Friday, October 18, 2013

Week 8, post 2


In chapter 13, it was interesting to see the ways that children form resilience. Resilience is formed by children positively reacting to a negative occurrence such a rejection from a parent. Resilience to such a situation means the child with find another adult figure to grow close to and form a relationship with.  Accumulative stress impairs ability to form resilience. Factors such as poverty, death of relatives, relocation, change of caregivers, and disruption of schooling are just a few example of traumatizing incidences the children of hurricane Katrina underwent. Coping mechanisms against accumulative stress allows reduction of the impact of repeated stresses. Religious faith and social support are forms of resilience that provide support from the community, psychologically protection, and ethic guidelines to follow (p. 356). It seems that prayer offers a structure for managing stress as well as hope that hardships will subside. 


Children can deal with parent’s divorces, or family dynamic changes if 1.) They do not feel they are the cause of the problem, and if 2.) they don’t blame themselves.  According to Berger, one coping mechanism is called parentification, when a child takes on the responsibilities of a the parent (p. 355). 

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