8 Risk and Resilience in Adolescence

In this chapter, we are focusing on resilience in adolescents, as a  way of drawing

together the various themes discussed in this volume. We will also discuss the
importance of parenting and its interaction with the temperament of the child in
predicting positive outcomes for adolescents. We will begin by defining resilience
and then discuss first individual factors and later family factors that are related to
resilience. Although our primary focus in this book is on family factors, it is also
necessary to acknowledge that individual factors such as gender, temperament, and
attachment security play a role in the development and maintenance of resilience,
and may also affect interactions with other family members and the quality of
those relationships. Some of these individual factors will, of course, be genetic and
some will be the result of early experiences in the family. Others will be the result
of the interweaving of nature and nurture (Smart &  Sanson, 2005). It is important
to acknowledge that both individual or temperament factors and family factors are
crucial to adolescent development.

8.1 Characteristics of Resilience

Resilience, which has become something of a  ‘buzz’ word in the area of child and
adolescent development, is defined as the ability of individuals “to adapt better
than expected in the face of significant adversity or risk” (Tusaie, Puskar & Sereika,
2007, p.54), or as positive adaptation in the context of adversity (Luthar, Cicchetti
&  Becker, 2000). A third definition has been proposed by Branden-Muller and her
colleagues (Branden-Muller, Haggerty, Sherrod, Garmezy & Rutter, 1996): the ability
to function unimpaired despite exposure to adverse circumstances. In other words,
resilience is about being able to ‘bounce back’ from such negative life-events as
serious illness, accident, separation or divorce of parents and other potentially
stressful events. Hjemdal (2007) pointed out the increase in research on resilience
in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He saw this focus as being motivated by the
possibility of identifying the kinds of protective factors likely to prevent young people
from experiencing negative outcomes in terms of their mental health when adversity
strikes.
Luthar et al. (2000) emphasize that resilience should be seen as multidimensional
and as a  process, rather than as a  permanent characteristic of a  person, although
we would expect that some adolescents are likely to be more resilient overall than
others, whatever the challenges they are facing. Conceptualizing resilience as
a  process allows for different levels of resilience at different developmental stages
and different developmental transitions (Cicchetti &  Garmezy, 1993; Masten, 2004;
Silk, Vanderbilt-Adrience, Shaw, Forbes, Whalen, Ryan & Dahl, 2007). In other words,
individuals may not always have the same level of resilience at different times in their

© 2014 Patricia Noller, Sharon Atkin

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lives and when facing different transitions. According to Cicchetti and Garmezy (1993)
“new vulnerabilities and/or strengths may emerge during developmental transitions
throughout the life course as well as during periods of acute stress” (p.499).
It is also important that resilience is not dichotomized (that is, seen as just the
absence or presence of particular factors; Kassis et  al., 2013; Masten, 2001). Kassis
et al. actually assessed their sample using three levels of resilience (resilient, near
resilient and non-resilient). These researchers found that, overall, resilience was
strongly linked to individuals’ personal characteristics and the quality of their
relationships as well as to the lack of exposure to violence in their families. In general,
three resilience factors are focused on: (1) individual resources or characteristics, (2)
family support and (3) support from social networks beyond the family (Carlton et al.,
2006; Hjemdahl et al., 2007; Skrove, Romundstad & Indredavik, 2012).
Ungar (2008) also argues that resilience is not just a characteristic of an individual
child but is affected by a child’s social and political environment and is a product of the
protective factors present in that environment, but also of the vulnerabilities. Ungar
carried out a study of resilience in 1500 young people spread across 14 sites and five
continents. They concluded that there are some global aspects of adolescents’ lives
that contribute to resilience but also cultural and contextual factors such as societal
understandings of what constitutes healthy functioning. Studies on resilience have
tended to assume that resilience and health are defined similarly around the world,
without any comparisons with nonwestern cultures. The studies reported below tend
to focus on a view of resilience as a characteristic of an individual that is helped by
living in a favourable environment, although there are exceptions.
Fu, Leoutsakos and Underwood (2013) studied resilience following a  severe
earthquake in Sichuan in China in 2008. Although they found that the Connor-
Davidson Resilience Scale was applicable to Chinese adolescents, they also argued
for the recognition of cultural differences in how resilience is displayed. In a study
following the Haitian earthquake of 2010, a Creole version of the Resilience Scale was
also found to be valid and reliable in assessing the resilience of child and adolescent
survivors (Cenat & Derivois, 2013).
In order to be categorized as resilient in western culture, adolescents should
meet two criteria: First, they must be considered vulnerable or at high risk of adverse
events (conflict or violence in the family, accident or illness, failure at school) and
second, they need to display more adaptable responses to adverse events than other
adolescents (Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Tusaie et al., 2007). In other words, resilient
adolescents are better able to cope with adverse circumstances and less likely to
experience subsequent ill effects such as depression or anxiety, or become involved
in problem behaviours such as drug abuse.
Cicchietti and Garmezy (1993) emphasize the need for caution, in that children and
adolescents who have not been exposed to trauma should not be considered resilient.
Sometimes people assume that all children and adolescents are equally resilient and
will always ‘bounce back’ easily from trauma, but there is little evidence to support

