eBriefing 
Resilience in Children
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Posted July 17, 2009
Presented By
A New York Academy of Sciences conference, jointly sponsored with the Brown Alpert Medical School
Overview
The capacity of children to develop resilience in the face of adversity has intrigued psychology researchers since the birth of this field in the 1970s. By studying these children, psychologists have uncovered resilience-enhancing factors within the child, in caregivers, and in the wider social environment. Awareness of these factors informs the design of interventions aimed at enhancing coping skills early in children's lives, rather than trying to repair disorders later.
Now psychologists are joining with neuroscientists to explore the interplay of biology and experience in creating human resilience. These researchers hope to uncover the processes that govern how the brain responds to both adverse events and positive interventions.
The conference Resilience in Children brought together behavioral scientists, psychologists, and neurobiologists with pediatricians, social workers, and public policy makers from February 26–28, 2006 in Arlington, Virginia. The conference covered the latest research on behavioral-psychosocial processes, neurobiological processes, and science-based interventions.
Web Sites
AboutOurKids.org
The NYU Child Study Center offers science-based, research-driven psychiatric care to children and adolescents with learning, behavior, and emotional disorders.
The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, ERIC houses the world's premier database of journal and non-journal education literature.
The Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota
A premier center of scholarship, teaching, and outreach devoted to the understanding and fostering of child development.
The International HapMap Project
A partnership of scientists and funding agencies organized to develop a public resource to find genes associated with human disease and response to pharmaceuticals.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
A resource on child traumatic stress for other professionals and the public. The NCTSN will raise public awareness of the scope and serious impact of child traumatic stress on the safety and healthy development of our nation's children and families.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
NIAAA provides leadership in the national effort to reduce alcohol-related problems by conducting and supporting research in a wide range of scientific areas including genetics, neuroscience, epidemiology, health risks and benefits of alcohol consumption, prevention, and treatment.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
NIDA supports over 85 percent of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction addressing the most fundamental and essential questions about drug abuse, ranging from the molecule to managed care, and from DNA to community outreach research.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
NIMH is the lead Federal agency working to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior.
The Oregon Social Learning Center
A nonprofit, independent research center dedicated to increasing the scientific understanding of social and psychological processes related to healthy development and family functioning.
ResilienceNet
A source of current, reviewed information about human resilience.
Resiliency in Action
Provides classes and training for teachers and youth service-providers.
Scientific Learning Corporation
A company that produces products that use neuroscience approach to reading intervention based on research by Michael Merzenich, University of California, San Francisco.
Articles
Arnsten, A. F. & A. G. Dudley. 2005. Methylphenidate improves prefrontal cortical cognitive function through α2 adrenoceptor and dopamine D1 receptor actions: relevance to therapeutic effects in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Behav. Brain. Funct. 1: 2. Full Text
Arnsten, A. F. & B. M. Li. 2005. Neurobiology of executive functions: catecholamine influences on prefrontal cortical functions. Biol. Psychiatry. 57: 1377-1384.
Barr, C. S., T. K. Newman, S. Lindell, et al. 2004. Interaction between serotonin transporter gene variation and rearing condition in alcohol preference and consumption in female primates. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 61: 1146-1152.
Berton, O., C. A. McClung, R. J. DiLeone, et al. 2006. Essential role of BDNF in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in social defeat stress. Science 864-868.
Briones, T. L., A. Y. Klintsova & W. T. Greenough. 2004. Stability of synaptic plasticity in the adult rat visual cortex induced by complex environment exposure. Brain Res. 1018: 130-135.
Caspi, A., J. McClay, T. E. Moffitt, et al. 2002. Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science 297: 851-854.
Caspi, A., K. Sugden, T. E. Moffitt, et al. 2003. Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science 301: 386-389.
Cicchetti, D. & M. I. Posner. 2005. Cognitive and affective neuroscience and developmental psychopathology. Dev. Psychopathol. 17: 569-575.
Curtis, W. J. & D. Cicchetti. 2003. Moving research on resilience into the 21st century: Theoretical and methodological considerations in examining the biological contributors to resilience. Dev. Psychopathol. 15: 773-810.
Dickerson, S. S. & M. E. Kemeny. 2004. Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychol. Bull. 130: 355-391.
Dong, W. K. & W. T. Greenough. 2004. Plasticity of nonneuronal brain tissue: roles in developmental disorders. Ment. Retard. Dev. Disabil. Res. Rev. 10: 85-90.
Enoch, M. A., J. F. Waheed, C. R. Harris, et al. 2006. Sex differences in the influence of COMT Val158Met on alcoholism and smoking in plains American Indians. Alcohol Clin. Exp. Res. 30: 399-406.
