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A Qualitative Exploration of Everyday Resilience in Kindergarten Children

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Abstract

Much resilience research in young children focuses on high-risk samples with marked adversity despite the broad acknowledgement that all children, regardless of levels of adversity experienced, have opportunities to engage in resilience processes (Avdagic et al., 2018; Ungar, 2019). To advance understanding of “everyday resilience”, the current study explores resilience qualitatively in a convenience sample of kindergarten children who were not selected on basis of a risk factor. Caregivers (n = 91) answered a phone interview question in which they were asked to; “Describe a time when your child overcame a difficult situation.” Responses to this indirect assessment of resilience were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Although participants were asked to speak about resilience indirectly, responses were largely consistent with well-established conceptualizations of resilience, including the social-ecological framework for resilience. Indeed, caregivers conceptualized childhood resilience as occurring across four main domains: change, peer(s), health, and rule following. In terms of resilience behaviours, caregivers reported a mix of child- and adult-initiated strategies: the most frequently reported child-initiated resilience strategies were seeking adult support and confronting the adversity, and the most common adult-initiated strategies included verbal collaboration with the child regarding the adversity and problem-solving. Findings support the use of indirect measures of resilience to reduce socially desirable responding and capture detailed and nuanced responses.

Highlights

  • Adult support was the resilience strategy used most frequently among all sources of daily adversity, reflecting the centrality of adult support to childhood resilience building.

  • Use of the Five-Minute Speech Sample to indirectly enquire about resilience resulted in responses consistent with existing conceptualizations of resilience responses, supporting its use as an alternative to written responses or quantitative measures.

  • Consistent with the social ecological model of resilience, participants described resilience processes occurring in key contexts (e.g. school, home) that should be purposefully designed to facilitate the development of resilience (e.g., introducing new experiences).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G2W1, Canada

    Rochelle Thompson

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G2W1, Canada

    Emily Thornton, Ryan O’Byrne & Margaret N. Lumley

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  1. Rochelle Thompson
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  2. Emily Thornton
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  4. Margaret N. Lumley
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Correspondence to Rochelle Thompson.

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Appendix

Appendix

Resilience in Kindergarten: Coding Scheme

General Coding Guidelines

A. Code for present (1) or absent (0)

B. Domain: pick one domain for each example they provide (i.e. if they provide 2 separate examples, can put 2 domains, but do not double code the same example)

C. Strategy: double code as necessary

D. Outcome: forced choice, code either positive or negative holistically based on response

Domain of Adversity: what is the difficult situation the child faced?

D_PEER: adversity that arises from the attempt to make friends, or conflict between child and peer(s)

Ex:

- Making friends: not noticing social cues; struggling to make good friends; being too shy to talk to others; not branching out and trying to make friends

- Conflict: peer breaking child’s toy; peer(s) telling child they don’t want to be friends anymore; peer saying/doing something mean to child; exclusion from a group

D_FOLLOW_RULES: adversity that arises from breaking rules, not following rules, or parent saying “no”

Ex: not “getting their way”; being told they are not allowed to do/get something

D_CHANGE: change in routine or change from expectation; transition to a new environment or a large lifestyle change that is long-term/permanent; experiencing something for the first time

Ex:

- Short term: plans changing for the day; new staff/students at school; classmate/friend moving away; giving away old clothes and toys

- Long term: transition to school; moving houses/schools; new sibling; parents’ divorce

- New experience: swimming in the deep end; riding a bike without training wheels; leaving parents; starting lessons/extracurriculars; new social experiences

** Do not code death of loved ones as D_CHANGE

D_HEALTH: health scare/hospitalization/death of a person or pet in close relationship to the child or a personal physical health scare/hospitalization

Ex:

- Other: death of pet/grandparent; relative in hospital/accident/injured

- Self: concussion; stutter (seeing a speech pathologist for it, not social adversity associated with it); broken bone; disease

D_PARENT_ NONE: parent expresses that their child has not faced any difficult situations **do not code if parent cannot think of a specific situation but does not express explicitly that their child has not faced any difficult situations

Ex:

- Haven’t had to overcome / encountered many / been faced with a whole lot of difficult situation(s)

Initial Reaction

IR_NEGATIVE: child reacts with sadness, fear, anger, generally is upset

Keywords:

- Upset

- Sad; shed tears; devastated; crying

- Angry; tantrum; throwing things; screaming; stomping away

- Scared; panic; freak out; anxious; nervous; worried

IR_POSITIVE: Child reacts to the difficult situation by knowing what to do and staying calm, collected, parent describes this reaction in a positive way

Ex: Confidence; calm

Strategy

Child-initiated: the child entirely makes their own decision, uninfluenced by parent/teacher/adult.

