Some 16 million American children — 22 percent — live in poverty, a factor that increases their chances of academic struggles, social and behavioral problems, and depression.
Yet not all poor children are doomed to bad outcomes. Some survive and flourish despite hardships. Why? As a researcher who worked at the Yale Child Study Center from 1992 to 2005, Valerie Maholmes, PhD, suggests that poor children who succeed have a factor in common: hope.
"I'm not talking about miracles," explains Maholmes, chief of the Pediatric Trauma and Critical Illness Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "I'm talking about planning and motivation and determination."
Now, through her personal outreach in the community and her role at NICHD, Maholmes is calling attention to the power of hope to help people overcome adversity. Her latest book, "Fostering Resilience and Well-Being in Children and Families in Poverty: Why Hope Still Matters" — written independently of her role at NICHD — discusses research on hope and ways to foster optimism and resilience.
Why is this topic so meaningful for you?
My parents were able to take in foster children, and it was a wonderful education for me. We could see the difference that nurturing made in the lives of these children. With the older ones, those 10 or 11, it took a lot more effort to reach them, but we could see results. Throughout my life and career, I've seen this phenomenon, where children are born into or at some point experience adversity, and yet are able to respond and adapt.
To date, research has largely focused on deficits and negative outcomes of children in poverty. Now we are moving more toward strengths-based, preventive approaches to help promote positive outcomes for these children. How can we identify functionality within families and find a foundation on which to build?
My thoughts are highly influenced by the work of James Comer, MD, professor of child psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He started the school development program in 1968, and his ideas on collaborative efforts to help schools identify family strengths — and to devise interventions based on them — are still valid. For example, families in low-income communities may belong to churches or other civic organizations in which they play important leadership roles. Interventions that tap into those skills can help parents learn to transfer and utilize those strengths to promote their child's development.
Studies you reference suggest that certain brain structures may give rise to optimism. What interventions may benefit children neurologically to set them up for success?
As we learn more about brain growth and plasticity, I'm encouraged to find that there are windows of opportunity throughout development to promote resilience and to strengthen capacities to learn. I want to challenge deterministic ideologies that children who are poor and who experience adversity early in life are "set" on a negative course of development. Early childhood intervention programs that help young people develop emotion regulation and that foster cognitive development and executive function, are important strategies for promoting more optimal developmental outcomes. Interventions for older youth may include such strategies as meditation, solution-focused therapy and narrative therapies. These can help young people learn to reframe negative events and think differently about how they respond to and solve problems. Mastering these strategies may increase the likelihood of youth having a more hopeful and optimistic outlook on life and ultimately having positive outcomes.
As science proliferates in this area, we're going to see more interventions that help stimulate growth in regions of the brain — like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex — that foster better developmental outcomes. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013 by Helen Neville, PhD, and colleagues is an example of this kind of scientific advance. Drawing from research on the neuroplasticity of selective attention and on the central role of successful parenting in child development, they developed an eight-week family-based training program designed to improve brain systems for selective attention in children participating in a Head Start program. Their research showed that the neural mechanisms of selective attention, previously shown to be vulnerable in these children, can be improved. Notably, this research also showed the importance of engaging the larger family context in the intervention as an essential ingredient in supporting the development of selective attention.
What else have you found that promotes resilience?
There is evidence to suggest that including social and emotional learning, or SEL, in school curricula can help. Because many students aren't performing well in math and reading, a lot of school districts have decided that those subjects have to take precedence over the social-emotional side. But Roger Weissberg, PhD, who directs the SEL Research Group at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and James Comer and others have called attention to the fact that these processes go hand in hand.
Kids' success is not just based on their cognitive abilities. We know now from neuroscience that if kids are anxious, that can override their ability to think logically and to perform well under stressful conditions. As a result, they may act out in class. Consequently, these emotional and behavior problems get in the way of teachers being able to teach and this perpetuates a cycle of poor academic performance
Social-emotional relationships, like the bond between parent and child, are essential. When kids are older, appropriate friendships and relationships with teachers help kids regulate their behavior and emotions. Take Ashante, a young man I feature in my book, who found his identity in jail. He had social relationships later in life that helped him make sense of his crimes, come to grips with them, and reconcile within himself what his future would be. I think we're coming back to the recognition that these things are important.
Is it ever too late for hope?
No. Everybody at any stage of life can have a life-changing experience.
One thing that compelled me to write this book was looking at the educational challenges African-American males experience. I cited work by Ivory Toldson, PhD, and Margaret Beale Spencer, PhD, that documents problems and negative outcomes. There's an implicit assumption that if these kids don't learn to read by third or fourth grade, they're going to end up in jail as adolescents or adults. That's ludicrous. If a child doesn't know how to read in the 10th grade, teach him. Obviously, it will be harder and more costly — we should invest in early development — but the reality is some kids will slip through the cracks through no fault of their own.
If a child has emotional regulation or behavior or academic problems that might prevent him or her from achieving the best academic outcome, we need to figure out the child's strengths. We have to look at what has worked with this population and tailor [those approaches] to meet this child's needs. Whether through school enrichment or after-school programs, we've seen that these things work. Over time, kids will rise to the occasion.
Ashante is a case in point. He spent most of his teenage years as a member of a violent gang. But during his last incarceration, he was able to settle down and read a book. Reading helped him to get in touch with his cultural identity, and he had an epiphany. He realized, "This what I am doing, not only to strangers, but to my own people and myself. I've been a fool thinking that this hasn't been hurtful."
That's not to say there was a miracle, and "poof!" he turned his life around. I'm sure there was a process. There was another young man I met who said that it was literature in prison that saved his life, being able to read and seeing a world beyond what he knew. Literature changed his worldview, and after he got out of jail, he went to college and became a writer.
The point is, we never know what experiences will be pivotal for some people. So we have to make sure there is the opportunity to learn and to change. Part of that includes believing that people can change and that it's never too late.
Immigrant children may face a new language, assimilation, racism and loss of community structure. Why do some do well, and others struggle?
It takes strength and fortitude to make the decision that you're going to make a change. The strength it takes to move one's family to another country is just enormous, and these families may bring this strength and other cultural assets to the new environment. They may have a social network or extended family or a church already here, so they can find a place where there's a familiarity of language and culture. If they're socially isolated or excluded, the transition is more of a challenge.
What advice or insight is most important for psychologists to take away from your book?
My aim is to bring classic theories and contemporary concepts to broader audiences so that they may become acquainted with ideas we talk about so freely in our professional circles. We have to make our research accessible to policymakers and practitioners working with children and families so that the decisions they make and the programs they fund are informed by our research.
Finally, I would say that the challenges encountered by poor families are often complex, multifaceted, and have as much to do with perception and perspective as with economic insecurity. Our research must shed light on multifaceted strategies that help families tap into their strengths and capabilities to manage and ultimately overcome their challenges. n
Stacy Lu is a journalist in Falls Church, Virginia.
