JACK P. SHONKOFF: Resilience is the result of a highly interactive process between individual characteristics in the person and the environment in which that individual has developed. PHILIP A.
FISHER: It's really the counterbalancing of difficult things that may exist in the child's life with positive things, that occur within the family but even positive things that may exist in the community. W. THOMAS BOYCE: An easy way of thinking about resilience is like a scale with a fulcrum in the middle of it.
And there are things on both sides of that scale. Experiences of both bad things or good things. NARRATOR: Our genes shape where the fulcrum is positioned at the start.
W. THOMAS BOYCE: There are certain genes that make a child more sensitive to the effects of maltreatment or parental neglect or witnessing violence. PHILIP A.
FISHER: The fulcrum may start out kind of more towards one side or more towards the other side, and that's gonna make a big difference in terms of how much these subsequent events affect things positively or negatively. NARRATOR: Science tells us that experiences move the fulcrum, for better or for worse. NATHAN A.
FOX: Even though we are born with genes, genes will respond differently to certain environmental situations as opposed to others. W. THOMAS BOYCE: What the genes are actually doing are turning up or turning down the expression of chemicals and circuits in the brain and the circuitry in the entire body that govern our responses to stress, to anxiety, to depressive symptoms.
NARRATOR: When positive experiences accumulate, and children learn coping skills that help them to manage stress, the fulcrum can slide so the scale tilts toward positive outcomes more easily. That's what resilience is all about. JACK P.
SHONKOFF: There is always an adult or more than one adult who is key to providing that relationship that helps to build resilience.
