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People usually encounter various forms of stress either emotionally, physically or behaviorally and they come up with different ways of coping with these stresses. While others may succumb to the stress and end up emotionally affected, others may cope effectively by being positive and taking control of their environment. Individuals who come up with positive ways of handling such things as trauma, threat, tragedy or stress tend to be well adjusted and better developed. Such individuals are referred to as resilient individuals. Through resilience, individuals are able to form coping mechanisms for stress encountered in a positive way. Resilience can either help an individual to go back to their previous state of functioning or it can improve an individual by using the experience to cope with future stresses. As much as there may be some people who are naturally resilient, for most people, it is usually a process that they learn and go through (Patti, 2006).
The concept of resilience has been developed in various fields to help individuals with emotional and behavioral problems to help them cope in the society. Various theorists in different fields such as psychology, community health and social work have been able to develop this concept to help emotionally maladjusted individuals to overcome their problems and become better adults.
This is an important concept especially when handling young children and adolescents who are yet to go through different experiences and may not know the best way of dealing with the problems they face. Thus having a greater knowledge on how to deal with the children as well as the adolescents gained through the study of psychology or other related social fields that can go a long way in improving and monitoring their behavior.
Different researches have been carried out on resilience and its effects on individuals with emotional and behavioral problems with the earliest studies dating back to the 1970s. Researchers such as Garmezy and Streitman published the earliest works on protective factors for people with emotional and behavioral problems. Another major scientist on this work was Emmy Werner who studied children from poor families in Hawaii and the destructive behavior they developed as teenagers from their living conditions. She came up with the term resilience for the children who coped positive.
People with destructive emotional and behavioral problems such as high school dropouts, demobilized children and soldiers who have undergone traumatic experiences on warfronts have been studied and great improvements have been noted in their behavior with the introduction of resilient factors on them. (Werner, 1992)
There are various factors that enable individuals to become resilient to difficult situations in life. As much as the individuals may possess their own protective defenses, other factors such as family, society and social institutions such as schools and churches may help people to overcome their emotional and behavioral problems.
Manifestation of the emotional and behavioral problems can be greatly prevented by introduction of some important factors on them. These factors help individuals to come up with ways of dealing with stress and prevent them from reacting negatively to stressful situations.
Social policies, for example, can greatly prevent these problems. Social institutions such as schools have policies that provide for open communication, engaging all parties in decision making and having a collective sense of purpose. There are strict rules and guidelines that guide the conduct of teachers and students therefore controlling their behavior and preventing these problems from being manifested. Family support also greatly contributes to controlling emotional/behavioral problems. Emotional availability of family members during traumatic incidents, care and support can encourage positive coping and prevent manifestation of emotional problems.
Moreover, medical intervention has greatly helped in preventing manifestation of emotional/behavioral problems. People with such problems can be put under medication to help suppress the manifestation and enable the individual to cope with these problems. There are some factors however that have been implicated in increasing an individuals likelihood of having emotional and behavioral problems. These factors can be either biophysical or environmental. The place in which a person is i.e. the environment can have an impact to the behavior.
These problems can be seen from a biological point of view where an individuals neurologic and other organic factors can cause him/her to manifest these problems. Biophysical factors may include such issues as genetic predisposition and psycho neurology.
Studies have shown that individuals can inherit emotional and behavioral problems from their parents. In cases where one or both parents have an emotional/behavioral disorder, there is a likelihood of their children getting this disorder. For example, children whose parents have schizophrenia are far more likely to get this disorder. Also, individuals who are alcoholic have been found to have parents or relatives who are alcoholic.
Under psycho neurology, emotional/ behavioral disorders have been linked to chemical (neurotransmitters) imbalances in the brain. Deficiency in elements such as catecholamine and dopamine in the brain have been known to contribute to behavioral disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. (M, 1987) This disorder has also been linked to under arousal of the central nervous system. Studies have shown that disorders such as autism, obsessive compulsive behavior and borderline personality disorder have been caused by neurological disorders in patients. Neurotransmitters have also been linked to self esteem and individuals with low levels of serotonin have been found to have low self esteem.
These disorders can be cured through nutrition, medication and other medical intervention. Environmental factors can also contribute to individuals getting emotional/behavioral disorders. Bringing up children in an unconducive environment may make them develop undesirable behaviors like alcoholism. Family is usually a great contributor to such problems, especially in children. Family discord and breakup through such things as divorce may sometimes emotionally affect the children. Also, children raised in abusive families may grow up to be violent or withdrawn.
Society also contributes to emotional and behavioral problems in individuals. Social institutions such as schools and prisons are sometimes managed poorly leading to unruly behavior which may affect an individually or behaviorally. For example, there have been countless cases of bullying and sodomy in prisons and these have adversely traumatized inmates
In conclusion, emotional and behavioral problems in individuals have several causes and cause individuals to be poorly adjusted in society. Different ways can be used to help such individuals. Resilience has proven to be an efficient way of helping people with emotional/behavioral problems to cope with lifes challenges.
References
Patti, J. (2006). Addressing Social-Emotional Education in Teacher Education. In Elias, M., & Arnold, H. (Eds). The Educators Guide to Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Werner, E. A. (1992). Vulnerable but invincible: A study of resilient children. New York: McGraw Hill.
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