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Article Excerpt
There is a long history of research on the factors that place individuals at risk of school failure, criminal behavior, and mental health problems. Risk factors are those biological, psychological, cognitive, or environmental factors that hinder normal development and make the individual more vulnerable to negative life outcomes (Dole, 2000). However, researchers have also found that under most adverse circumstances there are protective factors that serve to buffer the individual's response to adversity. Significant numbers of children raised in the most adverse circumstances develop into competent and productive adults (Garmezy, 1991; Werner & Smith, 2001). There is no universal definition of resilience; however, it is delineated as "successfully coping with or overcoming risk and adversity, or the development of competence in the face of severe stress and hardship" (Doll & Lyon, 1998, p. 348).
Research on resilience holds great promise, for if the mechanisms and processes by which it occurs could be understood, the possibility exists of fostering resilience through preventive interventions and programming (Doll & Lyon, 1998). The challenge to researchers is to discover what conditions encourage resilience, and the challenge to educators is to foster resilience through preventive intervention and programming. Children who are gifted, learning disabled, or gifted/learning disabled pose such a challenge. These children not only possess an exceptionality that constitutes a risk but they may also experience common risk factors such as poverty and parental conflict. The intent of this paper is to further the understanding of how the constructs of risk and resilience impact the life of the individual who is gifted/learning disabled.
Risk and resilience factors need to be studied concurrently because the factors that influence human development are complex and intertwined. The definition of what constitutes a risk or a protective factor for an individual is not always clear and frequently depends on how each individual perceives a particular event or situation (Spekman, Goldberg, & Herman, 1993). The relationship between an individual's perception of an event or situation and the individual's resources to cope with the demands placed on her or him defines risk or resilience (Luthar & Zigler, 1991). An individual's vulnerability changes over time and across developmental levels. It is sometimes difficult to identify competent children because the competence level of a given child changes over time. Resilience should not be identified at one point in time or with respect to a single outcome (Pianta & Walsh, 1998). It is, rather, an interaction between constitutional risk factors and stressful life events, and it is dependent on the interaction of protective factors within the individual, the family environment, and society.
Risk and Resilience Research
There are many biological, psychological, cognitive, or environmental factors that hinder normal development and contribute to a child's vulnerability to adversity. However, children have been studied whose adaptation to adverse conditions, such as chronic poverty, parental psychopathology, divorce, or maltreatment has been more successful than would have been expected. A common core of protective factors within the individual, the family, and the community has been identified. These protective factors appear to mediate profoundly the impact of adversity on children (Werner, 1995).
There is an pattern of overwhelming risk factors associated with poverty (Garmezy, 1991). Birch and Gussow (1970, as cited in Garmezy) point to a cycle of debilitating conditions that can often become transgenerational; however, this is not an inevitable outcome. After examining the adverse developmental outcomes associated with poverty, Garmezy suggested three variables that act as protective factors in enabling children to circumvent the adverse effects of poverty: individual child temperament (e.g., activity level), family context (e.g., the presence of a caring adult), and the presence of external support such as a teacher or the presence of an institutional structure that encourages ties to the community.
In the Kauai Longitudinal Study, Werner and Smith (2001) investigated the impact of a variety of biological and psychosocial risk factors, as well as stressful life events on the development of a multiethnic cohort of children (prenatal through 32 years of age). They found that poor developmental outcome was not inevitable for children exposed to prenatal trauma, poverty, parental psychopathology, or chronic family discord. Of the children in the study, 30% were considered high risk because they had experienced prenatal stress, were born into chronic poverty, and lived in troubled family environments. Two-thirds of the children who had experienced four or more such risk factors by age 2 developed serious learning or behavioral problems by age 10, or had delinquency records, mental health problems, or pregnancies by age 18. However, one-third of the children who experienced four or more such risk factors developed into competent, confident, and caring adults (Werner & Smith).
Werner and Smith (2001) found that in infancy and early childhood the resilient children had temperamental characteristics that elicited positive responses from their parents and other caregivers. By preschool they had acquired a coping style that combined the ability to ask for help with autonomy. In middle childhood and adolescence these resilient children demonstrated good communication and problem-solving skills, and they had an internal locus of control and a positive self-concept. They frequently had a talent or hobby that was valued by their peers or elders. The resilient child was able to establish a close bond with caring adults within the extended family and was able to seek out positive role models in the community, such as a favorite teacher (Werner & Smith).
In order to find the individual characteristics or temperaments of children that contributed to different styles of coping or resilience, Murphy and Moriarty (1976) studied the coping behavior of children in a relatively stable community. The authors proposed that a cultural tradition, as conveyed by the family and supported by society, facilitated resilience within the child. Although there were variations and changes in coping patterns of individual children through the years, their participants' drive for mastery was directed toward coping with life's challenges. Parents expected and encouraged their child's independent coping. They also modeled resourceful coping behavior. The cultural tradition of this society was the maxim that God helps those who help themselves. Therefore, the child's drive for mastery was sustained by the child's need, freedom to cope with real challenges, lack of restrictions, and the support of the family and society.
Responsive, caring adults can have a significant impact on child resilience. In a study of 7- to 9-year-old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, Wyman et al. (1999) found that emotionally responsive parenting attitudes and positive parental mental health predicted children's competent development. The child's ability to master early developmental tasks and build more complex capacities that are needed to master environmental challenges makes him or her more resilient to adversity. Nurturing relationships, high expectations for children, and the avoidance of school mobility were also important influences on children' s development of resilience in the Chicago Longitudinal Study (Reynolds, 1999).
Nettles, Mucherah, and Jones (2000) found that grade 10 students who spent time in structured activities and religious activities were more optimistic, participated more often in extracurricular activities, and were more prepared for class in grade 12. Time spent alone, time spent interacting with adults, and participation in structured activities in grade 10 predicted math and science achievement in grade 12. Cauce, Felner, and Primavera (1982) also found that informal social support from peers was related to better peer self-concept but to lower academic adjustment in a study of high-risk, inner city adolescents. Although informal social support from peers related to better peer self-concept, it was supportive ties with parents and other adults that facilitated academic achievement (Nettles et al., 2000) and positive adjustment after divorce (Watt, Moorehead-Slaughter, Japzon, & Keller, 1990). Children's adjustment to parental divorce was mediated by good rapport with the custodial parent. A good relationship with the custodial parent created a supportive, loving environment that mediated the negative effects of the divorce on academic achievement, social interactions, and self-esteem.
However, if children are unable to access nurturing, caring adults in their families, protective factors found in their own temperament and the greater social environment may facilitate resilience. There are individuals within the juvenile correctional population, a group with the fewest known protective factors, and the greatest number of risk factors, who manage to go on to live moral, productive lives (Pasternack & Martinez, 1996). A strong internal locus of control, having a positive school experience, and having a job prior to incarceration are all significant factors in predicting resiliency among incarcerated juvenile delinquents, protecting them from becoming recidivists (Pasternack & Martinez).
Resilient children may also attain a sense of value from reading. Through this medium, children are able to escape into an imaginary world that provides assurance, methodical thinking, and optimism (Wolin & Wolin as cited in Henry, 1999). In this self-created world of literacy and imagination, the child...
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