Resilience Matrix

The Resilience Matrix in Time

Middle Childhood

Protective Factors

Resilience

Infancy

Protective Factors in Middle Childhood

Resilience Factors in Middle Childhood

Well-liked by peers and adults

• I was very well liked by all of the people I interacted with including primary and secondary caregivers.
• I had many friends at a young age that I played very well with.
• Day care providers also enjoyed having me and said I had a very calm temperament.

Reflective thought patterns versus impulsive decision making

• I tended to make decisions based on previous experiences and asking for assistance when necessary.

Community Support

• We were surrounded by the absolute best neighbours. It was a safe neighbourhood where everyone knew each other and looked out for everyone’s children.
• We had frequent get togethers with everyone, and I saw them more than my own extended family. I reached out to neighbours more than once when I needed help, and they always came through.

Sense of belonging

• I also had frequent interactions with peers as I participated in dance groups, and club memberships.

Able to use coping mechanisms including humor

• My dad used to make jokes to help distract me from negative stimulus and I was able to respond to this and use in other situations.

• Example, I once fell against the coffee table and my dad pretended to be concerned about the table’s feelings.

Held a productive role of responsibility

• I was often responsible for caring for my sister across multiple contexts. At times I also looked after my father when he was incapacitated and my mother was not around.

Adversity

Vulnerability

Protective Factors

Resilience

Protective Factors in Infancy

Vulnerability Factors in Middle Childhood

Resiliency Factors in Infancy

Hester et al.’s book (2007) outlined the following from domestic abuse, these are the ones I relate to:

• Feelings of powerlessness, shame, guilt and anger for mother
• Feelings of fear and anxiety (anxiety and depression peaked in grade 9, I stopped eating and going to school)
• Nightmares (Dishion & Stormshak, 2007)
• Depression
• Passivity – to this day I am told I am too passive and need to speak up for my needs, need to be more assertive

Parental Factors created a lot of vulnerability at this age

Generational Trauma (Gerson, 1995)

Factors of Adversity in Middle Childhood

The following factors are pieces of my development that align with typical resilient infants as outlined by Werner (1990)

• Father was an alcoholic, with his own unhealed childhood trauma. He was not emotionally available to his children. Often I was forced to take the parental role in these circumstances either caring for my sister while my mom attended to my father or attending to my father myself.

• My mom was also dealing with her own childhood trauma that resulted in some parental distress. At times she would tell us tall-tales or horror stories to discourage us from doing certain things. For example, she once told me her friend got sick and died from not zipping up her jacket all the way.

Loss of a loved one (Chen & Panebianco, 2018)

• I lost my bestfriend from cancer at the tender age of 8. Such a loss can leave a child primed for additional psychological disorders and negative world outlooks.
• This loss was followed by the loss of multiple close family friends and relatives

Family Support

• I was lucky to have lots of family around me when I was very young, including both sets of grandparents, and my aunt.

Material Needs

• I always had access to food/water/clothing/shelter etc., giving me the ability to thrive and experience a heathy physical development

The infant is innately expressive, affectionate, responsive and good-natured

• My mom reflected on how giggly and interactive I was, especially when she would tickle my tummy or toes
• These temperaments are predictive of healthy adjustment patterns in the future
• Such a demeanor is also more likely to elicit positive responses from those around them

Advanced communication and mobility

• I was able to interact with my parents from a young age and began walking and talking earlier than the typical youngster

Having at least one supportive family member

• My mother served as my secure base growing up. Allowing me to understand and experience at least one secure attachment that fostered trust in the world.

Resilience Matrix

Adversity

Vulnerability

Vulnerability in Infancy

Adversity in Infancy

Unfortunately, I was raised around a lot of marital discord due to my father's addiction to alcohol (Cummings & Merrilees, 2010).

PreSchool Age

Adolescence

Child with an unusual temperament

• My mom called it “making strange” I did not want to be held by anyone other than my parents and grandparents. I would scream and cry in response. My parents would have difficulty calming me down after wards.

Child who cries or cannot be comforted

• For the first few weeks I had a difficult time and would cry constantly without the ability to be comforted. I struggled to eat both as my own difficulty and in combination with my mom learning her milk supply was inefficient.
• As I got older, I was a very difficult baby to put to sleep.