Garmezy, N. 1974. The study of competence in children at risk for severe psychopathology. In The Child in His Family: Children at Psychiatric Risk: III. E. J. Anthony & C. Koupernik, Eds. Wiley, New York.
Gewirtz, A. H. & A. S. Masten. 2006. Vulnerability and resilience in early child development. In The Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development. K. McCartney & D. Phillips, Eds. Blackwell Publishing, New York.
Grunze, H. 2005. Reevaluating therapies for bipolar depression. J. Clin. Psychiatry 66 Suppl 5: 17-25.
Heinz, A., D. F. Braus, M. N. Smolka, et al. 2005. Amygdala-prefrontal coupling depends on a genetic variation of the serotonin transporter. Nat. Neurosci. 8: 20-21.
Isgor, C., M. Kabbaj, H. Akil, et al. 2004. Delayed effects of chronic variable stress during peripubertal-juvenile period on hippocampal morphology and on cognitive and stress axis functions in rats. Hippocampus 14: 636-648.
Jaffee, S. R., A. Caspi, T. E. Moffitt, et al. 2005. Nature X nurture: genetic vulnerabilities interact with physical maltreatment to promote conduct problems. Dev. Psychopathol. 17: 67-84.
King, S. M., S. A. Burt, S. M. Malone, et al. 2005. Etiological contributions to heavy drinking from late adolescence to young adulthood. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 114: 587-598.
Kumpfer, K. L. & B. Bluth. 2004. Parent/child transactional processes predictive of resilience or vulnerability to "substance abuse disorders." Subst. Use Misuse 39: 671-698.
Lester, B. M. & C. L. Miller-Loncar. 2000. Biology versus environment in extremely low-birth weight infant. Clin. Perinatol. 27: 461-481.
Lewis, M. D. 2005. Bridging emotion theory and neurobiology through dynamic systems modeling. Behav. Brain Sci. 28: 169-194.
Luthar, S. S. 2006. Resilience in development: a synthesis of research across five decades. In Developmental Psychopathology: Risk, disorder, and adaptation, Vol. 3 (2nd edition). D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen, Eds. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Luthar, S. S. 2003. The culture of affluence: psychological costs of metrial wealth. Child Dev. 74: 1581-1593.
Luthar, S. S. & A. Goldstein. 2004. Children's exposure to community violence: implications for understanding risk and resilience. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 33: 499-505.
Lynskey, M. T., J. M. Vink & D. I. Boomsma. 2006. Early onset cannabis use and progression to other drug use in a sample of Dutch twins. Behav. Genet. 10: 1-6.
Masten, A. S. 2001. Ordinary magic. Resilience processes in development.Am. Psychol. 56: 227-238.
Masten A. S., K. B. Burt, G. I. Roisman, et al. 2004. Resources and resilience in the transition to adulthood: continuity and change. Dev. Psychopathol. 16: 1071-1094.
Masten, A. S., J. D. Coatsworth, J. Neeman, et al. 1995. The structure and coherence of competence from childhood through adolescence. Child Dev. 66: 1635-1659.
Masten, A. S., G. I. Roisman & J. D. Long. 2005. Developmental cascades: linking academic achievement and externalizing and internalizing symptoms over 20 years. Dev. Psychol. 41: 733-746.
McEwen, B. S. 2005. Glucocorticoids, depression, and mood disorders: structural remodeling in the brain. Metabolis. 54: 20-23.
McGue, M., I. Elkins, B. Walden & W. G. Iacono. 2005. Perceptions of the parent-adolescent relationship: a longitudinal investigation. Dev. Psychol. 41: 971-984.
Newman, T. K., Y. V. Syagailo, C. S. Barr, et al. 2005. Monoamine oxidase A gene promoter variation and rearing experience influences aggressive behavior in rhesus monkeys. Biol. Psychiat. 57: 167-172.
Pears, K. C. & P. A. Fisher. 2005. Emotion understanding and theory of mind among maltreated children in foster care: evidence of deficits. Dev. Psychopathol. 17: 47-65.
Pears, K. & P. A. Fisher. 2005. Developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological functioning in preschool-aged foster children: associations with prior maltreatment and placement history. J. Dev. Behav. Pediatr. 26: 112-122.
Pezawas, L., A. Meyer-Lindenberg, E. M. Drabant, et al. 2005. 5-HTTLPR polymorphism impacts human cingulate-amygdala interactions: a genetic susceptibility mechanism for depression. Nat. Neurosci. 8: 828-834.
Pine, D. S., J. Costello, & A. Masten. 2005. Trauma, proximity, and developmental psychopathology: the effects of war and terrorism on children. Neuropsychopharmacol. 30: 1781-1792.
Posner, M. I. & M. K. Rothbart. 2005. Influencing brain networks: implications for education. Trends Cogn. Sci. 9: 99-103.
