Beyond resilience: Why we need to look at systems too.

Abstract

Objective: Stories of resilience abound in American culture, and many social scientists have dedicated their programs of research to understanding what engenders resilience and developing interventions to promote it. However, too often our discussions on resilience limit it to something within the individual, effectively placing all responsibility for overcoming adversity on that individual. In this commentary, we caution against designing resilience research that fails to attend to system-level variables and how this approach can inadvertently reinforce the social circumstances it intends to help individuals overcome. Key Takeaways: The construct of resilience is multifaceted and multilevel, yet the majority of resilience research in the field of psychology operates at the individual-level of analysis. Several theories, approaches, and methods can aid resilience researchers in becoming more ecological. Conclusion: Through a renewed commitment to multiplicity in our research, we can better meet the needs of our communities and promote success.

Resourcing resilience: social protection for HIV prevention amongst children and adolescents in Eastern and Southern Africa

“…While social protection can be viewed as a set of risk-mitigation measures, its relationship to resilience – another multifaceted construct (Shaw, McLean, Taylor, Swartout, & Querna, 2016) – requires further elucidation. A significant portion of research and policies on HIV and children in sub-Saharan Africa focuses on children's victimization and vulnerability, while being neglectful of children's agency, and their acquired life skills (Boyden, 1997; Fassin, 2008; Skovdal & Daniel, 2012).…”

“…However, discussions of child and adolescent resilience are often limited, placing the burden for overcoming adversity solely on the individual (Shaw et al, 2016). This tendency has prompted the call for a multi-level approach to ‘identifying and learning from children's interaction with their social environment as a pathway to resilience’ (Skovdal and Daniel, 2012).…”

Resilience and HIV: a review of the definition and study of resilience

“…The common theme across these definitions was the focus on individual-level resilience resources. There is growing criticism that defining resilience exclusively as an individual-level phenomenon ignores the social context and social systems in which resilience may occur (Earnshaw et al, 2013;Herrick et al, 2014;Shaw, McLean, Taylor, Swartout, & Querna, 2016;Unger, 2008).…”

Personal, Master, and Alternative Narratives: An Integrative Framework for Understanding Identity Development in Context

“…This is a particularly critical issue for those whose lives do not align with the master narratives. For example, focusing on individual characteristics such as resilience as critical to overcoming the structural impediments of poverty runs the risk of "blaming the victim" for not overcoming his or her challenges, or looking only to the victim for solutions [see Shaw, McLean, Taylor, Swartout, & Querna, 2016]. As we discuss below, agency is a powerful psychological resource, but we do a disservice to the reality of individual experience by not accounting for the structures that limit agency.…”