¶ … Risk and Resilience:
Accommodating the Needs of Our Children
The children and adolescents in today's America are at a high risk of failure, based on certain internal and external factors that may or may not have been chosen by them. The societal failure lifestyle does not have to be the future of any of America's children, each of who are able to lower such risk through personal choice and habitual experiences until the growth into their adulthood. When a child is placed under certain optimistic and good natured demands for personal success from educational institutions, parents, and themselves, it is then that they will be most capable in functioning in today's society.
The purpose of the article "Risk and Resilience," by Darlene Brackenreed was to introduce and discuss how risk and resilience relate to at-risk children. "At-risk" children were defined in the article as those with a predictable vulnerability or risk for a wide range of negative outcomes. Negative outcomes included school failure, dropping out, poverty, and drug abuse, among other factors. The article proceeded to define its interpretation of resilience, concluding that at-risk children and adolescence are capable of having positive attributes to help them succeed as much as a low-risk child, despite their diagnosis (Brackenreed, 2010).
The article proved that low income families were clearly a linking factor to determining if a child could be considered at-risk or not. In 1973, a study demonstrated low income factors by studying a group of juvenile boys that came from low income families, showing their increased risk of delinquency (Brackenreed, 2010). In 2010 not only was this study verified and supported, but it was determined that the delinquency rates were on the increase in American children and adolescents. Despite the arguably natural rebellion, it was predicted that nearly half of the children and adolescents experience rebellion growing up, and the risks they choose to take can be dangerous and life altering. The risks that today's children and adolescents are willing to take include substance abuse, early unprotected sex, and youth violence, each of which may lead to disability or death (Brackenreed, 2010).
In order to break America's future from this dangerous cycle, the causes of the factors leading up to a child being diagnosed as at-risk should be evaluated. Poverty is the number one cause of at-risk child issues, mainly as a result of the violence and abuse, substance abuse and stress within the home, adolescent pregnancy and other prenatal and birth issues, poor nutrition, alcohol abuse and smoking, and sexually transmitted diseases. The population of the poverty class is greatly contrived of women and children, potentially starting the vicious cycle for the children to repeat in their adulthood. Women make up the greater half of the single parent population and are still being paid less than men that are their equals in the workforce. In the poverty class, it is not uncommon for women and children to see violent behaviors, including physical, sexual, emotional, psychological abuse from another figure in their household or lives, as violence proves to be a form of authority. In fact, abused children have a greater chance of abusing their own children than those that were not abused. In continuing the cycle, 37% are mothers, 54% are fathers (Brackenreed, 2010).
With such detrimental facts, it should almost be accepted and assumed that America's abused and poverty class will undoubtedly become social failures, not contributing to the workforce or the community in any way. However, a second trait of such adolescents and children was studied. Despite the high risk factors that some people have, a person is still able to adapt into a successful, contributing human being. Commonly known as resilience, this trait can be broken into three different types: Finding personal strength, coping with sustained and acute negative circumstances, and recovering from trauma, such as the death of a parent or loved one. Resilience cannot be diagnosed as a trait that will stay with one forever, but rather, as a person experiences personal challenges, their risk and resilience levels will also alter. The difference between children and adolescents that are capable of resilience and those that are not is often easy to spot, such as having higher intelligence, lower thrill seeking, less association with problematic peers, and abstinence of anti-social behaviors. The resilient characteristics can literally change or save their life.
These effective characteristics fall into one of four protective processes in order to moderate a risk factor. First, a person may try to reduce their exposure to risk. This can be done by seeking mental help, avoiding substance abuse, and refraining from unprotected...
Child Abuse "Although it is extremely important when interviewing children about alleged abuse to determine whether the abuse was single or repeated… we have little information about how children judge the frequency of events… [and] overall children were very accurate at judging the frequency of a single event, but much less so for repeated events." (Sharman, et al., 2011). Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) reports that in the year 2010
First, briefly define the Resiliency Model. Then, using this video as your case study: What concepts from the Resiliency Model can you identify that were illustrated in their stories? Describe and explain. Considerations include: Did you hear any recurring themes mentioned by more than one of these young adults? What did they describe as being most valuable to them during their foster care experiences? Consider some of their recommendations:
Children in poverty are "...behind the eight ball from the moment of conception. Fewer of the marginalized children will develop to the full measure of their potential or acquire advanced intellectual competencies and academic skills that are clearly ahead of the norm for their age." (Kitano, 2003, p.2) The work of Brooks-Gunn and Duncan (1997) stated conclusions that the "...negative effects of poverty on IQ and achievement tests are more
Child abuse no doubt hampers the victim's personality growth and development, as backed out by various publications, studies and research. During these formative years, we are delicate and breakable. Our environment and our relationships either make or break us. The aggressive, apathetic or withdrawn behavior can be traced to feelings that they hardly anyone can be trusted, or that they are inferior to others. All these are residual effects that
232). References Ashley, O.S., Brady, T.M., & Marsden, M.E. (2003). Effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programming for women: A review. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 29(1), 19. Bradley, R.H., & Corwyn, R.F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 371. Dane, B. (2000). Child welfare workers: An innovative approach for interacting with secondary trauma. Journal of Social Work Education, 36(1), 27. Dodds, T.L. (2006). Defending America's children: How the
Child Psychology Mander, G. (May 2001). "Fatherhood Today: variations on a theme." Psychodynamic Counselling, Vol. 7, Issue 2. This journal article centers on the increasing role that fathers play in parenting, especially among single parents. Mander discusses how parenting among fathers has become more an exception than the norm, and they were relegated to "minimal" roles that downplay their role as a parent, such as simply being "mere sperm donors." The article
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