A Meaning- Centered Approach to Building Youth Resilience. Abstract Resilience may be conceptualized as the capacity to cope with stress and adversity, resulting in bouncing back and becoming stronger. In this chapter, we first develop a taxonomy of dimensions of resilience, and then present a holistic meaning- centered approach based on the interactions between three positive intervention strategies: (a) The PURE principles of meaningful living, (b) The ABCDE strategies of resilience, and (c) Tragic optimism. Together, these three interactive modules constitute the positive triad of the resilient good life. Meaning- enhancing exercises that strengthen any of these three modules will enhance resilience. Our meaning- centered approach is designed to not only to provide youth with life purpose and skills, but also build up their character strengths and virtue to survive and flourish.
Introduction Resilience has emerged as a major area of research in psychology (Hart & Sasso, 2. Seligman, 2. 01. 1). In fantasyland, life would be in a perpetual state of bliss, free from stress and strife; living in such a paradise where every need is met and every desire fulfilled, resilience is superfluous. But in reality, life for most people is full of hardship and problems; they need resilience in order to manage stress and maintain an acceptable level of well- being.
For the vulnerable populations, living in poverty, war- torn zones or suffering from chronic conditions, resilience takes on even greater importance. While agreeing with Bonanno (2. Research on resilience has evolved over the years. In the early days of resilience research, the focus was on . Rutter (1. 99. 3) even dismissed the concept of . He warned that resilience should not be assumed as a .
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Recently, on the basis of his research on coping with loss and trauma, Bonanno (2. The current consensus is that resilience is both a matter of individual differences, adaptive processes, as well as context factors. Similar to Maddi (Chapter 3; Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1. We then briefly review the various theoretical perspectives and intervention programs. Finally, we describe our meaning- centered approach which is based on the interactions between the three modules of the positive triad: (a) The PURE principles of meaningful living, (b) The ABCDE strategies of resilience, and (c) The five elements of tragic optimism.
Definitions of Resilience Resilience was first conceptualized as a personal characteristic of at- risk children who appeared to do better than expected; these children were considered . Resilient children were characterized by Garmezy (1.
Rutter (1. 98. 7) defines resiliency as . Garmezy (1. 99. 1a) defines resiliency as . Benard (1. 99. 1) concludes that resilient children also need meaning in life, goals, and inter- personal problem- solving skills. Over the years, the definition of resilience has been revised and refined, focusing on the adaptive process and person- context interactions (Luthar, 2. Luthar & Zelazo, 2. Masten, 2. 00. 1; Rutter, 1. Masten and Reed (2.
Vanderbilt- Adriance and Shaw (2. According to Ungar (2. Thus, resilience is understood as the capacity of individuals to navigate difficult situations through accessing health- enhancing psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources.
In sum, the term resilience may be operationally defined as a positive outcome in the context of risk or adversity, known to be associated with negative outcomes (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2. Ungar et al., 2. 00. Wong, 1. 99. 3). What Constitutes as a Risk Factor Resilience is manifested when two conditions are met: (a) the presence of some risk or adversity, and (b) the presence of resistance or positive outcome in spite of risk. However, for each individual, the presence of such risk factors depends on the presence of protective resources and the appraisal of threat or danger. According to this transactional view, for individuals possessing a great deal of internal and external resources, they may not see risks as risks but as opportunities for personal growth (Bonanno, 2.
Lazarus & Folkman, 1. Wong, 1. 99. 3). By the same token, those with severe deficiency in internal and external resources may feel easily threatened and traumatized; they may become depressed and suicidal, simply because of rejection by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
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In any event, resilience becomes necessary only when there is a perceived risk to one. What Constitutes a Positive Outcome We need to be careful in how we conceptualize and measure the positive outcomes of resilience. A person who copes with grief by immersing oneself in work may appear resilient because of high levels of functioning, but that person may be .