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such an assumption. In fact there is much evidence that children and adolescents can
be deeply and significantly affected by trauma (e.g., van der Kolk, 2005).
Understanding what contributes to resilience for adolescents is important for
parents so that they can assist their children to be more resilient and thus increase the
likelihood of positive outcomes for them (Bumpas, 2004). Such an understanding is
also important for practitioners who want to increase resilience in their young clients.
Although individual characteristics such as optimism and self-esteem are clearly
important (Seligman, 1991), families also play a crucial role in assisting young people
to develop and enhance their ability to cope and adapt to life’s challenges. We will
return to this issue later in this chapter.
Having good connections with appropriate adults is crucial to resilience (Howard
& Johnson, 2001). Young people whose parents are responsive to them, involved in their
lives and offer guidance when necessary are more likely to develop resilience (Condly,
2006; Howard & Johnson). A resiliency approach increases our understanding of why
some young people who face adverse circumstances do not experience the negative
outcomes that typically are associated with those circumstances (Luthar et al., 2000;
Mistry, McCarthy, Yancey Yao & Minal, 2009).

8.2 Characteristics of Resilient Adolescents

Masten and her colleagues (Masten, et al., 1999) focused on the question of how
resilient adolescents differ from their peers who have failed to do well when dealing
with difficulties, and those who have done well but have not faced any difficulties.
These researchers assessed “cumulative exposure to psychosocial adversity” as
a  threat to normal development; success in adapting was defined as displaying
competence in the relevant developmental tasks, and the presence and extent of
psychosocial resources were seen as likely to lead to resilient behaviour by working to
counteract the potential effects of adversity.
Competence in the Masten et al. (1999) study was assessed in terms of academic
achievement, prosocial behaviour and social competence with peers, and was
assessed in childhood and adolescence using multiple methods and informants.
The  resources assessed were intelligence and the quality of parenting the young
person received. Assessment of parenting quality included measures of warmth,
expectations and family structure. Participants were initially recruited from
schools and ranged in age from 8 years to 12 years (Grades 3 to 6); their parents
also completed some questionnaires. When the young people were reassessed after
10 years (when they ranged in age from 17 to 23 years) parents were interviewed at
home.
Masten et al. (1999) carried out a number of analyses, including both variable-
centred and person-centred analyses to determine the links between the variables as
measured in childhood and those measured in late adolescence and young adulthood.

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Those who experienced quality parenting and had higher intelligence, tended to do
well on competence measures across the three domains, even when they were subject
to severe and even chronic adversity, suggesting that having quality resources led to
resilience even when the amount of adversity experienced was high. Further, having
a high level of resources (high IQ and quality parenting) seemed to be particularly
protective with regard to conduct; in other words, these individuals tended to behave
in prosocial ways. As we will discuss later, many studies such as this one do not take
adolescent temperament into account although there is evidence that the quality of
the parenting may be affected by the temperament of the adolescent.
In further support of the concept of resilience, individuals who experienced high
levels of adversity but were still assessed as adequate in terms of competence (classified
as resilient), were quite similar to those competent individuals who experienced
little adversity. They were very different, however, from the maladaptive group
who experienced high levels of adversity and were assessed as low in competence,
and low in resources. These young people were also high in negative emotionality.
These authors concluded that the quality of resources available to young people is
very important because these resources “are markers of fundamental adaptational
systems that protect child development in the context of severe adversity” (Masten
et al., 1999, p.143).

8.3 Resilience and Mental Illness

One of the most interesting studies of resilience in adolescents and its implications for
the futures of those young people comes from the longitudinal study by psychiatrist,
Stuart Hauser and his colleagues mentioned in Chapter 2. These researchers were
able to use longitudinal data to understand the consequences of experiencing severe
psychiatric disorders in early adolescence (by 14 years of age). Hauser and Allen (2006)
studied a sample of nine competent young adults from the psychiatric sample who had
previously experienced a great deal of adversity, particularly in middle adolescence
(13 to 16 years). These young people were functioning at a level above the average,
even of the normative sample (Boston High School students). The researchers had
records of earlier clinical interviews as well as attachment interviews, and were able
to analyse the themes of these interviews.
The key themes reported by these highly resilient young people included agency
(ability to take responsibility for one’s own life), reflectiveness (ability to think
carefully about issues that arise), and relationship recruiting (being able to form new
relationships). These abilities clearly differentiated these young people from those
who were also former patients but were still struggling. The researchers also noted
three other factors that seemed to characterize these resilient young people: the drive
to mastery (similar to the drive to autonomy), a high level of fascination with internal
processes (especially their own thought processes), and a desire to connect with others

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and form relationships. These latter three variables would seem to be strongly related
to the set mentioned first (that is, agency, reflectiveness and relationship recruiting).
In another study of resilience and mental illness (Skrove et al., 2012), a  large
sample of adolescents was assessed in terms of symptoms of anxiety, depression and
substance abuse, social competence, resilience and family cohesion. Characteristics
associated with resilience such as having positive relationships with their parents
and having a  lot of friends were shown to protect against developing anxiety and
depression. Being involved in substance use and neglecting physical activity increased
these symptoms. Resilience factors tended to attenuate the link between engaging in
an unhealthy lifestyle and symptoms of mental illness.

