Poster #59 - Multilevel Resilience Characteristics of Children with Trauma Histories

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Research on resilience, or “the capacity of a dynamic system to withstand or recover from significant challenges that threaten its stability, viability, or development” (Masten, 2011, p. 494) is a burgeoning field, particularly in the area of childhood resilience. Recent literature in childhood resilience has moved away from the idea of resilience as a trait someone has or does not have, and instead, many investigators have called for the integration of resilience at multiple levels beyond the individual child, such as including their family or their community (Masten, 2014b; Masten, 2015; Southwick, Bonanno, Masten, Panter-Brick, & Yehuda, 2014). To address this call, an original, empirical study was conducted on resilience characteristics of children with trauma histories who live in low-income, urban neighborhoods.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating children’s resilience characteristics at the individual, family, and community levels as perceived by both children and caregivers, to get a comprehensive picture of the myriad ways children with trauma histories are currently coping with stressors and new life challenges. Additionally, this study aimed to demonstrate how resources at different ecological levels, such as attachment and connectedness, contribute to overall resilience. Participants were recruited from two community mental health centers in urban areas and the final sample consisted of 50 child-caregiver pairs (N=100). Families were from mixed ethnic and racial backgrounds and 80% of the families were considered low-income, or having an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. Children were 10-18 years old (M =13.5) and 94% of children in this study had a history of complex trauma, which includes multiple traumatic events and/or chronic trauma (Cook et al., 2003). The average number of traumas for this sample was 6.54 events (range 1-14 traumatic events).

Results show that despite having a high rate of past traumas, the children in this study were also very resilient, more so than a previously normed sample with “complex needs” including mental health difficulties, poverty, and trauma (Liebenberg, Ungar, & Van de Vijver, 2012). Children in this study rated themselves as having the strongest individual-level and family-level resilience characteristics, with significantly lower rates of community-level resilience (p < .01). Caregivers rated children’s family-level resilience as the highest, then individual-level, and then community-level as the lowest. Multiple hierarchical regressions found that when regressing attachment and connectedness on children’s total resilience scores, the most important family-level contributors to total resilience were children’s connectedness to caregivers and mutual respect and understanding in the child-caregiver attachment relationship. The most important individual-level factors were children’s self-esteem, positive identity, future orientation, and hope. No community-level resources (i.e., connection to school or peers) significantly explained total resilience. Recommendations are included for future directions in research, clinical work, and policy with children who may be vulnerable to trauma.

Authors

• Kerrie Pieloch, Suffolk University
  Presenting Author

• Isis A Garcia-Rodriguez, Suffolk University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy K Marks, Suffolk University
  Non-Presenting Author