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Opinion & Essays
- June, 1994 Issue #28
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RESILIENT CHILDREN
(From Adolescent Magazine)
Too many children grow up in environments that place them at high-risk of problems like alcohol and other
drugs, delinquency, truancy, and teen pregnancy. Yet, many of them beat the odds and grow up to be competent, happy adults. Sometimes
referred to as "transcendent kids," a study investigating how this happens was briefly reported in the July 1993 issue of Adolescent
magazine. Called "The Report of the Forum on Protective Factors, Resiliency, and Vulnerable Children", it was organized by the Children
of Alcoholics Foundation, a nonprofit voluntary organization in New York. They identified several factors contributing to resilient
children.
Positive personality, effective problem-solving, and being inward-directed promoted resiliency.
Positive coping skills were encouraged by a nurturing family and supportive community.
"Families that observe such family rituals as mealtimes, holidays, birthdays, or other celebrations...
are less likely to transmit alcoholism to the children than those families where the alcoholism disrupts or alters the rituals.
"A 30- year study of children of alcoholics born in 1955...[in] Hawaii, found that females are more resilient
than males; maternal drinking has greater adverse effect on children than does paternal; and resilient children received more caregiving
during infancy and had no siblings for their first two years of life.
Copyright © 1994, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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