Browsing by Subject "Resilience"

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Academic Resilience: Experiences of Latino United States Army Active-Duty Soldiers and Veterans
(2022-05) Irizarry, Lourdes I.
This critical ethnography evaluates Latino male active-duty soldiers' and veterans' experiences in higher education and the military setting through the lens of humanistic, psychosocial, and sociological perspectives with the purpose of finding out how these experiences contribute to their academic resilience. This study aims to answer questions about how internal and external resilience protective factors in the military and academic life contribute to the academic resilience of Latino military students, and evaluates if resilience can be taught in a military context. Through the lens of critical race theory (CRT) and the use of interviews with active-duty soldiers and veterans who attended 4-year institutions, the study looks for counter narratives emerging from their experiences to evaluate the patterns, practices, and policies of racial inequality that still exist in higher education and the U.S. Army that hinder the academic success of Latino military students. A total of 10 themes related to higher education, military life, and Latino culture emerged from the participants' experiences. Through the evaluation of these themes, the study found that being part of the U.S. Army may contribute to a higher level of academic resilience in military students, that resilience may be taught in a military context, and that racial inequality still exists in higher education and the U.S. Army that may hinder the academic success of Latino active-duty soldiers and veterans. In the future, higher education institutions and the U.S. military should collaborate to strengthen the soldiers' support system with the purpose of implementing best practices to help military students succeed academically.
Context, cortisol, and executive functions among children experiencing homelessness.
(2011-08) Cutuli, Joseph J.
Homelessness represents a context of risk for child development. Yet, many homeless children show good develop outcomes, nonetheless. The processes of risk and resilience that contribute to this variability involve adaptive systems impacted by factors across levels of analysis, such as cortisol and physiology, executive functions (EF) and other aspects of psychological functioning, and parenting behavior and the family context. This study employs a resilience framework that is grounded in developmental-ecological theory and recognizes factors at multiple levels of analysis. The goal is to elucidate explanatory models of the processes of risk and resilience by incorporating relationships with cortisol, a component of physiological adaptive systems related to the stress response, self-regulation, and other functions. Families in this study were all staying in an emergency homeless shelter and contained a child entering kindergarten or first grade. Children were separated from caregivers and completed a session of cognitive tasks that assessed executive functions and other abilities, followed by a session of parent-child interaction tasks. Saliva samples were collected throughout both sessions and assayed for cortisol concentrations. Parents reported on risk factors and stressful negative life events for each child. Initial levels of child cortisol were negatively related to EF, affirming a proposed inverted-U relationship between cortisol and cognition among this sample of high-risk children. Higher rates of stressful, negative life events were not related to cortisol, nor was positive parenting behavior. However, harsh, hostile, and insensitive parenting behaviors were related to higher levels of child cortisol, but only during the session when parent and child were together. There were no differences based on variables of interested when it came to changes in cortisol over either session. Results are discussed with respect to proposed mechanisms of the interface between cortisol, parenting and EF at different levels of analysis in the context of high developmental risk.
Families and communities together: strength and resilience during early adolescence
(2013-12) Roehlkepartain, Eugene C.
Grounded in a bioecological understanding of human development, this study examined the contributions of internal family strengths and family-community connections to youth well-being during early adolescence. Using a diverse dataset of about 1,498 families with 10- to 15-year-olds, the study explored whether and how strengths within families (Internal Family Assets) and family interactions with community were associated with six indicators of youth well-being: self-regulation, social competencies, school engagement, health behaviors, personal responsibility, and caring. In addition, it examined the extent to which these factors contributed to resilience, ameliorating the potentially deleterious effects of stressful life events on youth well- being. The study found that: (1) the level of Internal Family Assets was a much stronger predictor of family-community connections than youth, family, or community covariates; (2) the extent of Formal and Informal Community Supports for Families was modestly associated with youth well-being after accounting for covariates and Internal Family Assets; (3) the interactions between Internal Family Assets and family-community connections suggest that some family-community connections bolster the effect of Internal Family Assets on social competencies and caring; and (4) youth who have experienced high levels of Stressful Life Events have greater odds of experiencing high levels of well-being if they experience higher levels of Internal Family Assets and family-community connections. The findings invite increased attention to the ways in which families are engaged in communities, with particular focus on the importance of strengthening informal supports and engaging families as contributors to community life.
The impact of executive function and emotional control and understanding on the behavioral functioning and academic achievement of children living in emergency homeless shelters.
(2012-08) LaFavor, Theresa L.
