Raising Resilient Children

Resiliency begins with how parents personally handle adversity. Parents who can handle difficult situations with openness and grace provide their children with a role to follow. The atmosphere within the home and the way parents conduct their family life significantly influences their children's resiliency.

There is also a strong correlation between parenting styles and resiliency.

• Authoritarian parents who rule with an iron fist and use rules and heavy-handed controls to force unquestioning obedience squeeze out the creative thinking skills needed in resiliency.
• Permissive or "laissez-faire" parents rarely exert control, set few limits, offer few boundaries and provide little parental guidance or supervision. They are not training their children to learn to live with boundaries, controls or limits.
• The democratic parenting style is most conducive to fostering resilient, capable and competent children. Democratic parents are supportive and communicative, monitor and supervise their children's' activities and behaviors, provide consistent discipline in a way that is firm and friendly, and teach their children self-control. Children raised in this environment are more likely to be socially competent, academically successful, and to respond well to adversity.