Masten – protective systems

What we’ve learned from many kinds of research about children who are okay in the context of serious threats is there’s some very basic protective systems, they protect human development from many different kinds of circumstances and those are things like having a capable adult, caregiver, looking after you, having a human brain in good working order that can solve problems and that is a brain that’s been well nourished and had opportunities to learn so that the child can respond well to the environment around them. It also includes the motivation to you know, try, to connect with people to, you know, try to do things and make things happen in the world, so it’s very fundamental protective systems. The most though for young children is, adults, adults who are connected to the child, secure relationships with caregivers and many other people in a child’s life because that gives them the emotional security to withstand adversity, and also the protection of an adult who has better problem solving skills and capabilities than a young child would, and can see what to do in a threatening situation. 

I use the term ordinary magic to describe the fundamental protective systems for human development, to underscore the idea that we’re, it doesn’t take anything rare or special to help children withstand or recover from adversity, it requires these fundamental protections like close relationships with capable adults who are helping you and, you know, good problem solving skills and optimism and hope and trust in the future. If these are working, these fundamental systems, which have evolved through millennia you know, in our culture and in our biology, then children have great capacity to recover from and get through very difficult times. The biggest threats to children happen when these fundamental systems are damaged or destroyed and getting them back on line, providing them to children, are very high priorities. A child will have great difficulty making it if they don’t have that protective adult in their life, maybe because the adult has been lost, or, or killed or harmed in some way by the same adversity threatening the child.