8.4 Individual Factors and Resilience

According to research, about a  third of any population, including adolescents, are

likely to be highly resilient (Hauser, 1999; Resnick, 2000). There is also evidence of
some age and gender differences in resilience. In addition, as Branden-Muller and
colleagues (1996) emphasize, there are both inter-individual and intra-individual
differences in the factors that contribute to resilience or the lack thereof. A number
of studies have explored the protective factors seen as likely to increase resilience in
adolescents, and those that are likely to have a negative effect on the development of
resilience (Chang, 2001; Geanellos, 2005; Skrove et al., 2012; Smart, Hayes, Sanson
& Toumbourou, 2007; Tusaie et al., 2007; Werner & Smith, 1992).
In one study, a  higher percentage of males than females reported medium or
high levels of resilience and a higher percentage of females reported low levels of
resilience (Tusaie et  al., 2007). Also, younger male adolescents who were highly
optimistic in their attitudes to life, and who perceived support from family members
as strong, tended to show higher levels of resilience, particularly if they experienced
few adverse events. In addition, male adolescents who were older, who were
highly optimistic and who saw family members and friends as supportive showed
high levels of resilience. Optimism was the strongest individual factor predicting
resilience in this study, supporting the importance of attitudes and thinking
patterns to resilience.
This relation between optimism and resilience is also supported in a  different
study, where adolescents who saw the prospects for their futures in a positive light
were more able to deal successfully with negative events when they occurred than
those who saw their futures in a negative light. In addition, the young people who
were more optimistic were able to get on with their lives more effectively despite
setbacks (Carver & Scheier, 1998).
Other protective factors identified also involved attitudes and thinking abilities
such as problem-solving abilities and an  ability to reframe an  adverse event in
a  positive way as well as being able to ask for support from others when needed.

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Imagine an adolescent who has failed an exam and is very disappointed. A positive
reframe would involve saying something like, “Well, I know now that I need to spend
more time on that subject before the finals”. A negative approach, on the other hand,
would involve claiming, “I’ll never understand this stuff, I think I’ll just give up”.
The resilient adolescent is much more likely to adopt the positive reframe and get on
with life.
In the study conducted by Tusaie and her colleagues (2007), bad life events
tended to have a  negative impact on resilience, whereas optimism was positively
linked to resilience. In other words, resilient young people tend to see ‘the glass as
half-full rather than half-empty’. Perceiving family members as highly supportive was
the second most important factor in this study. Perceived support from the peer group
was particularly important for older adolescents, who generally spend more time
with members of their peer group than they do with family members.
Environmental factors that promote the development of resilience in individuals
include not having to cope with a lot of negative life-events and experiencing at least
some successes in one’s life. According to Bernard (2004) the key factors that promote
resilience in disadvantaged children are caring relationships, high expectations and
opportunities to contribute to family and society. Self-efficacy, or believing one can
have an influence on events in one’s life, is also important (Bandura, 2004). Young
people who believe that they have no choice about what happens to them, or who
feel stuck in circumstances they see as beyond their control are more likely to lack
resilience. To go back to the earlier example about failing an exam, an adolescent who
is high in self-efficacy would not give up but would believe that they could do better if
they put in the extra work. As Bernard suggests, family support and environment are
critical to the development of adolescents’ resilience.

8.5 Family Factors in Resilience

As we have pointed out in earlier chapters in this book, healthy family environments
involve a number of factors that are protective for adolescents. These factors include
(1) secure attachments to parents, (2) an  emotionally warm atmosphere in the
family, (3) open communication between parents and offspring, (4) the provision
of encouragement and support for the adolescents, and (5) adequate rules and
supervision when needed (see also Chapter 3). Here we will discuss these factors in
terms of their links to the development of resilience in young people.

8.5.1 Secure Attachment

Hauser and his colleagues (Allen &  Hauser, 1996; Allen, Hauser &  Borman-
Spurrell, 1996; Hauser, 1999) have argued that secure attachment in adolescence

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is a  marker of resilience. Hauser and Allen (2006) have also claimed that the
individual, environmental and social factors most causally linked to resilience
actually promote secure bidirectional attachment relationships. Thus there seems
to be a reciprocal relationship between attachment and resilience, such that secure
attachment increases the likelihood that an adolescent will be resilient and resilient
children will be more likely than other children to be secure in attachment. Hauser
and Allen (2006) also have argued that attachment is crucial to understanding the
development of resilience. In addition Luthar and her colleagues (Luthar, Cicchetti
& Becker, 2000) emphasize the link between the development of resilience and the
quality of family relationships, a factor also critical to the development of secure
attachment. In fact, Atwool (2006) using a  sample from the Maori population in
New Zealand argues that the concepts of attachment and resilience should be
regarded as complementary. She sees secure attachment as crucial to “minimizing
risk and maximizing resiliency” (p.315) particularly for young people involved in
the child protection system.

