DEVELOPMENTAL ASSETS

You've often heard the phrase, "Children are resilient."  This usually comes from observing how youth survive under some of the most horrendous, catastrophic of conditions.  Some of these conditions can be environmental, such as earthquakes, loss of parents, and even physical disease.  Some of these conditions can be hereditary, such as addictive traits, mental health disorders, and learning disabilities.  Yet some of the most debilitating conditions derive from damaged human relationships involving neglect and abuse, severe depression in parents, and exploitation by adults.

While it is true that most children will survive their childhood and adolescence to go on to live meaningful adult lives, we should not take the strength of the human organism for granted.  The entire field of study devoted to protective factors, those supports and opportunities that buffer the effect of adversity and enable development to proceed (Werner, 2001), began several decades ago with observations and surveys of individuals and families over time.  You may have heard of studies looking at people's temperament, style of relating, or even introversion vs. extroversion.  This entire evolution of thought has led us to where we now are with the identification of 40 developmental assets for Early Childhood, Grades K through 3rd, Middle Childhood, and Adolescence, those positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible, successful adults (Search Institute, 2011).

In a nutshell, protective factors include the following elements along the three life domains of Family, School, and Community --

• Caring & Support: empathy & nurturance towards the child from significant adults;
• High Expectations: positive belief by adults that the child will be successful;, and,
• Opportunities for Participation / Contribution: providing the child a valued place of belonging, inclusion, and personal responsibility.

The benefits from these resilience elements result in the following personal strengths ( Bernard, 2004) --

• Social Competence: responsiveness, communication, empathy, caring, compassion, altruism, and forgiveness.
• Problem-Solving: planning, flexibility, resourcefulness, critical thinking, and insight.
• Autonomy:  positive identity, initiative, self-efficacy, mastery, adaptive distancing, resistance, self-awareness, mindfulness, and humor.
• Sense of Purpose: goal direction, achievement motivation, educational aspirations, special interest, creativity, imagination, optimism, hope, faith, spirituality, and sense of meaning.

Over the next few blogs, I will be exploring each of these elements and highlighting certain ones which are often facilitated through the course of counseling and parenting support.