This study examined the impact of executive function (EF) and emotional control and understanding on the behavioral functioning and academic achievement of 86 homeless children, ages 9 to 11. Executive function skills were assessed using parent report, child's performance on four standard behavioral tasks, and teacher report. Emotional control was assessed using parent report on standard measures of emotion regulation. Emotional understanding was assessed using child performance on a standard measure of affect recognition. Risk and adversity were assessed using parent report on widely used measures of sociodemographic variables, and negative and stressful life events. Indices of behavioral functioning included parent and teacher report of externalizing and internalizing problems. Indices of academic achievement included child's performance on standard measures of mathematical operations and word reading. Results indicate that executive function may be an important marker of academic achievement and behavioral functioning. Performance on executive function tasks predicted academic achievement, and parent reports of internalizing behaviors. Executive function emerged a unique predictor above and beyond children's general intelligence, a key correlate of achievement and behavioral functioning among both low and high risk samples. The effects of risk and adversity, specifically negative and stressful events experienced in the past 12 months, emerged as a unique predictor of achievement and behavioral functioning. Children who experienced more recent negative and stressful life events had lower academic achievement and higher parent reported externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Emotional control emerged as a unique predictor of academic achievement, above and beyond executive function and children's intelligence, suggesting that aspects of emotion regulation are important for academic functioning and success. Implications of these findings are discussed with relation to future intervention and the potential of EF as a focus of intervention.
Impact Resilience and Force Dissipation of Fiberglass Composite Panels versus a Steel Panel
(2021-05-03) Mamer, Alex P
This UROP research compared force dissipation and resiliency to impact loads between three fiberglass composite panels and an equivalent 1 in. thick steel plate of equivalent size to determine the composite specimens' viability for potential impact loading scenarios. A drop tower was used to apply impact loads ranging from 25 to 250 lbf. Loads were applied at 25 lbf increments with one trial performed at each increment. Impact force sensors and a displacement measurement device were placed under each panel tested to compare the force absorbed and maximum deflection between panel types. Test results found that all fiberglass composite panels absorbed more force than the steel panel at all applied energy levels. However, two of the three fiberglass composite panels failed at or before 250 lbf was applied, whereas the equivalent steel panel remained undamaged. Although it is advantageous for a panel to absorb impact force, the resiliency of a panel to impact load and failure is more important. It was concluded that fiberglass composite panels are viable for impact loading scenarios, but each type of fiberglass composite panel behaved differently as applied energy loads increased. Thus, if a fiberglass composite panel is to be used in a potential impact loading scenario, it is imperative to ensure its impact load capacity is sufficient for its application.
Inside the Head of a Bad" Kid: An Autoethnographyof Adversity to Resilience"
(2016-08) Laabs, Bonnie
Abstract This qualitative autoethnography explores how and why youth succeed and struggle in their personal and academic lives, through the lens of my own successes and struggles. Autoethnography as an analytical tool places value on the self-reflexive process of understanding. By working through my own childhood experiences and development as a person and a learner, I explore how my personal understanding of trauma impacts my methods for teaching the survival-based students who I now mentor as teacher. This study provides educators, therapists, and caregivers with a deeper understanding of trauma and resilience, from my personal experiences and professional analysis and application. Readers can implement insights from this study to guide young people towards an individual reflection of their experiences. This dissertation is a serious attempt to discover directions for success with trauma and behavior issues in schools. The different data sources and analysis techniques fit together to demonstrate how the experiences of childhood transition into the outcomes of adulthood. Most importantly, by shedding light on the intervention process, we can increase the odds for today’s struggling young people. This thesis travels chapter by chapter, alternating between memoir and analysis to ultimately conclude that lagging executive function skills can be strengthened through behavior intervention which will ultimately increase individual resilience.
