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Chapter 34 - Serendipity on the Path to Developmental Resilience Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2025

By
Ann S. Masten
Edited by
Frank Kessel
Frank Kessel
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Summary

I recount my journey to developmental resilience science, highlighting the influence of serendipity and relationships. From a childhood in the military to Smith College, then onward to the NIH and the University of Minnesota, I describe forks and barriers as well as opportunities that shaped my path, including influences of mentors, challenges faced by women in academia, and fortuitous turning points in my life trajectory. I reflect on links between my own life and my motivation to understand resilience processes in children affected by adversities such as homelessness, natural disasters, or war, as well as the protections afforded by family relationships, friends, mentors, and collaborators. Relationships played a critical role in the evolution of my ideas and research, initially as a graduate student and then as a collaborator and mentor. Passing the baton to new generations of scholars, I have great confidence that resilience science and its applications to benefit human development are in very capable hands.

Keywords

multisystem resilienceprotective factorsordinary magicdevelopmental cascadeshomelessnessdisastertraumaadversityexecutive functionparenting
Type
Chapter
Information
Pillars of Developmental Psychology
Recollections and Reflections
 , pp. 383 - 394
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Suggested Reading

Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S. (2014). Global perspectives on resilience in children and youth. Child Development, 85(1), 6–20. (Based on the 2013 Presidential Address for the Society on Research in Child Development.) https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S., Cicchetti, D., & Tyrell, F. A. (Eds.). (2023). Resilience in development: Pathways to multisystem integration. Development and Psychopathology, 35(5), 2103–2112. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S., Fiat, A. E., Labella, M. H., & Strack, R. A. (2015). Educating homeless and highly mobile students: Implications of research on risk and resilience. School Psychology Review, 44(3), 315–330. https://doi.org/10.17105/spr-15-0068.1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masten, A. S., Lucke, C. M., Nelson, K. M., & Stallworthy, I. C. (2021). Resilience in development and psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 17, 521–549. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081219-120307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S. & Narayan, A. J. (2012). Child development in the context of disaster, war and terrorism: Pathways of risk and resilience. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 227–257. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S. & Tellegen, A. (2012). Resilience in developmental psychopathology: Contributions of the Project Competence Longitudinal Study. Development and Psychopathology, 24(2), 345–361. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941200003X.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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