Roisman, G. I., A. S. Masten, J. D. Coatsworth & A. Tellegen. 2004. Salient and emerging developmental tasks in the transition to adulthood. Child Dev. 75: 123-133.
Rueda, M. R., M. I. Posner & M. K. Rothbart. 2005. The development of executive attention: contributions to the emergence of self-regulation. Dev. Neuropsychol. 28: 573-594.
Rueda, M. R., M. K. Rothbart, B. D. McCandliss, et al. 2005. Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 14931-14936. Full Text
Rutter, M., T. E. Moffitt & A. Caspi. 2006. Gene-environment interplay and psychopathology: multiple varieties but real effects. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 47: 226-261.
Schommer, N. C., D. H. Hellhammer & C. Kirschbaum. 2003. Dissociation between reactivity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system to repeated psychosocial stress. Psychosom. Med. 65: 450-460. Full Text
Smetana, J. G., N. Campione-Barr & A. Metzger. 2006. Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 57: 255-284.
Stadler, C., P. Sterzer, K. Schmeck, et al. 2006. Reduced anterior cingulate activation in aggressive children and adolescents during affective stimulation: association with temperament traits. J. Psychiatr. Res. [Epub ahead of print]
Turkheimer, E., A. Haley, M. Waldron, et al. 2003. Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children. Psychol. Sci. 14: 623-628.
Zhang, T. Y., R. Bagot, C. Parent, et al. 2006. Maternal programming of defensive responses through sustained effects on gene expression. Biol. Psychol. 73: 72-89.
Books
Benard, B. 2004. Resiliency: What We Have Learned. WestEd, San Francisco, CA.
Cicchetti, D. & D. J. Cohen, Eds. 2006. Developmental Psychopathology: Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation, Volume 3. Wiley, New York.
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S. & M. D. Weist. 2004. Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children. Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
Flynn, R. J., P. M. Dudding & J. G. Barber, Eds. 2006. Promoting Resilience in Child Welfare. University of Ottawa Press, Ottowa.
Glanz, M. & J. Johnson, Eds. 1999. Resilience and Development: Positive Life Adaptations. Plenum, New York.
Goldstein, S. & R. B. Brooks, Eds. 2005. Handbook of Resilience in Children. KluwerAcademic/Plenum, New York.
Greene, R. R., Ed. 2002. Resiliency: An Integrated Approach to Practice, Policy, and Research. NASW Press, Washington, D. C.
Henderson, N. & M. M. Milstein. 2003. Resiliency in Schools: Making It Happen for Students and Educators. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Levine, S. 2002. Against Terrible Odds: Lessons in Resilience from Our Children. Bull Pub. Co., Boulder, CO.
Luthar, S. S., Ed. 2003. Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities. Cambridge, New York.
Masten, A. S., Ed. 1999. Cultural Processes in Child Development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
McCartney, K. & D. Phillips, Eds. 2006. Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development. Blackwell, Malden, MA.
Newman, T. 2004. What works in building resilience? Bernardo's, Ilford, UK.
Thompson, R. 2005. Nurturing Future Generations: Promoting Resilience in Children and Adolescents Through Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Skills. Routledge, New York.
Ungar, M. 2004. Nurturing Hidden Resilience in Troubled Youth. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Werner, E. E. & R. S. Smith. 2001. Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience, and Recovery. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Organizers
Barry M. Lester, PhD
Brown Medical School
Department of Pediatrics
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
email | web site | publications
Barry Lester is professor of psychiatry & human behavior and pediatrics, and director of the Brown University Center for the Study of Children at Risk, at Brown Medical School and Woman and Infants Hospital. The Center provides research and clinical services for infants at risk and their families as well as research and clinical training.
Lester received his PhD in developmental psychology from Michigan State University in 1973. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His specialty is developmental processes in infants at risk, including infants with prenatal substance exposure. He is particularly interested in the interplay between the biological, parenting, and social environmental forces that drive development. His research has been supported by NIH grants for over 30 years.
A past member of NIH study sections, Lester is currently a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and member of the Expert Panel at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction. He is past president of the International Association for Infant Mental Health and the author of more than 200 scientific publications and 17 books.
Ann Masten, PhD, LP
University of Minnesota
Department of Child Development
email | web site | publications
Ann Masten is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. After completing her undergraduate degree at Smith College, Masten was research assistant to David Shakow at the National Institute of Mental Health, before pursuing doctoral work in clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota. She completed her PhD in psychology at Minnesota in 1982, with a minor in child development and a clinical internship at UCLA. Since 1986, Masten has been on the faculty of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, where she was appointed a full professor in 1996 and served as director and department chair from 1999 until January 2005.
