Dr. Masten will highlight recent advances in research on resilience in human development, with a focus on the roles that parents and schools play in protecting children against adversity and nurturing resilience for their future. She will describe contemporary definitions of resilience that underscore multisystem processes and the importance of defining resilience for scalability across system levels (from individual levels to families, schools, and beyond) and also for portability across disciplines concerned with human well-being in diverse cultures. Resilience refers to the capacity of a system (a child, family, community, economy, or other dynamic system) to adapt successfully to challenges that threaten the function, survival, or development of the system. Resilience of individual young people depends on interactions among multiple systems, including relationships and social support, together with resources and opportunities. Dr. Masten will highlight advances in resilience science and the alignment of findings in research on resilience in children, families, and schools, with implications for practice. She will also discuss how resilience perspectives apply to global threats posed by the pandemic and other multisystem adversities of these turbulent times and close with comments on emerging directions for research and training to achieve a fully intenegrated understanding of resilience.
Ann S. Masten Ph.D. is Regents Professor of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in the Institute of Child Development. She completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College and doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota with an internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She studies risk and resilience in human development, particularly in the context of poverty, homelessness, war, disaster, and migration. Dr. Masten is a past President of the Society for Research in Child Development and Division 7 (developmental) of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is a recipient of numerous awards, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, APA’s Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to Developmental Psychology, and the 2022 Mentor Award from Division 7. Dr. Masten has published more than 200 scholarly works, including the book, Ordinary Magic: Resilience in Development. She offers a free international MOOC (mass open online course) through Coursera on “Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War: Global Perspectives,” taken by thousands of participants from more than 180 countries.