Acta Psychopathologica Open Access

Resilience is a topic that has been important in the investigation of the personality, which has received much attention in recent years. As you can see, there has been a significant increase in its research, which has conducted in different aspects. Some of them, are dedicated to the review of the concept, others aim to investigate its relationship with multiple personality variables. There is also ample evidence regarding its measurement in which it makes use of robust statistical techniques; however nowadays, the empirical studies are heterogeneous, from the conceptual aspect to the methodology. This imposes a variety of methodologies including post-hoc studies that retrospectively evaluate the life history of the participants. And others are evaluation studies ongoing processes, for example in children in high-risk contexts and others even longitudinal. Research methods such as classic experiments in this field are not acceptable for ethical issues. All these have been investigated from different disciplines such as: psychology, medicine, nursing, social work, education, neurology, biology and regarding its application, this have been done in contexts such as families, schools, industries, organizations, hospitals and communities.

But, why is the study of resilience so important? The answer to this question is simple, since we realized that humans are concerned about multiple situations like: economy, society, forced displacements, unemployment, diseases, separations, loss of a loved one, become victims of a crime, mistreatment, abuse and even climate change, earthquakes and hurricanes, among many others. And against this background, the reactions seem to be evident: individuals are depressed, stressed or anxious, therefore, our explanations focus on saying that people face many problems every day, and as psychologists, we try to contribute to the resolution.

However, it is very important to start thinking about the way in which we experience the vital events and the concomitant emotions, because now it is known that not all events that we live are pleasant, some of them are extremely negative and painful, so we have two options: the number one is to live with a bad memory or, we can transform our thoughts, feelings, actions and conduct, becoming more positive. This second path makes the individual able to adapt and/or adjust to the different circumstances and peculiarities of our current society and it is more likely to help him to improve the future status.

As in all references to the matter, we began to mention that resilience has its origin in physics and is defined as the quality of the materials to charge for their original state after suffering a collision. But in the social sciences and in particular in the psychology, resilience is related to the change, there must be a continuous realignment, it must be more than one evolution, and implies reinvent yourself internally, through creative construction and innovation, because we must understand it as a constant rebuilding, hence it is a dynamic construct. The central idea of resilience is characterized by an effective confrontation of stressful events, the ability to resist destruction and above all to get up despite the adversity. It does not concern exclusively to the capacity of resistance of the individual, but also to its potential of positive building, to respond adaptively and grow despite the difficult circumstances. Therefore, it is not enough to recover from conflicts and wait till the crisis disappears, but, promoting changes and strengthening defenses against recurrence of them.

Resilience is an inferred construct that requires the fulfillment of three essential characteristics, the first of these consists of determining the existence of a threat to development; the second one consists that the person who acquire, from their psychological interactions, the provision for resilience, this is, the tendency to overcoming and subsequent adaptability to adversities; and, finally, it is necessary to demonstrate the competency in a task of development in accordance with the age and culture [1].

Thus, we have given the task of investigate in a systematic way, both children and adolescents in different circumstances of risk (teenagers in street situation, the precocious maternity, with major health problems such as cancer, with young offenders, in poverty, with a history of child abuse and sexual abuse, among others). These both theoretical and methodological challenges have enabled to make critical reflections on the subject, but at the same time, to consider that there is still much to understand.

We start from the consideration of ecological analysis, since it takes into account the presence of risk and protective factors that are both in the own individual and the social and physical environment in general. So that the behavior of risk into the which, children and adolescents are exposed and its consequences are a growing concern, therefore, the exploration of emotional disorders and the generating risk behaviors may be factors that somehow compromise the health, life projects and own and others survival. That is why resilience allows the possibility to intervene, not only with regard to the prevention of problematic behaviors, but also for the promotion of positive behaviors [2,3].

This has led to pose González Arratia [4] model in which resilience is based on the interaction between the individual and the environment, so that means it is the capacity that is obtained from the combination and/or interaction between the attributes of the individual (internal) and his family, social and cultural environment (external) that allow him to overcome the risk and adversity in a constructive manner [4].

Many of the questions that we have ask, is in relation to which are the factors that facilitate the resilience, so it has been necessary to return to the studies of Grotberg [5] who pointed out that no factor in particular by itself promote resilience, which justifies the multilevel view in the study of construct, and this has allowed to know more precisely the factors involved in the resilient behavior. In this line, we have studied a set of variables called psychological factors, which are the ones that help when dealing with a crisis or traumatic situations, and explain the resilient children and teenagers behavior. So, among the characteristics that we have identified that distinguish mexican children and teenagers resilience are: they have high self-esteem, they make use of functional coping styles, they are more optimistic, they perceived themselves much happier and satisfied with life, they make use of the sense of humor as a strategy to deal with difficult situations, they have clear the meaning and purpose of their lives, they are more empathic (especially women), they feel able to solve problems, they are creative, they have a high achievement motivation they have internal locus of control, they possess and often have at least one significant relationship with any person (family, friends), since to the extent that there is an optimum bond with the family, it is most likely that they are resilient.

These findings have shown that we must pay attention to individual, social, and cultural factors, because it is evident that with much more psychological resources, the greater the capacity of the individual to deal with the crisis or adversity in a competent way, and therefore with greater wellbeing [6]. But at the same time, it is necessary to point out that the presence of multiple variables of positive psychology, require even be tested in rigorous and systematic manner that allows us to make progress in this field.

It is important to mention that we continuously deal with the difficulty or even avoid risks. There is a saying that talks about it: learn from failure or fail in learning, and never let go a good crisis; are inevitable, there are many stories of characters who tell us that they went through many failures, and emerged stronger, the difference is that they did not quit, they got up and moved on with all the challenge that is implicit.

So in this new scenario, we have to be prepared, and professionals today will have to expand their perspectives and develop new practices of intervention, but especially of promotion even in an environment of instability. This new look, can lead to a change in the vision of plans, programs and social policies that traditionally have been thought as a reliever, compensatory and in the best cases, preventive.

References

1. Gaxiola RJ, Frías M, Hurtado AM, Salcido NL, Figueroa FM (2011) VALIDATION OF INVENTORY OF RESILIENCE (IRES) IN A SAMPLE OF NORTHWESTERN MEXIC. Teaching and Research in Psychology 16: 73-83.
2. Lerner RM, Fisher CBY, Weinberg RA (2000) Toward a science for and of the people: promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development 71: 11-20.
3. Krauskopf D (1995) Adolescencia y Educación. San José: Asociación de Estudios Sociales de la Universidad de Costa Rica.
4. González Arratia LFNI (2011) Resiliencia y personalidad. Cómo desarrollarse en tiempos de crisis. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.
5. Grotberg E (2006) La resiliencia en el mundo de hoy. España: Gedisa.
6. González Arratia LFNI, Valdez MJL (2015) Predictores de la resiliencia en niños. Revista de la Asociación Mexicana de Psicología Social XXXI 1: 15-34.