Protective Factors

Resilience

What are resilience factors?

What are protective factors?

Resilience factors are considered characteristics of a child that help them cope with adversity and vulnerability (Daniel et al., 2010)

Protective factors are aspects of a child's life which may act as a buffer against the negative effects of adverse experiences (Daniel, Wassell, Gilligan, & Howe, 2010)

Protective Factors

Resilience

Protective Factors

Resilience

Protective Factors for Preschool Age

Resilience Factors in Adolescence

Resilience Factors for Preschool Age

Protective Factors in Adolescence

Gentle, nurturing and socially perceptive

• I got along with all my classmates, and received consistent feedback from my teachers that I was a pleasure to teach. I was asked to volunteer in multiple areas of the school to provide assistance to peers and younger children that needed additional support

Responsible and achievement-oriented

• I was always a very good student, and never had any behavioural issues at school. I was continuously on the honour role.

Well-developed communication skills

• I began communicating my needs to my parents without resorting to crying/tantrums. I often used my hands to point to things I needed or make signs that I wanted to grab or hold certain things.

Capacity to make friends

• I was able to make and sustain healthy relationships with friends who provided outside support. Especially as cellphones became more common I was able to reach out to friends for emotional support in times of distress at home.

Maternal relationship

• I honestly do not know where I would be without my mother. She did everything she could for me. She engaged in play with me, fed me, cared for me. I was able to reliably depend on my secure caregiver.

Adversity

Vulnerability

Sociable but independent

• Interacted with my peers at day care but was also had my own space that I would retreat to on my own accord. This was a little cupboard that liked to sit in and eat my favourite snack

I also had supportive ties outside of the immediate family unit

• I would often stay the night with grandparents and had a positive relationship with them. We would play games, interact, and have sleepovers.

Social maturity and sense of responsibility

• Ever since I was 10 years old I was responsible for not only looking after my younger sister but most of the neighbourhood children as well.
• I also started my first job at a young age, teaching dance classes to young children. I completed high school while holding a part-time job as a Crew Trainer at McDonald’s and teaching dance after school.

Ability to excel at school

• I had many opportunities to look forward to, such as leaving home to go to University.

What are vulnerability factors?

What are adversity factors?

These are characteristics of the child, their family, and the wider community which may challenge their healthy development or safety (Daniel et al., 2010)

These are life events, circumstances and relationships the child experiences which may threaten their healthy development or lead to harm (Daniel et al., 2010)

The Matrix in Stages

Adversity

Vulnerability

Adversity

Vulnerability

Adversity in Preschool Age

Vulnerability in Preschool Age

Adversity Factors in Adolescence

Marital Discord

• At this point in my life I had witnessed long-standing marital discord. My father would drink and or take pills and chaos would ensue. I often witnessed and listened to verbal abuse and at times physical abuse. My father would often have violent outbursts where he would leave home in a vehicle after drinking, or damage property such as punching a hole in the wall.

Domestic Violence (Hester et al., 2007) & Marital Discord (Cummings & Merrilees, 2010)

• I was continuously surrounded by parental arguments including arguments over my care-taking. I learned later-on that my father would wake me after bed-time and attempt to care for me which caused dangerous situations. There were times my mom would pack up and take me to her parent's house for safety.

Vulnerability Factors in Adolescence

I demonstrated an anxious attachment to my mother as I would get upset when I was left at day care. Once she left I would calm down and interact with the other children, but the initial separation caused me great distress

• Re-current migraines

• Re-current strep throat

• Panic attacks

• Unhealthy relationships with intimate

partners

Emotional neglect

• My father could not tend to his children emotionally. Particularly as we got older, he would often leave the room if one of us started crying or getting upset. The only time we connected on an emotional level is after he had been drinking he would come to me and cry, expressing how unhappy he was with his life.

In order to illustrate the multiple facets of my upbringing, I have broken it down into four age stages; Infancy, Pre-school age, Middle-childhood and Adolescence.

The matrix is used as a tool to consider the different factors applicable to each stage of my childhood. The factors outlined are informed by Daniel, Wassell, Gilligan and Howe (2010) and additional resources as cited.

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