Resilience in maltreated children: Processes leading to adaptive outcome

Abstract

Evidence for resilience, competent functioning despite severe adversity, was investigated in school-age, disadvantaged maltreated (N = 127) and nonmaltreated (TV = 79) children attending a summer camp program. Multiple areas of adaptation (social adjustment, risk for school difficulty, psychopathology) were assessed from self, peer, and camp counselor perspectives and school records. A composite index of adaptive functioning was developed, and levels of competence were delineated. Personality dimensions and personal resources, including cognitive maturity, self-esteem, ego-resiliency, and ego-control, were evaluated as mechanisms promoting individual differences in successful adaptation. Maltreated children as a group evidenced lower overall competence when compared to nonmaltreated children. An equal proportion of maltreated and nonmaltreated children, however, demonstrated high levels of competence, whereas more maltreated children than nonmaltreated children evidenced low levels of competence. Ego-resiliency, ego-control, and self-esteem were each found to predict individual differences in competent functioning. Evidence for the differential role of ego-control in promoting competence for maltreated versus nonmaltreated children was found. The results are discussed in terms of mechanisms contributing to resilient outcomes in maltreated children and the implications of the study of resilience for the field of developmental psychopathology.Developmental psychopathologists have emphasized the need to understand the functioning of individuals who do not succumb to the risks that eventuate in developmental deviation in others (see, e.g.

Developmental trajectories of externalizing and internalizing behaviors: Factors underlying resilience in physically abused children

“…Despite the developmental risks of physical abuse, several studies suggest that some individuals exposed to early childhood abuse are able to develop with few if any difficulties (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1997;Cicchetti, Rogosch, Lynch, & Holt, 1993;Egeland & Farber, 1987;Luthar, 1991;Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000;McGloin & Widom, 2001;Moran & Eckenrode, 1992). Why are some children able to develop well despite experiencing negative events in early childhood?…”

“…Much of the research on resilience has centered on identifying and understanding the interplay of protective and vulnerability factors and the developmental outcomes of children exposed to various types of negative life events, including physical abuse (Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993;. Following Luthar et al (2000), we construe protective and vulnerability factors as characteristics of children and their environments that respectively diminish or increase the probability of poor outcomes, One might expect the importance of particular protective and vulnerability factors in promoting resilience to depend on the type of negative life event a child has experienced.…”

Social, Emotional, and Academic Competence Among Children Who Have Had Contact With Child Protective Services: Prevalence and Stability Estimates

“…We used national testing norms to determine what percentage of children were functioning as well as the average child, but we do not know whether rates of resilience would be just as low in a demographically matched control group. However, other work suggests that they would not be (Cicchetti et al, 1993).…”

“…We used national testing norms to determine what percentage of children were functioning as well as the average child, but we do not know whether rates of resilience would be just as low in a demographically matched control group. However, other work suggests that they would not be (Cicchetti et al, 1993).Third, although virtually all of the instruments described in this article were standardized using nationally representative samples, it is possible that racial or ethnic differences in reports of mental health problems or social behavior reflected measurement bias resulting from racial differences in perceived stigma associated with mental health problems or perceptions of behavioral norms.Fourth, cross-informant agreement on children's functioning is typically low and reflects informant bias, measurement error associated with the context in which children are observed, as well as children's actual characteristics. New methods are available that facilitate valid measures of child characteristics (Kraemer et al, 2003), but these approaches require careful sampling of informants and contexts that were not available in the NSCAW data.…”

“…Moreover, with few exceptions (Cicchetti and Rogosch, 1997;Farber and Egeland, 1987;Herrenkohl et al, 1994), most studies of maltreated children measure children's functioning at a single point in time. Evidence that these studies overestimate rates of resilience comes from research showing that when criteria for resilience to maltreatment include competence in multiple domains and across time, only 12% to 22% of children (or adults who were abused as children) are considered resilient (Cicchetti and Rogosch, 1997;Cicchetti et al, 1993;Kaufman et al, 1994, McGloin andWidom, 2001). Most commonly, children who have faced significant adversity function well in some domains but not others and show fluctuations in functioning over time (Luthar et al, 2000).…”