Intergenerational Relationships and Eldercare in Rural Tanzania: A Life Course Perspective on The Implications of Social Change on Families
(2014-12) Msechu, June
Strategically, eldercare in Tanzania is based on a family based model in which every individual is presumed to be a valued member of a well-wishing family network. This assumes presence of willingness and ability of individual family networks to maintain kinship ties and the traditions necessary for sustaining mutual intergenerational support. Given vast socio-political changes in recent decades, including policy reforms, migration trends, altered educational opportunities, and technological advancements, this study examines how experiences of aging and the provision of eldercare have changed since the time of independence in 1961. Using a life course approach, my research documents lived experiences to examine how willingness, ability, and motivations for caregiving have been transformed over time, while also exploring subsequent policy implications of this knowledge. I employed mixed methods (participant observation, life history interviews, key informant interviews, focus group, and brief questionnaires) to collect empirical evidence from a randomly selected sample of matched pairs of elderly persons and their adult children. Research questions explored included: What is the state of intergenerational relationships and eldercare? Who cares within families (roles)? How and to what extent have "traditional" strategies been sustained over time? To what extent are assumptions upon which policy proposals for the future of elder care are based validated by current trends in families and communities? My findings revealed that the state of eldercare and intergenerational relationships is exceedingly complex and not yet well captured by current aging discourses. Most individuals pursue intergenerational solidarity and desire to provide for their "own". However, in truth, families are overstrained by the burgeoning needs for care. Migration and emergent social challenges, notably a struggling agriculture sector, fosters noteworthy changes in perceptions and reactions to care needs. Younger generations, particularly the "educated", fabricate newer ways of doing family such as modifying family structures and enlarging caregiver networks to include market-based caregivers so as to promote personal social mobility. Gender hierarchies are incessantly contested but women remain underprivileged. As key caregivers, women play poorly recognized and inadequately supported roles within families. Ultimately, this study offers a nuanced description and recommends areas for further research and interventions.
The interrelations of childhood conscientiousness, nonindependent and independent adversity, and adult physical health
(2020-07) Ramakrishnan, Jyothi
Researchers have urged a lifespan approach to health promotion, intervening at earlier stages in life in order to shape physical health across time (Shonkoff et al., 2009). Intriguing findings suggest that the personality trait conscientiousness in childhood predicts physical health later in adulthood. Unfortunately, pathways linking personality to health are not well understood, requiring further elucidation before developing interventions that target conscientiousness as a strategy for promoting later health (Friedman et al., 2014). The present study addressed several gaps in the literature, testing models in which personality and health were measured at multiple time points; testing mediation effects of personality on later health; the joint effects of childhood conscientiousness and childhood/adolescent independent and nonindependent adversity exposure on health; whether conscientiousness moderates the influence of adversity on heath; and the role of childhood conscientiousness on health outcomes in an earlier period in adulthood than is typically examined. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of 205 families, focused on students attending urban elementary schools who were followed for 20 years into young adulthood. Multimethod and well-validated measures of personality, adversity, and physical health were derived from interviews and questionnaires with participants, parents, and teachers. Models were tested separately for two different age 30 health outcomes in young adulthood – body mass index (BMI), and a latent variable indexing health status, based on three indicators: self-rated health, functional impairment, and sum of lifetime illnesses. Results indicated that higher childhood conscientiousness predicted lower young adult BMI, even after consideration of childhood health, the emerging adulthood personality trait of constraint measured at age 20, adversity across childhood and adolescence, age, and sex. Across both models, emerging adulthood constraint did not directly predict young adult BMI or health status, and did not mediate effects of conscientiousness assessed in childhood on either young adult health outcome. Nonindependent adversity (experiences likely influenced by a person’s own behavior) predicted young adult health status but not young adult BMI. Personality did not moderate the effects of adversity on either young adult health outcome. Some support was found consistent with the possibility that nonindependent adversity in adolescence mediates the relationship between childhood conscientiousness and young adult health status, but results are inconclusive. Findings highlight the potentially unique importance of conscientiousness in childhood for health 20 years later in young adulthood. Limitations and implications of these results for illuminating complex models linking personality, adversity, and health over the earlier decades of the lifespan are discussed, as well as the possibility that childhood conscientiousness may be a target for interventions to promote adult physical health.
Miracle Survivors (Pisatsikamotaan): an indigenous theory on educational persistence grounded in the stories of Tribal College Students.
(2009-04) HeavyRunner, Iris
For the last two hundred years, higher education for American Indians has been an Anglo institution involving compulsory Western methods of learning, reoccurring attempts to eradicate tribal culture, and high departure rates for American Indian students at mainstream institutions. In direct response to this history, American Indian leaders drew upon the philosophical framework of the “self-determination” movement of the 1960s to rethink the role of higher education. These leaders recognized the importance of post-secondary education and fostered among themselves the awareness that American Indian colleges could strengthen reservation economies and tribal culture without forcing the students to accept acculturation. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created the first tribally controlled community college - now called Dine’ College in Tsaile, Arizona. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reported in 1997, “[w]ithout question, the most significant development in American Indian communities, since World War II, is the creation of tribally controlled colleges.” The purpose of this study was to develop an Indigenous theory on educational persistence for American Indian students. This indigenous theory emerged from the stories of tribal college students, faculty, and staff. This qualitative study is twopronged: (1) what constitutes educational persistence in a tribal college setting and (2) how students believe they came to “persist” in the tribal college.
