Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience and Recovery

Abstract

Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience and Recovery by Emmy E. Werner and Ruth S. Smith Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2001, 236 pp, $17.95. “Life is not a matter of holding good cards but of playing a poor hand well.” This quote from Robert Louis Stevenson introduces readers to an understanding of the theme of Werner and Smith’s latest volume which reports the continuing follow-up of Werner’s original Children of Kauai. This quote is appropriate because Journeys from Childhood to Midlife highlights the resilience of approximately one third of the original 500 men and women in this sample. These individuals overcame the “cards” life dealt them, such as poverty, perinatal morbidity, and chronic family discord, and embraced the pathways of resilience that led to high competence under considerable stress. Werner and Smith are adept writers who give an excellent historical perspective of the study as they compare and contrast their findings with other longitudinal studies of developmental outcomes in high-risk research. The authors highlight the commonalities in life rather than the differences in this unique sample of adults. The roots of resilience are found in the chain of protective factors within the individual, extended family, and environment that promotes adaptation. A successful transition to the fourth decade of life is linked to protective factors operating from earlier periods of development. The earlier protective factors are biological integrity and psychological predisposition, including good coping skills, easy temperament, and adequate cognition, as well as social and emotional support. The authors found that women were more resilient than men in this stage of development. Although gender differences existed in earlier decades of life, the full effect of educational, occupational, and extensive emotional support buffered the women more than the men against adversity at midlife. Unlike previous books, this volume separates the “story” (the first 12 chapters) from the appendices (tables and scoring systems). As both a researcher and clinician in the area of high-risk children, I was able to verify the authors’ insightful interpretations from both vantage points in the book. In this fifth document about the Kauai study, Werner and Smith systematically address the policy implications of their research. They advocate “bottom up” verses “top down” initiatives. Supporting state initiatives for paid parental leave, literacy programs, and universal health care for children is among the strategies for intervention that contribute to resilience. These authors have a unique ability to blend the systematic data gathered over a 40-year period to form conclusions generalizable to the whole population. They derive their findings from careful scrutiny of the individual differences among the participants. They do this task seamlessly and with great skill. A major theme in this book is the notion that the people who did well worked hard at increasing their competencies and decreasing the number of stressful life events. Consequently, finding faith, joining the military, and obtaining a college degree opened new opportunities for them. In a society that embraces youth, these findings are optimistic for those of us that are seasoned adults in the stage of generativity. The focus of their generativity was on both, their parents and their children, older and younger generations. With few exceptions this sample of women and men embraced age 40 with enthusiasm and a commitment to living a full life in the future. This book warrants notice by public policy advocates, scientists, and professionals interested in developmental pathways of resilient individuals at the midpoint of their lives.