Understanding healthy development in children and adolescents: Themes of resilience

Lavoie, Jennifer; Pereira, Liane C.; Talwar, Victoria

doi:10.1037/e578812014-003

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Research has placed an emphasis on children's personal resources for coping and resilience particularly enhancing skills such as self-efficacy, creativity, and self-regulation, which can help children to succeed under pressure (Lavoie, Pereira, & Talwar, 2014;Waaktaar et al, 2004;Yendork & Somhlaba, 2015). Research has placed an emphasis on children's personal resources for coping and resilience particularly enhancing skills such as self-efficacy, creativity, and self-regulation, which can help children to succeed under pressure (Lavoie, Pereira, & Talwar, 2014;Waaktaar et al, 2004;Yendork & Somhlaba, 2015).…”

Section: Pressure To Thrive In the Modern Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such pressure can have a positive or negative effect on children's self-esteem and feelings of self-worth, depending on their coping resources. Research has placed an emphasis on children's personal resources for coping and resilience particularly enhancing skills such as self-efficacy, creativity, and self-regulation, which can help children to succeed under pressure (Lavoie, Pereira, & Talwar, 2014;Waaktaar et al, 2004;Yendork & Somhlaba, 2015). The relationship between coping and self-esteem is also bidirectional with high self-esteem helping lead to successful coping in adolescents confronted with a social stressor (Moksnes et al, 2010).…”

Section: Pressure To Thrive In the Modern Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Every day I worry about something’: A qualitative exploration of children’s experiences of stress and coping

Cheetham-Blake

Family

Turner‐Cobb

2019

British J Health Psychol

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ObjectivesMost research investigating children’s experiences of stress and coping has utilized a quantitative approach. This study aimed to examine children’s experiences of stress by conducting interviews with children and their parents.DesignDyadic child–parent interviews, embedded within a multiphase design.MethodsThirty‐eight children (22 boys) aged 7–11 years and 38 parents (34 mothers) completed in‐depth dyadic interviews about stressful life events, adversity, and coping, analysed using inductive thematic analysis with a phenomenological lens.ResultsFour themes emerged: (1) navigating the social minefield; (2) pressure to thrive in the modern world; (3) fear of the unknown; and (4) learning life’s lessons. The first suggested that social relationships are a major feature of children’s stress experiences; however, social support was also found to be a beneficial coping mechanism. The second theme highlighted multiple sources of pressure on young children (including school, extracurricular activities, pressure from self and others); the impact of such pressure was dependent upon children’s coping resources. The third theme emphasized the difficulty of coping with novel stressors, and how awareness can help reduce this fear. The final theme highlighted important lessons that children can learn from stressful experiences and how to cope with stress.ConclusionsThis study addresses the importance of the person and context‐dependent nature of stress and coping in order for children to survive and thrive following stressful experiences. These findings contribute to existing knowledge that could be used to develop a toolkit for coping with stress, designed specifically for children, parents, schools, and services. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Stress experienced in childhood can have a significant impact on psychological and physiological outcomes across the life course. It is known that individual differences are vital for understanding the effects of stress on health, for children as well as adults. Qualitative methods enable deeper understanding of children’s experiences of stress and coping. What does the study add? Depth and breadth to understanding children’s experiences of stressful events.An individual differences focus on the early stress experience that is frequently overlooked.Support for the use of a dyadic interview approach for assessing children’s stress experiences.

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Section: Pressure To Thrive In the Modern Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pressure To Thrive In the Modern Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Every day I worry about something’: A qualitative exploration of children’s experiences of stress and coping

Cheetham-Blake

Family

Turner‐Cobb

2019

British J Health Psychol

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“…Resilience characteristics such as coping ability can be moderators of responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Abelson et al, 2014) and as such stress-resilience characteristics deserve attention in stress testing paradigms. As resilience concerns the interaction between a person and their environment, personality, and temperament factors (such as social support and competence) are important facets to examine (Bai & Repetti, 2015;Egeland et al, 1993;Lavoie, Pereira, & Talwar, 2014;Smith & Prior, 1995). Coping ability and resources are integral to the development of resilience.…”