Parenting Resilience in the Context of Homelessness: Risk and Protective Factors
(2015-08) McCormick, Christopher
Homelessness among families with children has become a surprisingly common and persistent problem. Children who experience the disruptions of homelessness are at increased risk for difficulties with academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. Decades of research on resilience suggests that effective parenting helps to mitigate the effects of adversity on child development. However, relatively little is known about factors that predict parenting quality during family homelessness. This study examined predictors of parenting quality among 138 families who were staying in three Minneapolis emergency housing shelters, with the goal of identifying distal and proximal influences on parenting in families facing homelessness. Based on transactional-ecological systems perspectives on the determinants of parenting, and research on risk and protective processes for parenting under stress, current parenting in a shelter context was expected to relate to recent and past adversity of the parent and current health and social resources. Current trauma, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in parents were expected to interfere with effective parenting. Two basic dimensions of parenting, warmth and structure, were expected to underlie observed parenting assessed by three empirically validated observational coding techniques. Factor analyses indicated two dimensions of parenting; however, these reflected a blend of warmth/structure and a distinct factor of negativity. Thus, subsequent analyses predicted parenting on each of these two dimensions, using linear methods of path analysis and multiple regression to test for predictive, mediating, and moderating effects of earlier and recent adversity, physical and mental health, and available resources on parenting quality. Also tested was the moderating influence of resources, specifically cognitive resources and social support, on the relationship between adversity, mental health, and parenting quality. Finally, a person-centered analytic approach was used to provide an integrated portrait of resilient parenting in the context of homelessness. Controlling for parent age, sex, and child behavior, parents’ adverse experiences in childhood were positive related to warmth/structure, contrary to expectations, whereas current resources, as predicted, were positively and independently associated with this aspect of effective parenting. Resources did not moderate any of these relationships. Parents classified as showing resilience in the person-focused analyses had greater cognitive, social, and emotional resources than parents classified as maladaptive. Strengths and limitations of this study are discussed in relation to future research and the goals of identifying malleable protective influences on parenting for families in challenging situations.
Resilience and adaptation in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic: Complex mixed methods research of adults in Minnesota and Hong Kong
(2023-05) Chan, Athena Chung Yin
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to escalating family conflicts while limiting resources previously available to cope with stress. The mechanisms underlying resilience in the pandemic largely remain a black box. This dissertation aims to generate a holistic understanding of the trajectories of resilience capacity in response to complex acute-onset and chronic stress associated with the pandemic. My proposed Multisystemic Resilience Framework, a conceptual framework, illuminates resilience as a developing capacity changing over time. Informed by and empirically examining the framework, this dissertation employed complex mixed methods design targeting adults living with family members in Western cultures (i.e., Minnesota) and Eastern cultures (i.e., Hong Kong) over the first two years of the pandemic. Study 1 used a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design to generate a fuller understanding of resilience capacity as manifested by individual and family resources, cumulative pandemic-related stressors, and mental health of adults. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the moderating roles of coping resources in each region, while qualitative content analysis elucidated the quantitative findings. Coping resources predicted around one-third of the variance in perceive resilience capacity during the early outbreak of pandemic in each region. Different individual and family coping resources were protective of adult mental health when facing high levels of pandemic-related stressors. The qualitative findings illuminated the situation-specific and culture-specific coping strategies utilized by participants. Study 2 used a critical realism paradigm to deepen the understanding of resilience mechanisms under specific contextual conditions throughout the pandemic. These resilience mechanisms, involving family hardiness, distress tolerance, and cognitive flexibility, offered insights into ways that individuals and families cope with complex stressors involving competing priorities. The study elucidated ways that individuals balanced family togetherness, family roles and responsibilities with their personal sense of safety from the infectious nature of COVID-19. Overall, this complex mixed methods research provides significant theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to our current understanding of resilience mechanisms within sociocultural contexts. While these empirical findings align with existing psychological treatments, the findings are suggestive of the need for culturally-tailored interventions to effectively ameliorate the negative impacts of a global pandemic and future related crises.
Resilience in college students following childhood maltreatment
(2021-07) Merians, Addie
Objective: I examined the relations between childhood maltreatment and domains of functioning (i.e., relational functioning, educational functioning, autonomy, drinking consequences, psychological functioning) and the moderators of these relations among college students. I hypothesized that most students with a history of childhood maltreatment would display resilience in the domains of functioning, both cross-sectionally and across time, though more students without a history of childhood maltreatment would be categorized as resilient. I also hypothesized that current stressors would moderate the relation between childhood maltreatment and functioning as a risk factor, whereas emotion regulation, meaning-making, and social support would buffer the relations between childhood maltreatment and functioning.Participants and Methods: Data were collected at two time points from undergraduate students at the beginning (N = 312) and end (N = 241) of the semester. Results: The majority of students with low and moderate-to-severe childhood maltreatment were resilient in most domains at both time points and across time. For relational functioning and psychological functioning, the proportion of students with histories of maltreatment who were resilient was significantly different than those without at Time 1. Recent stressors, emotion regulation, meaning-making, and social support did not moderate the relation between maltreatment and any outcome. Conclusions: Research on maltreatment in undergraduate college students needs to acknowledge resilience, as many students with histories of maltreatment display resilient functioning. Further research on potential moderators is needed.
