Overview and History
Cultural resilience considers how cultural background (i.e., culture, cultural values, language, customs, norms) helps individuals and communities overcome adversity. The notion of cultural resilience suggests that individuals and communities can deal with and overcome adversity not just based on individual characteristics alone, but also from the support of larger sociocultural factors. In 2004, Clauss-Ehlers defined “culturally-focused resilient adaptation” as how culture and the sociocultural context have an effect on resilient outcomes. The question presented by this concept is to consider those larger environmental variables that help individuals overcome the obstacles they face. Culturally-focused resilient adaptation contends that adaptation to adversity is a dynamic rather than static process that includes character traits, a person’s cultural background, values, and supportive aspects of the sociocultural environment (i.e., a relationship with at least one...
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Suggested Reading
Belgrave, F. Z., Chase-Vaughn, G., Gray, F., Addison, J. D., & Cherry, V. R. (2000). The effectiveness of a culture-and-gender-specific intervention for increasing resiliency among African American preadolescent females. Journal of Black Psychology, 26(2), 133–147.
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S. (2004). Re-inventing resilience: A model of “culturally-focused resilient adaptation.” In C. S. Clauss-Ehlers & M. D. Weist (Eds.), Community planning to foster resilience in children (pp. 27–41). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic.
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S. (2008). Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 197–212.
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S., Yang, Y. T., & Chen, W. J. (2006). Resilience from childhood stressors: The role of cultural resilience, ethnic identity, and gender identity. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 5, 124–138.
Davis, N. J. (2001). Resilience in childhood and adolescence. Panel presentation delivered at George Washington University, Media Conference, Washington, D.C.
Garmezy, N. (1987). Stress, competence, and development: Continuation in the study of schizophrenic adults, children vulnerable to psychopathology, and the search for stress-resistant children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57(2), 159–174.
Kumpfer, K. L. (1999). Factors and processes contributing to resilience: The resilience framework. In M. D. Glantz & J. L. Johnson (Eds.), Resilience and development: Positive life adaptations (pp. 179–224). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Suggested Resources
Resilience Research Centre—www.resilienceproject.org: The Resilience Research Centre has partners from countries throughout the world that use diverse research approaches to understand how youth and their families overcome hardships in their lives. The International Resilience Research Project examines cross-cultural aspects of resilience from an international framework.
Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children—This book provides an overview of research, practice, and policy initiatives as they relate to cultural resilience. General sections include: Foundations, Promoting Resilience in Diverse Communities, Areas of Special Need, and Promising Resilience-Promoting Developments (see Clauss-Ehlers and Weist, 2004).
Children, Youth and Women’s Health Service Kids’ Health Ages 6–12 Resilience Don’t Let Things Get you Down—www.cyh.com/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=287&id=1758:This webpage is written for children. As such, it presents information in a voice that is developmentally relevant for children between the ages of 6 and 12. Youth can click on questions and comments to learn more about resilience. These include: What is resilience? What helps you to become resilient? What you can do?
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Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. (2010). Cultural Resilience. In: Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_115
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