A Parent's Guide to Building Resilience in Children and Teens

Overview

Recognizing that the ability to bounce back after disappointment can be a problem for children and teens who do not learn positive ways to deal with internal and external pressure, this approach to building resilience avoids childhood stress by teaching children that failure is a natural part of life. To organize the discussion, the ingredients for resilience are broken down into "the crucial seven Cs": competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control—and are supplemented by discussions of understanding and respecting emotions, enjoying play, learning to accept blame, delaying gratification, managing stress, and taking action instead of worrying. With this model being the gradual transfer of control from parent to child as the goal of this model, techniques are provided that teach new coping skills and reinforce existing ones at each developmental stage. Applicable to all age groups, detailed stress management plans summarize the main concepts and guide parents and children toward working effectively together.

Author Biography

Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed, FAAP, is an associate physician and professor of pediatrics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a member of the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the author of But I'm Almost 13: Raising a Responsible Adolescent and the coauthor of Less Stress, More Success. He lives in Philadelphia.