Strategy Use and Executive Function in Young Homeless Children
(2016-06) Sapienza, Julianna
The development of executive function (EF) has garnered attention in recent years because of its association with many positive outcomes. Although evidence suggests these skills can be trained, little research has focused on the processes that promote strong EF skills in high-risk children. Study 1 sought to investigate spontaneous self-regulatory strategies in 138 4- to 7-year-old homeless children during an EF task and to understand the relation between verbal and physical strategies, performance on EF tasks, and school outcomes. As hypothesized, results indicated that physical strategy use was significantly related to general EF, and that EF mediated the relation between physical strategy use and academic achievement and peer competence at school. Study 2 sought to investigate whether similar strategies can be trained and are related to performance on a delay task. 106 4- to 7- year-old homeless children were randomly assigned to training and control groups, and performance on two delay tasks was examined. As expected, children in the training group displayed significantly more strategies on the training task than did children in the control group and that these strategies were significantly related to task performance. However, there were no overall group differences in performance. Exploratory analyses revealed some evidence for a significant relation between training and performance only for older children. Additionally, results demonstrated some transfer of trained strategies to a generalization task, although these were not related to performance. Overall, evidence indicates some potential benefit of training children to use strategies during delay tasks, with implications for interventions aimed at promoting EF development and long-term school success.
A study of peer-nominated exemplars of social justice commitment in counseling and psychology
(2013-07) Sumner, Adam D.
The current study used qualitative methods to examine the perspectives and experiences of 18 peer-nominated exemplars of social justice practice in psychology and counseling. A 9 question semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant addressing 4 research questions: What is social justice in counseling and psychology? How did the exemplar develop his or her orientation towards social justice? What challenges are associated with the exemplar's social justice work? How does the exemplar maintain his or her vitality and resiliency? The data was analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methods. A total of 51 themes emerged from 1,061 minutes (17 hours, 41 minutes) of interview data. These themes were grouped into 13 domains. The results present a nuanced picture of the practice of social justice in counseling and psychology, an engaging, personal perspective on the development of social justice orientation, a detailed examination of the challenges associated with social justice work, and key practices that can be used to sustain vitality and resiliency. The research process and results show that psychologists, counselors, social workers, family therapists, and other mental health practitioners are actively engaged in social justice work and have developed a thoughtful, cohesive set of practices that can be informative to those in practice, training, and research.
"Teeter-tottering between hope and despair": fathers' resilience in the face of advanced cancer
(2013-12) Lundquist, Melissa Ann
Currently in the United States there are more than 13 million individuals living with cancer. Nearly one quarter of these survivors are parents to one or more minor children. Though the literature examining the experience of parents diagnosed with cancer while raising young children has grown over the last two decades, little attention has been paid to parents living with advanced cancer moreover the voice of fathers from this body of work is nearly absent. This paper presents a grounded theory study that explores how men diagnosed with advanced cancer understand and navigate their roles as fathers of young children. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 11 fathers diagnosed with advanced cancer and currently raising children under 18 years of age. The analysis revealed that when these fathers were diagnosed with advanced cancer their roles changed and the financial pressures mounted. Concerns for their children permeated their cancer experience and influenced their treatment decisions as well as their motivation to survive. Change, uncertainty and loss were woven throughout their experiences as these fathers described the challenge of "teeter-tottering between hope and despair" while striving to live and parent in that place of hope. Their desire and eventual ability to live in and parent from that place of hope exemplified resilience. A theoretical model of the protective strategies utilized by these fathers as pathways toward resilience was constructed. This model identifies the primary variables that are a part of fathering through advanced cancer and provides a framework for understanding the dynamic and complex process of resilience experienced by these participants.Understanding both the risk and protective factors that shaped these fathers' resilience can inform the development and implementation of supportive resources for these families as well as guide future research. In addition, this study addressed a gap in the literature by including facing cancer currently living in the United States and thus sheds some light on this country's social and institutional policies that may impact a father's resilience.

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