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InBrief: The Science of Resilience

One way to understand the development of resilience is to picture a balance scale or seesaw. Protective experiences and adaptive skills on one side counterbalance significant adversity on the other. Watch this video to visualize the science of resilience, and see how genes and experience interact to produce positive outcomes for children. This InBrief video is part two of a three-part sequence about resilience. These videos provide an overview of Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience, a working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/reports_and_working_papers/working_papers/wp13/

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

8 years ago

JACK P. SHONKOFF: Resilience is the result of a highly interactive process between individual characteristics in the person and the environment in which that individual has developed. PHILIP A. FISHER: It's really the counterbalancing of difficult things that may exist in the child's life with positive things, that occur within the family but even positive things that may exist in the community. W. THOMAS BOYCE: An easy way of thinking about resilience is like a scale with a fulcrum in the middl
e of it. And there are things on both sides of that scale. Experiences of both bad things or good things. NARRATOR: Our genes shape where the fulcrum is positioned at the start. W. THOMAS BOYCE: There are certain genes that make a child more sensitive to the effects of maltreatment or parental neglect or witnessing violence. PHILIP A. FISHER: The fulcrum may start out kind of more towards one side or more towards the other side, and that's gonna make a big difference in terms of how much these s
ubsequent events affect things positively or negatively. NARRATOR: Science tells us that experiences move the fulcrum, for better or for worse. NATHAN A. FOX: Even though we are born with genes, genes will respond differently to certain environmental situations as opposed to others. W. THOMAS BOYCE: What the genes are actually doing are turning up or turning down the expression of chemicals and circuits in the brain and the circuitry in the entire body that govern our responses to stress, to anx
iety, to depressive symptoms. NARRATOR: When positive experiences accumulate, and children learn coping skills that help them to manage stress, the fulcrum can slide so the scale tilts toward positive outcomes more easily. That's what resilience is all about. JACK P. SHONKOFF: There is always an adult or more than one adult who is key to providing that relationship that helps to build resilience.

Comments

@samanthamontgomery8448

Great video! Very helpful as a caring parent. Thank you!

@chaLUVmu

Incredible video. Thank you..

@selcukpolat2371

Great video, thanks!

@amystein6079

This is an excellent video! It fits perfectly into my nonprofit organization, which matches mentors with people working on mental wellness. How do I ask for permission to use it in a Volunteer Orientation Training?

@ayeshamorin9236

This got me thinking on different perspectives with resilience. Awesome comparison with outcomes, shows the importance of this focus.

@blupatches3030

0:15 he's do calm that he ended up closing his eyes to hypnotize

@mindfulnessasia1082

The first tip is to consider deeply why am I experiencing what is happening to me now? Is it all random? Why do different living beings experience such different things, very different qualities of life? “As you sow, so you reap. So, we are all reaping now. We need to start sowing better if we want to reap better outcomes. We often complain about the things we don’t like. If we look at it closely, we spend most of our time criticizing things and people who we cannot change. We are often not aware of the great amount of control that we do have. What is this type of control? Control over our mind, our emotions, our desires. How we respond to events and people is within our control.

@ParentingPlanet

Kids become strong like superheroes when they face real challenges, learning how to solve problems and never give up. Each challenge is like a puzzle piece that makes them even tougher!🙃

@firehorse2860

So what to do when the child already grew up with not much resilience as described in the video?

@StarsTogether

Exemplary work! If this fascinates, consider a book with similar hues for further reading. "Rising From Within: Unlocking Your Innate Power to Conquer Adversity" by Vincent Starling

@bruceylwang

Environmental experience not only has tangible experience, but also has intangible experience, for example, the thought which parents want to give their children positive experience that is originated and derived from the intangible mental energy such as mentality, thought, the frequency of love (E=hv). So, in addition to tangible genes P-gene (bio-physical gene), humans also have intangible genes M-gene (Mental gene). And, adult’s mentality, thought, love will pass on to children by M-gene. M-gene determines mentality, thought. M-gene also determines P-gene epigenome “leave a chemical “signature” on genes that determines whether and how genes are expressed.” What is M-gene? Where's M-gene? First of all, we have to have the concept of MS. MS concept will allow us to recognize human’s "Mental environment" is a "structure" which I have called "Mental Structure, MS". Life has tangible structure PS and intangible structure MS. Mind is a MS. Why do we need MS concept? For instance, when a child is standing at fulcrum of a seesaw, he needs resilience to maintain balance. However, from a structural point of view, the child’s balance is merely in a “Critical Condition”— instantly stable but critically unstable, where fulcrum is the only stable structure. From a MS point of view, a child must construct a Stable Mental Fulcrum first so that he can use his mental ability to stand at fulcrum with balance and to move fulcrum. Structurally, a Stable Mental Fulcrum requires more than resilience, it requires rigidity too. Structurally, “Stiffness” is used to represent resilience (elasticity) + rigidity. It is clear that parents’ mentality, thought and love, to give their children positive experience, is originated and derived from their Mind (MS) with various MS stiffness. That says, environmental experience not only alters P-gene and PS, experience also alters the M-gene and MS stiffness. It is obvious that “PS affects MS, MS guides PS”. In addition to “PS affects MS” methods, we can use MS-PS (P-gene -- M-gene) interaction to better develop mental abilities to achieve “MS guides PS” for parent and children. I have worked on “Mind is a MS” for two decades. Theoretically, mental abilities and mental activities can be analyzed by MS model. Experience has shown that parent and children, with MS and M-gene concept in their mind, do have more firm grips in the “PS affects MS, MS guides PS” seesaw process. Hopefully, this comment will be an added value.

@hernanmurno

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@bugati_veyron3323

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@rosemarymoser7568

he information here is excellent, but it sure is a lot of white male voices.