How do children deal with adversity?
Some respond by developing enhanced abilities
Author
How do adverse experiences, such as poverty or exposure to violence, affect children’s psychological abilities? Until recently, research was primarily guided by the view that adverse experiences tend to impair children’s brain function in ways that undermine their abilities. Investigating deficits that arise from adversity has led to vital discoveries that have helped to improve millions of lives. However, researching only deficits misses the strategies and skills people develop to navigate challenging environments. Over the past decade, psychology has moved towards a more balanced view.
Some children may develop ‘hidden talents’—enhanced abilities for solving challenges in adverse environments. They may become skilled at detecting and memorizing threats, tracking unpredictable conditions, or inferring other people’s mental states. These abilities improve as children adapt to their environments over the course of their development. Enhanced abilities, however, do not necessarily lead to greater wellbeing; for instance, a child who picks up on negative moods in others may feel uneasy. In any event, these enhanced abilities remain invisible if scientists and other adults are looking only for deficits.
“The better we understand both vulnerabilities and strengths, the better able we will be to tailor education, jobs, and interventions to the needs of individuals, enabling them to realize their full potential.”
Some children may also develop strategies that tailor their mental efforts to their environments. For instance, they may invest less in future rewards in environments where such rewards are unlikely to materialize. That might mean, for example, that a child spends all her pocket money straight away because she lacks a safe place to keep it. What might look like a bad decision for the long term is a reasonable response to the child’s existing environment.
Scientists are learning more and more about these adaptive strategies and skills, and this widening focus promotes a more accurate view of development and learning in adverse environments. There are clear implications for education, policy, and intervention: The better we understand both vulnerabilities and strengths, the better able we will be to tailor education, jobs, and interventions to the needs of individuals, enabling them to realize their full potential.
What’s next? We have just started learning about how abilities adapt to long-term stress, and much remains to be discovered. For instance, we know very little about the brain mechanisms in humans that are involved in stress-adapted strategies and skills – less than we know about animals. This is an exciting opportunity for neuroscientists to explore what’s happening in the brain when children develop hidden talents.
“Whatever the future brings, thoughtful science communication is key.”
Whatever the future brings, thoughtful science communication is key. Science communication about children in adverse environments has historically focused on deficits and ‘poor’ decision making. Now we are developing resources that promote a balanced view, which includes hidden talents, strategies, and other ways children adapt to their experiences. For instance, one of our resources explains that by taking this balanced approach, we do not downplay adversity, ignore tradeoffs, devalue school-related skills, imply invulnerability, justify policy inaction, or overlook variation in how people respond to adversity.
Every effort should be made to reduce the adversities children face. However, uncovering more about the skills and strategies they develop in response to adversity will give them the best possible opportunities to thrive.
Author
Footnotes
With colleagues, I started a network in 2022 on Communicating and Expanding Research on Adversity (CERA). We create resources, disseminate new findings and fact sheets, and counteract undesirable societal impact. Information about the CERA network’s resources can be found here. Our thanks go to the Jacobs Foundation for its support for the CERA network.