8.5.2 An Emotionally Warm Atmosphere

As we have noted earlier, the quality of the parents’ relationship is central to the
functioning of the family and to the quality of care that is provided for young people
(Erel & Burman, 1995; Skrove et al, 2012)). The effect of marital or relationship quality
on adolescents is primarily through the parenting styles that parents use in raising
their children. Those with satisfying couple relationships are more likely to be warm
and accepting with their children and less likely to be rejecting (Aluja et al., 2007).
In addition, parents in satisfying relationships are more likely to model harmonious
interactions for their young people.

8.5.3 Open Communication

Parents’ knowledge of their adolescents’ activities and communication about those

activities is associated with adaptive behaviour by the adolesents. Parents’ and
adolescents’ communication about risky behaviours can serve as a protective factor
for adolescents (e.g., Guilamo-Ramos et  al., 2006). When adolescents believe that
their parents trust them, they are more likely to have discussions with their parents
about their plans and disclose information to them about the activities in which
they are involved (Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Kerr et al., 1999). Parents can then discuss
appropriate rules with their adolescents as well as the need for supervision (see later
section on supervision). (see also Chapter 3)

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8.5.4 Provision of Encouragement and Support

According to Sroufe et al. (2005), adolescents need parents who are able to provide
them with support and help when needed. These authors see adolescents’ capacity
for intimacy as stemming from both early parent-child relationships and the care
provided to the young child, as well as to the ongoing support they receive from
their parents. Adolescents who enjoy good relationships with parents are more
likely to have good relationships with their peers (Steinberg, 2005) and the quality
of adolescents’ relationships with parents and peers influences the quality of their
romantic relationships (Brown, 2004). Most parents want to have good relationships
with their children and want them to form positive lasting relationships with others.
Supportive families tend to include warm and responsive parents who get on
well with one another, and at least one parent who has a  close relationship with
the adolescent (Masten, 2004; Mykestad, Roysamb & Tambs, 2012; Silk et al., 2007).
Where the adolescent does not have a  supportive relationship with at least one
parent, a supportive relationship with an adult outside the nuclear family can provide
the necessary care. An aunt or uncle, a grandparent or a trusted family friend could
take on this role. Alternatively, a youth group leader, school counsellor, or religious
or cultural leader could provide the kind of listening ear needed by a young person.
In addition, some countries such as Australia have telephone counselling services
particularly set up for young people for those times when they are unable or unwilling
to share their problems with family members or close friends.

8.5.5 Adequate Rules and Supervision

Another important attribute of parents that is likely to be protective for adolescents is

parents being willing to apply strict rules about risky behaviours such as the abuse of
alcohol or drugs and expect adolescents to keep those rules. When parents do apply
rules confidently, alcohol use, for example, tends to be lower (Van der Vorst et al.,
2005). The problem, as we noted in Chapter 6, is that parents often feel powerless
in trying to control their adolescents’ risky behaviours such as drinking alcohol,
smoking and involvement in drug abuse (Taylor & Carroll, 2001).

8.5.6 Sex Differences in Resilience

Using an  Australian sample, Sun and Stewart (2007) found strong sex differences
in reports of resilience and the protective factors associated with resilience. Female
students tended to report stronger and more positive social relationships than their
male counterparts, including relationships with peers both at school and outside
of school, and relationships with parents, teachers and other adults. Females also

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 Resilience and Emotion Regulation    167

reported higher levels of communication than males, more empathy for the situations
of others and a greater willingness to seek help. They also had clearer goals for the
future than their male peers. There was some evidence in this study for changes over
time with scores for girls in Grade 7 on these protective factors declining sharply,
perhaps because of the transition to high school in some states in Australia.
Those adolescents who became less tense and anxious over time tended to have
better relationships with peers, fewer behaviour problems, better social skills and
were likely to be doing better at school. Parents of these young people tended to
report that they had fewer problems in their relationships with their children than did
those whose symptoms increased over time (Letcher, Smart, Sanson & Toumbourou,
2009). Parents of girls whose internalizing symptoms were decreasing, reported that
their daughters were less shy and more outgoing, and were less negative and more
emotionally stable. Teachers of 11-year-old males whose internalizing symptoms were
decreasing, reported that they were less aggressive, had more effective social skills,
better relationships with peers and were doing better academically.
Thus Letcher et al’s (2009) comprehensive study confirmed that both individual
factors such as temperament, as well as relationship experiences when the young
people were infants and toddlers, all contribute to internalizing problems throughout
childhood and adolescence. The  fact that problems can be identified so early
suggests the importance of early parenting. Perhaps societies should be doing more
to help parents cope with the responsibilities of early parenting and help them learn
the importance of warmth and responsiveness in the treatment of children of all ages.
In fact, the importance of early parenting is confirmed by neuroscientists who have
shown that social experiences such as those with parents can “alter the organizations
of neural systems, particularly when they occur during sensitive periods of heightened
brain plasticity” (Silk et al., 2007, p.843). These neural systems seem to be affected by
both negative and positive influences from the parent-child relationship (Cacioppo,
Berntson, Sheridan & McClintock, 2000; Essex, Klein, Cho & Kalin, 2002).