Another person may cope with loss by seeking all kinds of distractions and cheap thrills and appear unscathed by grief, but that person may feel empty and lost. What is considered positive also depends on culture. Ungar (2. 00. 4) points out that in some cultural contexts, resilience may take the form of aggression. In order to survive, it may be necessary for disadvantaged individuals, such as the urban poor and high school dropouts, to show a pattern of aggression and the absence of emotional engagement (Eggerman & Panter- Brick, 2. Obradovic, Stamperdahl, Adler, & Boyce, 2. However, while gang violence may temporarily protect marginalized individuals from falling prey to helplessness, it is debatable whether such aggression constitutes good adaptation in the long run for the individual as well as society.
Generally, there are two kinds of criteria for good adaptation. External adaptation focuses on meeting the social, educational and occupational expectations of society or culture, whereas internal adaptation focuses on achieving positive psychological well- being as determined by culture. These two criteria complement each other. Most cultures favor one criterion over the other. The internal orientation seems more adaptive, because it focuses on psychological processes rather than situational factors.
The transformative potential of meaning- making and meaning- reconstruction is an example of good internal adaptation. The Bonanno Controversy: Recovery vs. Resilience Bonanno (2. Recovery refers to individuals who often experience a period of . Resilience refers to an individual.
Given the large literature on resilience as recovery, we wonder whether there is any strong empirical evidence or compelling theoretical advantage to maintain a distinction between recovery and resilience. We argue that when we take into account the subjective perceived severity of the trauma, the differences between recovery and resilience become blurred. For instance, individuals who perceive the tragic loss of their only child as devastating but eventually bounce back may actually exhibit greater resilience than those who remain relatively unaffected by the long anticipated loss of an ill and aging parent. We propose that there are at least three prototypical patterns of resilience, which may occur in different contexts for different individuals. All three are manifestations of resilience; the differences can be attributed to different person- context interactions rather than individual differences in their resilience strength. Bonanno acknowledges the multiple pathways to resilience, such as hardiness (Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1.
Greenwald, 1. 98. Taylor & Brown, 1. Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2.
Presumably, individuals are resilient because of a combination of their genetic make- up and prior experiences in those multiple pathways. We believe that meaning and purpose should also be included as a pathway to resilience (Wong & Fry, 1. Wong, in press). Research on Resilience. Risk and Protective Factors in Youth Resilience According to Masten and Reed (2.
According to Bender, Thompson, Mc. Manus, and Lantry, (2. They found that the youths’ capacity to cope under stress depends on different degrees of access to seven mental health- enhancing experiences: (a) access to material resources; (b) access to supportive relationships; (c) development of a desirable personal identity; (d) experiences of power and control; (e) adherence to cultural traditions; (f) experiences of social justice; and (g) experiences of a sense of cohesion with others.
They identified the following protective factors, such as a sense of competence, future goals, social support, and involvement in community services. The implication for improving foster youth services includes nourishing supportive relationships and empowering youth to help others. A sense of personal agency involves the freedom and ability to make choices. Research on Meaning and Purpose in Youth Resilience Bronk (2. Results suggested that purposeful youth as a group shared a number of defining characteristics: They were relatively open, enthusiastic about their interests, and committed to core values. They also devised a number of creative strategies to overcome challenges, actively sought and created communities of like- minded peers, and established intense, long- term relationships with mentors.
With a sense of purpose, they developed a strong sense of moral identity and resiliency. These are assets which prior empirical research has shown to play an important role in positive youth development. Mariano (2. 00. 7) studied the relationship between categories of purpose and character strengths (including vitality, self- control, optimism, agency and pathways) in emerging adulthood.
According to Mariano, there exists a critical period in youth for cultivating a commitment to positive purposes. In his review of past literature, he points out that a sense of purposelessness is related to destructive behaviors in youth, whereas a sense of purpose is positively correlated with youth. Across genders, participants considered family as most important, followed by career, academic achievement, the arts, social causes, religious faith or spirituality, and politics.