Significant developmental changes occur throughout childhood and adolescence, particularly during critical periods, especially important for psychological and emotional development as well as appropriate language and cognitive development. However, biological and environmental factors may encourage or interfere with active development. Children are often exposed to a number of experiences termed life changing, from persistent neglect or loss of a parent, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, witnessing violence in their environment or among family members, accidental injury and others traumas of varying chronicity and intensity. According to Karatoreos and McEwen (2013), “[w]hile adverse childhood experiences can have long-term negative consequences, under the right circumstances…negative outcomes may be mitigated, even later in life”(p. 337). Collectively, the research argues a heterogeneous long-term result after abuse where some subjects demonstrate poor functioning due to negative psychological and emotional development and others exhibit more adaptive traits and psychological well-being later in life (Klika & Herrenkhol, 2013; Herrenkohl, 2013; Marriot, Hamilton-Giachristis & Harrop, 2014; Masten, 2014; Ungar, 2013; and Ungar, Ghazinour, & Richter, 2013).
The human condition guarantees struggle throughout life, but what is it that helps some children adapt to stressors while others develop mal-adaptively? While adaptation has often been described as the absence of pathology, researchers today define resilience as a process developed in organisms, enabling them to rebound after adversity or stressors from number of traumatic circumstances. Masten (2013) broadly defines resilience as “the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten system function, viability, or development”(p.6). This mini review will further define resilience and explore how childhood trauma impacts psychological and emotional development from a bio psycho social ecological model and why some resist poor functioning or disorders later in life.