Section: What Does the Study Add?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience characteristics and prior life stress determine anticipatory response to acute social stress in children aged 7–11 years

Cheetham-Blake

Turner‐Cobb

Family

et al. 2019

British J Health Psychol

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Objectives To assess the interplay of prior life stress and characteristics of resilience in determining how children cope with potentially stressful situations, using a two‐phase study that triangulates parent–child dyadic interview data with subsequent experience of an acute laboratory stressor in 7–11‐year‐olds. Methods Participants (n = 34) were designated as being in one of four groups based on high/low levels of prior stress experience and high/low resilience ratings assessed during at‐home interviews and from questionnaires measuring recent life events, hassles, and trait coping. During a subsequent laboratory stress protocol, salivary cortisol and heart rate were monitored, and a verbal subjective report was provided. Results Salivary cortisol showed a significant increase in anticipation of the stress test, heart rate increased during the test, and children self‐reported the task as stressful. Males displayed higher levels of cortisol than females in the anticipatory period. We observed no increase in salivary cortisol in response to the stress testing phase. Using the stress/resilience categorization, children with a higher level of resilience were differentiated by cortisol level in anticipation of the acute stress experiment based on their level of prior life stress. Highly resilient children with greater experience of prior life stress showed a lower anticipatory cortisol response than highly resilient children with less experience of prior life stress. Conclusions This study highlights the relevance of contextual factors, such as prior stress experience and resilience, in physiological response to the anticipation of acute stress and has implications for understanding how children cope with stressful experiences. What is already known on this subject? An adaptation to the stress testing paradigm, the Bath Experimental Stress Test for Children (BEST‐C) was found to reliably induce a salivary cortisol response in young children, suggesting that peer matching the audience was an effective modification to laboratory social stress testing. Recent work focusing on early life adversity has seen the emergence of prior stress experience and resilience as key factors in the examination of acute stress responses. However, much of the research regarding the impact of childhood stress is ambiguous; some research suggests that if children have experienced prior stressful life events this will enact a positive effect on stress responses and lead to resilience, and other research suggested that it will have a compounding negative effect. What does the study add? Findings provide support for the capacity of the BEST‐C to induce an anticipation stress response in children. Contextual factors e.g., prior stress experience and resilience are key for understanding stress responses. Resilient children with more experience of stress show lower cortisol than those with less stress experience.

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“…The ecological development theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) regards the environment as a dynamic process, and the development of individuals comes from the interaction of people and the environment. During adolescence, the positive mental health often mutable and susceptible to environmental influences (Kearney & Bussey, 2015; Lavoie et al, 2014). Previous studies typically focus on the impact of peers or schools on adolescent mental health (Oberle et al, 2018; Roach, 2018), ignoring the role of family.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Perceived Family Support and Positive Mental Health in Junior High School Students: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Cai

2022

The Journal of Early Adolescence

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The study aimed to explore the development trend of positive mental health and the interaction between adolescents’ perceived family support and positive mental health. A 3-year longitudinal survey of perceived family support and positive mental health (resilience and self-efficacy) for four waves was conducted with 564 junior high school students (297 girls, mean age = 11.12 ± 0.38 years at baseline). The Latent Growth Curve Modeling indicated that adolescents’ resilience and general self-efficacy showed a curve upward trend, which increased first and then decreased. The development rate decreased each year. The cross-lagged panel model and a random intercept cross-lagged panel model concluded that perceived family support was strongly associated with positive mental health of junior high school students. Family support was important for developing positive mental health in early adolescence. Therefore, attention and interventions targeting positive mental health changes in early adolescence are particularly effective. And, it is important to encourage parents of adolescents to continue to provide support and guidance.

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Understanding healthy development in children and adolescents: Themes of resilience

Cited by 3 publications

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‘Every day I worry about something’: A qualitative exploration of children’s experiences of stress and coping

‘Every day I worry about something’: A qualitative exploration of children’s experiences of stress and coping

Resilience characteristics and prior life stress determine anticipatory response to acute social stress in children aged 7–11 years

Development of Perceived Family Support and Positive Mental Health in Junior High School Students: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

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