Resilience in Developmental Systems

This chapter highlights findings from the developmental research on resilience in children and families. From a developmental systems perspective, resilience is defined as the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to challenges that threaten the function, survival, or development of the system. Principles that inform this perspective are delineated, along with implications for the meaning of resilience and its applications in practice. Many interacting systems shape the development of individuals as well as families, such that capacity for adapting successfully to adversity will depend on the interactions of multiple systems. Salient models of resilience are discussed along with key concepts in developmental resilience science, such as pathways, cascades, promotive factors, and protective factors. Common resilience factors observed across system levels are identified from studies of human resilience. A resilience framework for action is described, including five components, and new horizons in developmental multisystem resilience research are summarized.

Bringing a Neurobiological Perspective to Resilience

Although the concept of resilience has been widely studied across a range of academic disciplines, examinations have typically focused upon psychosocial correlates and contributors. Fueled by progress in our understanding of the brain and complex biological processes (and recognition that domains of psychological and biological functioning are not easily dichotomized), an emerging science of neurobiological resilience has emerged. In this chapter, the authors describe extant work that has examined biological factors that may promote resilience among adversity-exposed populations and biomarkers that can serve as indicators of risk or resilience. They highlight the complexities that emerge when considering biological factors that not only operate across a range of internal bodily systems, but also interact with the multiple external systems within which an individual develops (e.g., family, school, neighborhood, etc.). They conclude with a set of principles to guide future studies and advance a more integrated resilience science.

The Multidimensional Taxonomy of Individual Resilience

Theoretical work in resilience has continuously evolved to inform and respond to advances in empirical work. In order to further scientific inquiry, it must continue to do so. This narrative overview of the field of resilience science focuses on contemporary challenges confronted by theoretical models of individual resilience and proposes a taxonomic structure for resilience—the multidimensional taxonomy of individual resilience (MTIR). The goal of the MTIR is to articulate a systematic framework within which extant theoretical and empirical work can be nested. Consistent with existing work, the MTIR organizes resilience into two primary branches—manifested resilience and generative resilience. These two components are then organized into subdomains that demonstrate evidence of conceptual distinctiveness. The specification of the subdomains in the MTIR draws support from a diverse body of work on resilience across disciplines and in multiple global contexts. The MTIR makes several critical advances, including expanding and refining the definitions and components of resilience in psychology, providing a clearer framework for conceptualizing mixed profiles of resilience, and tempering assumptions regarding the relational dependencies across domains of resilience. Finally, the utility of the MTIR in organizing research in resilience and advancing theory-testing and development is discussed.

Resilience in the Context of Development: Introduction to the Special Issue

As an introduction to this special issue, we define resilience as the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to threatening circumstances, and we briefly note the history of resilience studies as embedded within the broader field of developmental science. We then elaborate on four developmental principles central for the study of resilience and highlight the importance of early adolescence as a developmental period of particular opportunity for change. Finally, we introduce the five articles of this special issue, each of which presents exciting new work on resilience processes during early adolescence and speaks to aspects of core developmental principles of resilience science.

Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives

Advances in developmental resilience science are highlighted with commentary on implications for pediatric systems that aspire to promote healthy development over the life course. Resilience science is surging along with growing concerns about the consequences of adverse childhood experiences on lifelong development. Resilience is defined as the capacity of a system to adapt successfully to challenges that threaten the function, survival, or future development of the system. This definition is scalable across system levels and across disciplines, applicable to resilience in a person, a family, a health care system, a community, an economy, or other systems. Robust findings on resilience in childhood underscore the importance of exposure dose; fundamental adaptive systems embedded in the lives of individuals and their interactions with other systems; developmental timing; and the crucial role of healthcare practitioners and educators as well as family caregivers in nurturing resilience on the “front lines” of lived childhood experience. Resilience science suggests that human resilience is common, dynamic, generated through myriad interactions of multiple systems from the biological to the sociocultural, and mutable given strategic targeting and timing. Implications for pediatric practice and training are discussed.

Special Issue on Resilience Science and Resilience Engineering to Enhance Resilience in Shikoku Region of Japan

Japan has one of the highest levels of seismicity in the world. In the last few decades, Japan has been the site of many destructive earthquakes, such as the 1995 Kobe earthquake, 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, 2004 Chuetsu earthquake, 2007 Chuetsu-oki earthquake, and 2016 Kumamoto earthquake/Tottori-chubu earthquakes. Furthermore, we need to take disaster mitigation countermeasures in preparation for the next Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake, Tokyo earthquake, etc. Disaster countermeasures against these earthquakes will be of vital importance to Japanese society in the future. As a specific example, if and when the next Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake strikes, it will cause widespread and compound disasters on the island of Shikoku and in southwestern Japan in general. The prefectures of Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, and Ehime are all on the island of Shikoku, yet the damages that a future Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake will cause are predicted to be quite different in each prefecture. Therefore, in preparing disaster mitigation strategies for the coming Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake, these four prefectures and the distinguished universities involved in disaster mitigation research and education in them must be united in collaboration while making the best use of the individual characteristics of the prefectures and universities. Specifically, in terms of disaster mitigation preparations, universities on Shikoku have to develop and advance resilience science as it relates to upcoming disasters from a Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake, inland earthquakes, typhoons, floods, etc. In this special issue, many significant research papers from the fields of engineering, geoscience, and the social sciences by researchers from distinguished universities on the island of Shikoku focus on resilience science. We must apply their findings to society, putting them into practice to mitigate potential damages from any future natural events.