Resilient parents; resilient kids: How parental self-awareness is critical to helping smart kids thrive

Abstract

Resilience, or the ability to bounce back from hardship, has been studied extensively and identified as a protective factor against negative long-term physical and mental health outcomes. Most research has addressed the child’s resilience in the face of adversity; however, the parent’s capacity for resilience has received limited attention. Parents of gifted children, in particular, face unique stressors that differ from those observed among families of typically developing children; an unanticipated degree of parental resilience is often required in response to the gifted child’s cognitive, social, and emotional needs. In this article, factors that contribute to resilience among gifted children and their parents are reviewed. It is proposed that parental resilience directly affects the child’s well-being and that increased self-awareness enhances the parent’s capacity for greater emotional availability, patience, tolerance, and resilience. In essence, parental resilience is a necessary component for fostering resilience in the child.