Risk and Resilience in Child Development

Risk and Resilience in Development

• Risk factors are stressors like poverty, poor upbringing, or disrupted homelife.
• Resilience occurs when children experience positive outcomes despite significant risk.
• Research by Garmezy in the 1940s-50s highlighted resilience in children of parents with severe mental illness.

Child Development Risk Factors

• Childhood factors: Injuries, disabilities, low birth weight.
• Family factors: Poor parenting, substance abuse, conflict, isolation.
• School factors: Failure, negative peer groups, bullying.
• Community factors: Violence, crime, lack of support.
• Parental bereavement: Death of a parent is highly traumatic leading to lasting stress.

Protective Factors

• Anything that helps reduce a child's vulnerability.
• Examples include social skills, a stable family environment, supportive relationships with school/community.
• A number of risk factors are elaborated in the book, the most important ones are given below.

Parental Psychological Disturbances

• Parental mental health issues like depression can negatively impact children's development, especially in early childhood.
• Children with parents experiencing such issues face increased risk of behavioral, social-emotional and cognitive problems.

Socioeconomic Risk

• Child poverty strongly impacts a child's well-being and opportunities.
• Poverty links to poor physical health, lower academic performance, and social-emotional problems.

Stressful Life Events

• Daily stressors such as moving or unpleasant events affect children.
• These may lead to emotional difficulties and even physical consequences like headaches.

Social Context

• Social context plays a major role in a child's risk.
• Children in poor/violent neighborhoods face higher risk of exposure to delinquent peers and negative events.

Societal Mechanisms

• Social discrimination, racism, inequality can undermine a child's development.
• Teachers having low expectations of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, could affect their achievement.

Catastrophic Events

• War, extreme poverty, natural disasters.
• Children often struggle with the consequences, loss of loved ones, severe trauma.
• Successful adjustment depends on the safety and support provided after the event.

Measurement of Risk

• Cumulative Risk Models: Combining multiple stressors can lead to greater negative impact than a single risk.
• Risk Specificity: The characteristics and effects of different risk factors matter.

Protective/Vulnerability Factors

• Positive factors can limit a child's risk potential
• Effective interventions aim to strengthen protective factors, mitigate vulnerability factors.

Personal Characteristics

•  Factor examples include intelligence, temperament, sociability, and perceived control.

Family Characteristics

• Family factors, such as parenting styles, parent-child interactions, and family cohesion, also play a significant role.

External Support Systems

• Friendships, teacher support, school resources, and neighbourhood cohesion are crucial aspects of a child's well-being.

Model of Risk/Resilience

• The model evaluates the risk-resilience relationship, using interactive/main/mediator effects.

Developmental Outcomes

• Analyzing the competence and maladjustment of children helps determine intervention targets.
• Positive psychology plays an increasing role.
• The resilience of a child is not only based on one social competence area, but rather on several.

Atypical Development Pathways

• Problems in certain areas, like language, are considered typical developmental differences that need support
• Early interventions are often more effective for problems detected in early childhood.

Bullying/School Refusal

• Types of bullying include physical, verbal, and cyberbullying.
• Causes of bullying are complex and can be associated with peer relationships, school climate, family/community context.
• Interventions and reactive strategies such as Restorative Justice are strategies to address bullying.
• School refusal can occur due to fears, phobias, or anxiety, often requiring a more holistic approach than addressing only the refusal to attend school