Masten's research aims at understanding the processes that promote competence and prevent problems in human development, with a focus on resilience processes and pathways to adaptation in the context of high cumulative risk, adversity, and trauma. She directs the Project Competence studies of risk and resilience, which include a longitudinal study of normative school children followed for more than 20 years, as well as studies of young war survivors and children living in emergency shelters. Additionally, she has collaborated on studies of injuries to farm children, refugee adjustment, children exposed to domestic violence or conflict, and desistance among antisocial children. Masten has published empirical, theoretical, and review papers on risk and resilience, competence, and developmental psychopathology.
The recipient of numerous honors and teaching awards, she is frequently invited to speak and consult at the national and international level. She is currently President of Division 7 (Developmental) of the American Psychological Association and serves on the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Executive Committee of the Society for Research on Adolescence.
Bruce McEwen, PhD
The Rockefeller University
email | web site | publications
Bruce McEwen is the Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. McEwen graduated summa cum laude in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1959 and obtained his PhD in cell biology in 1964 from The Rockefeller University. He returned to Rockefeller in 1966 to work with the psychologist, Neal Miller, after postdoctoral studies in neurobiology in Sweden and a brief period on the faculty at the University of Minnesota. He was appointed as professor at Rockefeller in 1981.
As a neuroscientist and neuroendocrinologist, McEwen studies environmentally-regulated, variable gene expression in the brain, particularly as it is mediated by circulating steroid hormones and endogenous neurotransmitters in relation to brain sexual differentiation and the actions of sex, stress, and thyroid hormones on the adult brain. His laboratory combines molecular, anatomical, pharmacological, physiological and behavioral methodologies and relates their findings to human clinical information. His laboratory discovered adrenal steroid receptors in the hippocampus in 1968.
McEwen is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. He served as Dean of Graduate Studies from 1991–1993 and as president of the Society for Neuroscience in 1997–1998. He is a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, in which he is helping to reformulate concepts and measurements related to stress and stress hormones in the context of human societies. He is the coauthor of a recent book with science writer Elizabeth Lasley for a lay audience called The End of Stress as We Know It, published by the Joseph Henry Press and the Dana Press.
Speakers
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, PhD
Columbia University
Teachers College
email | web site | publications
Bruce E. Compas, PhD
Vanderbilt University
Department of Psychology and Human Development
email | web site | publications
Kiki Chang, MD
Stanford University
Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program
email | web site | publications
Dante Cicchetti, PhD
University of Minnesota
Department of Psychology
email | web site | publications
Michael Davis, PhD
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
email | web site
Thomas J. Dishion, PhD
University of Oregon
Child and Family Center
Department of Clinical Psychology
email | web site | publications
Mary-Anne Enoch, MD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
email | publications
Philip A. Fisher, PhD
Oregon Social Learning Center
publications
Jay N. Giedd, MD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
email | web site | publications
Mark T. Greenberg, PhD
Pennsylvania State University
email | publications
Myron Hofer, MD
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Department of Psychiatry
email | web site
Thomas R. Insel, MD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
web site | publications
Anna Y. Klintsova, PhD
University of Delaware
Department of Behavioral Neuroscience
email | web site | publications
Karol L. Kumpfer, PhD
University of Utah
Strengthening Families Program
email | web site | publications
Richard M. Lerner, PhD
Tufts University
Department of Applied Developmental Science
email | web site | publications
Marc D. Lewis, PhD
University of Toronto
Department of Human Development and Applied Psychology
email | web site | publications
Suniya S. Luthar, PhD
Columbia University
Teachers College
email | web site | publications
Linda Mayes, MD
Yale University
Child Study Center
email | web site | publications
Matt McGue, PhD
University of Minnesota
Department of Psychology
email | web site | publications
Kathleen Ries Merikangas, PhD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
email | web site | publications
Michael M. Merzenich, PhD
University of California at San Francisco
Department of Otolaryngology
email | web site | publications
Daniel S. Pine, MD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Mental Health
email | publications
Sir Michael Rutter, MD, FRS
Institute of Psychiatry, London
publications
Arnold Sameroff, PhD
University of Michigan
The Center for Human Growth and Development
email | web site | publications
Stephen J. Suomi, PhD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
email | web site | publications
Edward Z. Tronick, PhD
Harvard Medical School
email | web site | publications
Nora D. Volkow, MD
National Institutes of Health
National Institute on Drug Abuse
web site | publications
Theodore D. Wachs, PhD
Purdue University
Department of Psychological Sciences
email | web site | publications
Catherine Zandonella
Catherine Zandonella is a science writer based in New York City, covering such topics as environmental science, public health, and applied technology. She has a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. Zandonella has written for a number of publications, including New Scientist, The Scientist, and Nature.