8.6 Resilience and Emotion Regulation

The ability to regulate emotion is seen as a  crucial skill in the development of

resilience (Silk et al., 2007). These authors see parents as having the potential to help
their adolescents develop resilience against depression by teaching them skills for
managing their emotions in an adaptive and flexible way. In fact, van der Kolk (2005)
argues that teaching emotion regulation is the single most important task of parenting.
There is considerable evidence that how individuals think about themselves and their
world can increase or decrease their tendency to be depressed or contented.
Parents can help adolescents and children develop skills and strategies for
managing emotions in at least three ways (Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers & Robinson,
2007). First, children and adolescents learn through observation of the ways their

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parents manage their own emotions (Denham, Mitchell-Copeland, Strandberg,

Auerbach & Blair, 1997). For example, if parents manage emotions using violence or
abuse, their offspring are likely to develop similar patterns, whereas if parents are
able to maintain positive affect in challenging situations their children are likely to be
better at understanding emotions and emotional behaviour both in themselves and
others.
Second, where parents are able to respond to their children’s emotional expression
appropriately, children seem to increase their understanding of emotions. Relevant
here is the attunement cycle in infancy that is a way of describing the processes that
occur between an infant and caregiver (Cozolino, 2006). For example, an infant cries
in distress, the mother feeds the infant and the infant becomes calm. This process
gradually teaches the child that emotions can be managed and the child begins
to do this in increasingly autonomous ways (e.g., a  toddler may ask for a  drink or
a sandwich). With older children and adolescents, parents may calm their distress by
talking things over with them. In this way, they are becoming increasingly skilled at
regulating their own emotions. Discouragement of a child’s expression of emotion,
on the other hand, is likely to impede their understanding of how emotions work.
Common sayings such as “Big boys don’t cry” or “Don’t you dare get angry with me”
can confuse children because of the disjunction between what they know they are
feeling and what they are allowed to express.
Third, how parents actively teach their children about the appropriateness
of emotional expression has an  impact on their emotional and social competence.
Although Denham et al. (1997) found that language aimed at guiding and socializing
children in terms of controlling their emotions was associated with less emotional
competence, they suggest that where parents are consistently able to provide prosocial
reactions to children’s distress, the children may benefit in terms of their emotional
understanding and competence. The  important point from our perspective is that
those children with good emotional understanding are more likely than those with
poor emotional understanding to become well-functioning adolescents (Smart et al.,
2007).
There is also evidence of the interplay between physiological characteristics and
a person’s social environment, particularly in relation to resilience among adolescents
who are at risk for depression (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998; Silk et al., 2007). For example,
neural systems in the brain that affect how adolescents react to stress and to highly
emotional situations tend to be affected by their social relationships, particularly
those with parents (Essex et  al., 2002). It seems that the social environment has
an  impact on the response of the brain to emotional stimuli (Hooley, Gruber,
Scott, Hiller &  Yurgelun-Todd, 2005). This effect may be particularly important in
adolescence, given the evidence of the continued plasticity of the frontal lobe region
of the brain that is implicated in the regulation of emotion at this stage of life (Casey,
Giedd, & Thomas, 2000; Giedd, 2004; Silk et al., 2007).

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8.7 Resilience Against Depression

As we have noted earlier, resilience involves experiencing a relatively good outcome

despite having to deal with difficult situations that are likely to increase the risk of
developing psychopathology such as depression (Hjemdal et al. 2007; Kassis et al,
2013; Luthar et  al., 2006; Skrove et  al., 2012). Protective factors against depression
include the positive resources of the individual such as easy temperament, high self-
esteem and secure attachment. In addition, being part of a stable and supportive family
environment and having supportive networks outside the family such as peers and
other adults who provide positive models of coping are also important. Adolescents
reporting higher levels of resilience tended to report lower levels of depression,
irrespective of which aspect of resilience was being assessed. It is interesting to
note, from the perspective of this book with its focus on family relationships, that
family cohesion, along with social resources, were important predictors of low levels
of depression. In other words, the young person’s social environment is critical in
protecting them against the risk of developing depression.

8.8 Self-esteem, Resilience and Protection from Risky Behaviour

One study explored the links among self-esteem, resilience and tobacco and cannabis
use in a sample of adolescents from Slovakia (Veselska, Geckova, Orosova, Gajdosova,
van Dijk &  Reijneveld (2009). Findings were quite complex, with some aspects of
resilience decreasing the chances of an adolescent smoking or using cannabis and
other aspects increasing the chances of engaging in these risky behaviours. Family
cohesion seemed particularly important in protecting a young person from smoking
or using cannabis. Wong (2008) also showed that the resilience factors of parental
involvement and autonomy support, along with greater self-regulation, increased the
chances of better academic performance and decreased the probability of adolescents
being involved in substance abuse. It almost seems paradoxical that adolescents
who are encouraged to make their own decisions would be less likely to get involved
in destructive behaviours, but perhaps adolescents who are encouraged to be
autonomous respond to the trust their parents are placing in them with responsible
behaviour. Alternatively, parents may only support autonomous decision-making in
young people who have already shown that they are trustworthy.
Adolescents who have the kinds of relationships with parents and other adults
that promote resilience are also less likely to engage in behaviours that are risky for
their health: smoking, using alcohol, being physically inactive and unhealthy eating
(defined as eating few serves of fruit and vegetables; Mistry, McCarthy, Yancey, Lu
&  Patel, 2009). These researchers found that those adolescents who had greater
parental supervision were more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviours than
were those who had little supervision from parents. For females, having a positive role

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model increased their chances of not engaging in behaviours that put their health at
risk.

