About this session

Saturday, 12:10 PM - 1:40 PM

Multisystem Approaches to Understanding and Promoting Resilience In Development: From Genes to Policy

Contemporary resilience research emphasizes multisystem models and processes for understanding dynamic pathways of positive development in contexts of risk and adversity (Masten, 2024). Proposed presentations illustrate diverse studies of resilience with multisystem perspectives, spanning neurobiological, familial, school, social welfare, and policy-level systems. Collectively, they highlight the value of multisystem approaches for elucidating processes that inform interventions to foster resilience in development. Paper 1 employs a genetically informed sample and the residuals approach to uncover multiple sources of resilience in early childhood. Higher adoptive parents' warmth and birth parents' effortful control predict behavioral and social resilience, while child persistence contributes to emotional resilience. Paper 2 adopts a multidimensional approach and finds that while most parentally bereaved youth demonstrate resilience in at least one domain, few demonstrated resilience across all domains, highlighting that resilience is normally distributed across multiple dimensions rather than concentrated in "superhero" individuals. Paper 3 utilizes integrative statewide administrative data and early childhood screening data to examine school readiness and academic achievement among elementary school students with Child Protective Services (CPS) experiences, emphasizing the significance of continued multisystem collaborations between schools and CPS agencies to support students’ academic resilience. Paper 4 reviews an integrative model of Traumatic and Adverse Childhood Experiences, identifying multiple intervention targets for promoting resilience. Findings from a school-based intervention demonstrate the potential to improve development in emotion regulation and neuroendocrine functioning, while a statewide aftercare services program for foster youth underscores the long-term benefits of resilience enhancing social policy on educational and employment outcomes.

Paper #1
Title	Factors Shaping Resilience in Children Facing Genetic Vulnerability and Adverse Home Environments
Presenting author	Danielle Marie Seay, Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Multidimensional Resilience of Youth Mental Health and Competency After Parental Bereavement
Presenting author	Qiyue Cai, Arizona State University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Fostering Resilience for Third-Grade Achievement: Does School Readiness Protect Students with Child Protective Services Experiences?
Presenting author	Jasmine M. Banegas, M.S.W., Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, United States

Paper #4
Title	Actualizing research on the neuroscience of adverse childhood experiences to foster positive resilience trajectories
Presenting author	Dr. Carl Weems, Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, United States

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Session chairs
Qiyue Cai, Arizona State University, United States; Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., , United States

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