The importance of 'resilience' in helping people cope with adversity

Simply put, the law's basic postulate is: 'Give a child a hammer and everything the kid sees will need pounding.' Armed with our hammer of psychopathology, everywhere we turn in our clinics and waiting rooms we perceive primarily disorders, symptoms, and their dynamics. So we pound away, even though our overarching goal is mental health, not mental disorder.

But massive shifts in western thinking were slowly gathering support. The Cartesian split between body and mind which had been so central to medical practice and thinking since the 17th century began to be replaced by a belief that mind and body were inseparable, and that human systems – like other systems – possessed a natural drive towards good health.

By the nineties, most resilience research confirmed that resilience arises from a myriad of interactions within and between organisms and their environment. This recognition of the dynamic qualities of resilience marked a true turning point in the field of resilience research.

'What began as a quest to understand the extraordinary had revealed the 'power of the ordinary,' said Professor Anne Masten from the University of Minnesota. 'Resilience does not come from rare and special qualities, but from the everyday magic of ordinary, normative human resources in the minds, brains, and bodies of children, in their families and relationships, and in their communities.'

Masten also pointed out that even the most basic of human adaptational systems are not invulnerable and require nurturance. All too often, children who contend with the greatest adversities do not have the protections afforded by basic resources nor the opportunities and experiences that nurture the development of adaptive systems.'

In the 1970s, Garmezy became part of a 12-year international consortium exploring the resilience of children at risk for mental illness because their mothers had schizophrenia. The researchers believed that if they could understand how some of these children developed healthily in spite of their genetic backgrounds and profound family difficulties, it might lead to an increased understanding of mental illness and also how to make a difference in the lives of children at risk.

Children whose parents have schizophrenia mostly live in one of the most stressful situations imaginable. They have no control over what is happening; no time for childhood; loneliness, because it is impossible to ask friends home; sadness; anger at how their lives are being spoiled; dread of inheriting the madness.

Yet the researchers found these children did far better than was predicted and showed an extraordinary range of survival mechanisms. Children who did well understood that they were not responsible for their parents and were able to avoid engulfment in their illness. Having a stable, loving relationship with another adult was important, as was support from school and community.

Garmezy concluded that the quality of resilience played a greater role in mental health than anyone had previously suspected. In 1971, he cut across prevailing ideas and practices by suggesting that instead of trying to devise models to stop children becoming ill, it might be more useful to study the forces helping children survive and adapt. He called resilient children, the 'keepers of the dream – our best hope for learning how to use lessons of the past to help ourselves in the future.'

Throughout the seventies, as human rights movements became involved with the poor and oppressed, and as the world opened up to a greater awareness of environmental influences, the study of resilience itself opened up and became mainstream. In western societies, the euphoria of the sixties gave way to an increasing urgency to protect young people from the damaging effects of stressful life events and conditions.

Researchers realised that if children who lived with the chaos of mental illness could reveal such resilience, how about those in other high-risk situations?

One factor relating to resilience in children stands out above everything else – they need a secure base from which to explore the world and to grow up with one or more adults who are there for the long haul. People who love and believe in them and will provide consistent emotional support – ideally parents, but good relationships with other adults can also make a big difference in a child's life.