8.9 The Importance of the Family Environment

From the large amount of research that we have reviewed in this book it is apparent that
the most critical factor in the lives of adolescents is the family environment in which
they are developing. There are a number of aspects of a supportive family environment
that facilitate positive adolescent development. Firstly, open communication between
parents and adolescents, where adolescents can express their views and discuss
these views with their parents without fear of criticism or ridicule, is vital. Secondly,
it is important for their positive development that the relationships between parents
and adolescents are warm and accepting. Thirdly parents need to support their young
people in their growing independence and autonomy while at the same time having
clear expectations for responsible behaviour.
There is also evidence that young people tend to do better when they are involved
in organized activities outside of school such as team sports, youth groups, scouts
and guides, choirs or bands. Parents who get their children involved in these activities
are promoting resilience, although it is possible to overcrowd children’s lives with
activities so that they don’t have time to just live. Too much of any good thing can
create problems.
Despite all the apprehensions that parents may have about raising their
adolescents, apprehensions that are based on negative stereotypes of young people
in our culture, there is no need for adolescence to be a time of high levels of conflict
and wayward behaviour. Of course, there is likely to be some conflict between parents
and adolescents, given that one task of adolescence is to push the boundaries set
by parents in order to develop independent thought and action. It is important to
keep in mind, however, that most adolescents enjoy positive family relationships and
rely on their families for crucial support as they negotiate their transitions towards
adulthood.

8.10 African-American Youth: A Case Study

Because many African-American adolescents suffer from chronic disadvantage,

including disadvantages in education, health and socio-economic status, they are
an important group for studying resilience (Barrow, Armstrong, Vargo & Boothroyd,
2007). These authors discuss both risk and protective factors affecting this group of
young people at three levels, (1) individual, (2) family, school and community, and (3)
social structures.

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At the individual level, the development of a strong ethnic identity as an African-

American with all that entails has been found to protect African-American young
people against the problems of substance abuse, racial discrimination, and daily
hassles related to poverty, crowded conditions, poor neighbourhoods and other
factors. A strong ethnic identity also helps to increase the chances of healthy
adjustment for these adolescents (Miller &  MacIntosh, 1999). Further, evidence
suggests that having a strong ethnic identity increases their sense of self-efficacy or
mastery, which, in turn, increases their capacity to overcome adversity (Oyserman,
Gant & Ager, 2005).
Family factors are also important in the development of resilience for African-
American youth as for young people in other ethnic groups. Maternal support and
support from peers tend to be associated with doing better academically (Gonzales,
Cauce & Friedman, 1996). Living in a risky neighbourhood, on the other hand, tends
to be associated with poorer school performance. Being involved in the community,
having a  sense of belonging at school and attending church regularly also had
a positive impact on the psychological adjustment and resilience of African-American
youth (McMahon, Sing & Garner, 2003).
According to Barrow and colleagues, being involved in church is a very significant
aspect of life for many African Americans, and church has often been seen as a safe
haven. Church also plays an important role in fostering the spiritual development of
individuals, providing social support, strengthening race consciousness, providing
leadership training, and in empowering young people to be involved in the struggles
for equality and social change (Sheridan, 2003). There is evidence that those who
are involved in the church tend to have higher self-esteem than those who are not
involved (Maton, 2001). In fact, being actively involved in the church helps these
young people to gain knowledge and positive values and to be exposed to successful
role-models, all in the context of a highly supportive environment (Franklin, Boyd-
Franklin & Draper, 2002).
Many African-American young people face all kinds of challenges and yet achieve
success, whereas others struggle because they make choices that increase rather than
decrease the problems that they face. Young people who are high on resilience will be
less likely to make such poor decisions, but are also likely to have a greater chance of
recovering from these kinds of difficulties.
The crucial factors for African American young people include engaging in
activities that strengthen their identity in their own community among their own
people, the encouragement of prosocial rather than antisocial behaviour and learning
effective stress-management techniques. In addition, like other young people, they
will do better in stable family environments that provide monitoring and support,
and being involved in organizations that provide opportunities for training and
volunteering in programs to help others.

