An article from one of our own – Have we gone too far with resilience, or not far enough?

An article from one of our own – Have we gone too far with resilience, or not far enough?

This is the intriguing topic of two editorials that appeared in the journal, Social Work Research.  In March of 2014, Dr. Larry Davis, Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, cautioned that we focus too much on celebrating and trying to understand the resilience of disadvantaged individuals, rather than focusing on reducing the risk factors that jeopardize their development.  He suggested that it is, “Unreasonable for us to ask so much of those who often have so much going against them.”   Earlier this year, Dr. Valerie Shapiro, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley and Research Analyst at the Devereux Center for Resilient Children (DCRC), responded that we have not gone far enough in our understanding of resilience.  Dr. Shapiro agreed that we should, of course, strive to reduce risk factors, but she stressed that we should also endeavor to understand how children achieve resilience.  If specific protective factors can be identified that break the link between risk and adverse outcomes, then those protective factors should be made available to as many children as possible.  Dr.  Shapiro does an excellent job of describing the approach that we have adopted at DCRC.  To read her brief and engaging editorial, click here!