Explainer · Resilience factors
Resilience factors: the short list.
Decades of research keep pointing to the same protective factors in children’s lives. Ann S. Masten calls them the “short list.”
Masten & Barnes, 2018
Twelve common resilience factors.
This is the shortlist of common resilience factors for child development, as published in Table 2 of Masten and Barnes (2018). Each factor from the child literature is shown with the matching family resilience factor, where there is one.
| # | Child resilience factor | Family parallel |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caring family, sensitive caregiving | nurturing family members |
| 2 | Close relationships, emotional security, belonging | family cohesion, belonging |
| 3 | Skilled parenting | skilled family management |
| 4 | Agency, motivation to adapt | active coping, mastery |
| 5 | Problem-solving skills, planning, executive function skills | collaborative problem-solving, family flexibility |
| 6 | Self-regulation skills, emotion regulation | co-regulation, balancing family needs |
| 7 | Self-efficacy, positive view of the self or identity | positive views of family and family identity |
| 8 | Hope, faith, optimism | hope, faith, optimism, positive family outlook |
| 9 | Meaning-making, belief life has meaning | coherence, family purpose, collective meaning-making |
| 10 | Routines and rituals | family routines and rituals, family role organization |
| 11 | Engagement in a well-functioning school | — |
| 12 | Connections with well-functioning communities | — |
Source: Masten, A. S., & Barnes, A. J. (2018). Resilience in children: Developmental perspectives. Children, 5(7), 98, Table 2. doi:10.3390/children5070098 (opens the open-access article in a new tab). Open access under CC BY 4.0.
Two kinds of factor
Promotive and protective.
Researchers separate promotive factors, which go with better outcomes at any level of risk, from protective factors, which matter most when adversity is high. Many items on the list do both.
The list is a broad answer to the core question of resilience research: what makes a difference? Not every factor matters at every age. A belief that life has meaning means little to an infant, who depends on the quality of caregiving and the resilience of the family.
Culture and timing
Same list, many forms.
In the paper’s words, “Cultural variations infuse every aspect of the resilience shortlist.” The list is built from factors common across cultures, so practices unique to one culture are not captured by it.
Timing matters too. The authors point to windows of opportunity for helping: periods of rapid development, such as the preschool years, and transitions or crises that open the door to change.