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8.11 Temperament and Resilience

In this book, we have focused a  lot on the impact of parenting on adolescents

and on adolescent behaviour, but have put less emphasis on child temperament
as a  predictor of later behaviour or on the interaction of child temperament and
parenting as a  predictor of later behaviour. Laursen, Collins, Lerner and Sternberg
(2009) have commented on the strong focus in research on parents’ influences on
adolescents’ behaviour while the influence of children’s behaviour on parenting
tends to be ignored. Yet there is plenty of evidence, as we will discuss in this section,
that parenting interacts with the temperament of the child to predict child behaviour
at a later time.
The Australian Temperament Project (ATP; Smart, Hayes, Sanson & Toumbourou,
2007) is an excellent example of this type of study. It involved researchers from the
Australian Institute of Family Studies who followed individuals from infancy to
young adulthood (over 20 years). Because these researchers had such comprehensive
longitudinal data, they were able to compare the infancy and childhoods of those
who presented in adolescence as resilient and those who were struggling emotionally
or who had become involved in problem behaviours. The findings also increase our
understanding of the ways that the relatively small group of adolescents who became
involved in problematic behaviour in adolescence, differed from their peers even
when they were small children.
Smart et al. (2007) focused on the ways young people develop in three problem
areas: antisocial behaviour, substance abuse and internalizing problems such as
anxiety or depression. They found both similarities and differences in terms of the
factors that were particularly important in the development of these issues. In support
of our position that adolescence builds on earlier experiences in the family, these
researchers found that temperamental difficulties and behaviour problems early in
life tended to increase the risk of problems in adolescence and young adulthood. In
line with arguments we have made earlier in this book, good quality parent–child
relationships increased the likelihood of adolescents behaving appropriately and
being well adjusted.

8.11.1 Temperament and Parenting: How They Interact

One of the issues in seeking to assess the effects of temperament is that temperament
researchers tend to define temperament somewhat differently and use different
measures of this variable. Temperament is generally seen as the characteristics that
a person is born with and that affects that person’s acting, feeling and thinking. In
some studies temperament is assessed in terms of whether a child is easy, average
or difficult (e.g., Wu, Dixon, Dalton, Tudiver & Liu, 2011). For others, it is assessed
in terms of variables such as sociability, emotionality and activity level (e.g., Holder

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 Temperament and Resilience   173

& Klasssen, 2010). Other researchers have included shyness along with emotionality,
sociability and activity (e.g., Ganiban, Ulbricht, Saudino, Reiss & Neiderhiser, 2011).
Still others have used concepts such as effortful control and fearfulness (Sentse, Ormel,
Veenstra, Verhulst &  Oldehinkel, 2011) or harm avoidance and reward dependence
(Manfredi, Caselli, Rovetto, Rebecchi, Sassaroli, &  Spada, 2011) or fearfulness
(Padilla-Walker &  Nelson, 2010) or anger-proneness (Koenig, Barry &  Kochanska,
2010) or behavioural inhibition and inhibitory control (Volbrecht & Goldsmith, 2010).
In a  Japanese study, temperament was assessed using the Temperament and
Character Inventory (Cloninger &  Zohar, 2011) that measures seven dimensions:
novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness,
cooperativeness and self-transcendence (Suzuki, Matsumoto, Shibuya, Sadahiro,
Kamata, Goto, et  al., 2011). Cloninger and Zohar, however, consider that the first
four variables in the list are temperament and the other three are character. It would
seem important for researchers in this area to come to some agreement about how
temperament should be measured. It is interesting to note, however, as we will show,
that whatever way temperament is conceptualized and assessed it tends to have
an effect on the behaviour of the child as well as on parenting behaviour.
In a  relatively straightforward study of the links between temperament and
happiness in children aged 9 to 12 years, Holder and Klassen (2010) showed that
children tended to be happier when they were more sociable and active and less
emotional, anxious and shy. In this study, temperament accounted for between 9 and
29 percent of the variance in child happiness depending on which measures were
used (that is, ratings of children’s temperament by parents or children).
One study showing the interaction between child temperament and maternal
characteristics is the study by Wu et al. (2011) of the joint effects of child temperament
and maternal sensitivity in the development of obesity. In this study, the temperament
of the child was assessed in terms of whether it was easy, average or difficult and
the sensitivity of the mother was assessed observationally as mother and baby
engaged in a semi-structured interaction. Mothers were assessed as either sensitive
or insensitive, although we would expect that this variable would be better assessed
on a broader scale. These researchers found that easy children with sensitive mothers
were significantly less likely than other children to be overweight or obese during
their school years.
One study explored the links between parenting and children’s peer relationships,
and found that parents’ psychological control was important (Miller, Tserakhave,
&  Miller (2011). Children reported on the psychological control exercised by their
parents and teachers reported on the extent to which children were neglected or
excluded by their peers. Fathers’ psychological control was associated with a greater
likelihood of being excluded for males, and the psychological control of both
fathers and mothers was associated with the likelihood that shy females would be
excluded from friendship networks. Thus it seems that the interaction of parenting
and temperament can have an  impact on the ability of children to make friends.

