerge from the overarching shadow of pathology, and prevention programs have been accused of lacking strong theoretical foundations or rigorous evaluation. 1 With common roots in epidemiological mapping of risk processes, these estranged disciplines are just beginning to rediscover each other and intertwine more effectively to reinforce practice applications and

Resilient girls-Factors that protect against delinquency

“…Much of the research on resilience has focused on the risk factors that contribute to problem behaviors rather than on the factors that promote positive development (Smokowski, 1998). Although infor mation on risk is important from a theoretical perspective, developing interventions focused on changing the risks for delinquent girls may not be the most effective approach.…”

The impact of a family skills training intervention among Burmese migrant families in Thailand: A randomized controlled trial

“…Research has pointed specifically to the inability to meet basic needs as one source of parental stress that can lead to harsh parenting, and there is evidence that exposure to multiple adversities further increases the risk of poor outcomes in childhood and adulthood [15–17]. Such accumulation or “pile up” of risk [18] is characteristic of families that have been displaced or migrated from their countries of origin due to armed conflict, political repression, and/or economic hardship, but little research exists on interventions to reduce risk and promote resilience in actively displaced migrant populations.…”

Developing a Resilience Package for Vulnerable Children

“…A central question in trying to determine the nature of resilience is whether resilience is a trait found to a varying degree within individuals, or a process that is available to all to develop (Jacelon, 1997; Smokowski, 1998). There has been significant debate about this, but recently the consensus has begun to view resilience as a ‘dynamic state’ that enables an individual to function adaptively, despite severe stress, by utilising certain protective factors to moderate the impact of encroaching risk factors (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1997; Rutter, 1999).…”