Resilience in young children at risk : A systematic literature review on the studies conducted to date and their outcomes

Abstract: Children living in risk environments can experience traumatic events that could affect their future life. Providing these children with the necessary strategies to cope with adversity and to develop in an optimal way is needed in order to avoid trauma or being damaged for the rest of their lives. Because of this reason, a systematic literature review was performed with the aim to examine how resilience is defined and implemented in studies focusing on young children at risk. The search was done through five electronic databases and conducted during the spring semester of 2016. During the research process, inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken into account and different search words were used for each database. According to the inclusion/exclusion criteria a title/abstract screening was performed. Thereafter, for the articles which were not excluded a full text review screening was conducted, which led to the inclusion of 14 articles in total. Articles were analysed using a data extraction tool (protocol). All the articles were about resilience, aimed at children between 0 and 12 years old. Eight out of the fourteen were studies that evaluated the resilience degree in young children, while seven were aimed at developing resilience with specially designed intervention programmes. A range of definitions of the term resilience were found, showing that resilience can be understood as a process or as ability. On this basis, studies focused on resilience were found to be mainly of two kinds: related to observation or intervention, using different methodologies and tools to measure or develop resilience in children. The outcomes found were in line with previous research, showing the great importance of supportive relationships, developing within a certain environment and having a positive self-perception as facts that can influence the development of resilience.