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Therefore, adolescents who are allowed to express their own opinions and contribute
to decisions in their lives are more likely to enjoy positive relationships with their
peers. We have discussed the effects of parental psychological control in Chapter 3
where we focus on the family environment.
A group of Italian researchers (Manfredi, Caselli, Rovetto, Rebecchi, Ruggiero,
Sassaroli & Spada et al., 2011) measured anxiety, depression, temperament, parental
styles, rumination and worry in a  community sample of children, adolescents and
young adults. Temperament in this study was assessed in terms of Cloninger’s
(1986) conceptualization of temperament as including three variables: harm
avoidance, novelty seeking and reward dependence. The researchers were focused
on the links between the temperament measures, parenting styles and two types of
recurrent negative thinking (rumination and worry). Both types of negative thinking
were positively correlated with anxiety, depression, harm avoidance and parental
overprotection. Rumination was also positively correlated with reward dependence
and worry was positively correlated with novelty-seeking. Thus the temperament
factors were found to be important predictors of these recurrent negative thinking
patterns. In addition, parental overprotection was an independent predictor of both
rumination and worry (Manfredi et  al., 2011). One of the problems with parental
overprotection is that this type of parenting tends to send a message to adolescents
that they are inadequate and cannot be trusted to do what is required to care for
themselves and keep themselves safe. Parents who encourage and support their
adolescents to engage in an appropriate degree of exploration and autonomy facilitate
the development of confidence and contentment.
Padilla-Walker and Nelson (2010) explored the role of temperament (assessed
as fearfulness) in the association between parenting and adolescents’ values and
behaviour in a sample of adolescents and young adults. These young people reported
on their own fearfulness, as well as their prosocial values and also their perceptions
of their mothers’ attachment and the appropriateness of her behaviour. There was
an  association between adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers’ attachment
security and their own prosocial behaviour. In other words, those young people who
saw their mothers as secure in attachment tended to engage in prosocial behaviour.
In addition, perceptions of maternal security were related to the greater importance of
prosocial values as well as prosocial behaviour for boys who were low on fearfulness.
While it is interesting to examine the links between these measures, it is important
to recognize that all the measures are based on a single informant, a procedure that
would inflate the correlations. A more interesting exercise would have involved the
mothers reporting on their own attachment and that measure being related to the
measures provided by the adolescents. Another problem with this study is that all the
measures are based on questionnaire data.
In a better-designed study carried out by Koenig, Barry and Kochanska (2010),
both child temperament (assessed as proneness to anger at 25 and 38 months) and
parenting were based on observational data. In addition, parents’ personalities

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Conclusions   175

were assessed using the Big Five personality factors (Costa & McCrae, 1992) as well
as on optimism. Irrespective of child temperament, mothers’ low neuroticism and
fathers’ high extraversion were related to more positive parenting. When dealing with
difficult anger-prone children, mothers’ high optimism and fathers’ high openness
were associated with more positive parenting. Hence, positive parenting encourages
positive characteristics in adolescence.

8.12 Conclusions

In this chapter, we have focused on three related issues: the development of resilience
and the importance of parenting to that process, the impact of temperament on
parenting and the way that adolescence builds on infancy and childhood. Although
parents often seem to believe that their socially-competent and well-behaved child
could suddenly turn into a  monster when he or she reaches adolescence, such
a complete change in behaviour is unlikely. On the other hand, adolescence is a time
when young people and their parents need to redefine their relationship.
First, adolescents need to begin the process of separating from parents and
developing an autonomous self (see Chapter 2). In achieving this goal, adolescents
need to ‘push the boundaries’ set by parents, and argue for the right to make their
own decisions, at least in areas where this is appropriate. This process may involve
increased conflict with parents and may be difficult for some parents to handle.
Recognizing that such conflict is normal and an important part of growing up should
help.
Second, adolescents and parents need to develop a new kind of relationship. This
relationship will be built on mutual respect and be a more equal relationship than has
existed in the past. Adolescents’ opinions need to be taken into account in the making
of decisions that affect them. In addition, adolescents also need to be given more
freedom to make their own decisions in areas where that is appropriate.
Of course, these changes should not happen overnight, but should happen
gradually as parents allow more freedom and more responsibility to the adolescent.
Balancing freedom and responsibility is important so that young people recognize
that freedom and responsibility need to go together, and that they need to take
responsibility for the consequences of decisions that they themselves make. Parents
need to be there to support their adolescents when things don’t go well but should not
relieve them of the responsibility for dealing with the consequences. If as children,
young people have learned to deal with the consequences of their behaviour, this
issue should be less problematic.
While the role of parents in, as far as possible, providing an emotionally warm
family atmosphere, open communication, encouragement and support and adequate
rules and supervision where needed is obviously important, we have also shown
here that the temperament of the adolescent is relevant. The  temperament of the

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adolescent may affect the parenting, and temperament and parenting interact to
affect the behaviour of the adolescent. When the importance of temperament is
acknowledged, two other conclusions can be drawn: First, adolescence builds on the
temperament of the infant and child as was evident in the Australian Temperament
Project, and second, it is inappropriate to see the parents as the ones who are solely
responsible for adolescents’ behaviour.
Most parents have the goal of raising resilient adolescents who will be able to
make responsible decisions and react positively to difficult circumstances and
recover from those situations with little impact on their mental health. It is important
to remember, however, that both the adolescent and the parent contribute to such
outcomes and the critical issue may be maintaining a relationship of respect between
the two, not surrendering to any unreasonable demands of the adolescent but
allowing for respectful discussion between parent and adolescent where differences
can be worked through for the benefit of both.

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