S_CI_CONFRONT: child directly addresses the person/source of the adversity verbally or physically

Ex:

- standing up for themselves; asking to be included; coming to a mutual agreement (child with other child); correcting another child; following through with a parent’s directions to confront peer(s); talking back to parent

- Telling themselves a mantra

- Following through with a parent’s directions to confront peer(s)

- Helping someone who is facing adversity and is upset/scared by consoling them or facing the difficult situation with/for the other person

S_CI_APPLY_PRIOR_KNOWLEDGE: child uses lessons they’ve learned from prior experiences and applies them to the current situation

Ex:

- connecting knowledge /strategies between home and school; using a mantra in a different context than when it was learned; repeating something they have been told/ strategies they have learned to another person to console them/stand up to them

- Using general tools/strategies parents have taught them (not specific “do this tomorrow,” more social skills like how to get along with someone, etc.)

- Having an easier time trying new things (generally) because of successful past first experiences

S_CI_REFRAME: child finds positive aspect of the situation

Ex: being grateful for the little time left doing the activity; looking forward to the next activity/next day; celebrating the life of a pet

S_CI_EXPERIENCE: child comes to accept the circumstances of the situation over time or with repeated exposure to it

Ex:

- coming to a realization that everything is going to be okay

- overcoming the adversity by experiencing it more; coming back and saying they are ready to face the situation/consequences

Keywords: coming around; getting used to

S_CI_EMOTIONAL_REGULATION: child calms themselves down as a strategy to overcome the adversity

Ex: figuring out how to control feelings when tired/overwhelmed/angry; adjusting feelings in a transition

S_CI_IMITATE: child imitates other children are doing or how others are reacting to the situation

Ex: copying the actions of family/peers; feeling more comfortable when seeing others in the same situation

Keywords: copy, mimic

S_CI_COMMUNICATE: child discusses the topic with an adult (does not matter whether they indicate seeking advice, seeking comfort, etc.)

Ex: coming home and telling parents; telling a teacher; consoling someone verbally; expressing personal wants to parent/adult who has control over the situation; seeking an adult when upset

Keywords: Talk about it, bring it up, coming to [the parent], telling what is going on

S_CI_PEER SUPPORT: seeking comfort from friends or using the suggestions of friends

Ex: holding hand of friend when leaving parent; choosing friends who are supportive; seeking other friends when excluded from a group

Adult-Initiated: parent takes part in solving the adversity with varying degrees of involvement with the child

S_AI_SOLVE: adult solves situation without involvement from the child

Ex: taking child out of adverse environment, contacting parents/teachers/supervisors of child and arranging for problem to be solved

Keywords: rescue, solve

S_AI_EXTRINSIC_MOTIVATION: use of punishment or reward to incentivize child

Ex: using chocolate bars; toys; bribes; sending to room

S_AI_VERBAL_COLLABORATION: parent and child have a single conversation, work together over time through multiple discussions about the adversity, or adult provides reassurance to the child but does not try to come up with solution

Ex:

- creating a plan for the child; asking child questions; outlining choices the child can make in the situation; giving advice; providing directions; talking to the child about the situation

- connecting the specific situation to a more broad life lesson/skill/moral; helping the child to see another’s perspective

- preparing the child for a future difficult situation; working with the child to come up with mantras/things to say to themselves or to others when the situation repeats itself

- telling child it is going to be okay; reassuring the child that they are not in the wrong; encouraging the child to keep going

Keywords: talk, told, discuss, work with, said, asked

S_AI_BEHAVIOURAL_COLLABORATION: parent and child practice a specific strategy or work together overtime to overcome the adversity through physical practice

Ex:

- scaffolding/taking steps behaviourally

- Practicing strategies with family

- Showing the child how to deal with the situation; role playing the situation at home

Keywords: show, practice

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Thompson, R., Thornton, E., O’Byrne, R. et al. A Qualitative Exploration of Everyday Resilience in Kindergarten Children. J Child Fam Stud 32, 3947–3959 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02660-7

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