Date of Award

6-2018

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Barragan, Armando

Abstract

This study explores how resilience is gained in childhood. Therefore the question becomes does resilience occur from predisposed characteristics or does it occur from experiences, moments, and people the individual encounters during their childhood. This project presents the results of a qualitative study of 15 master degree student participants that gave responses based on their childhood experiences. One of the requirements for this study, was that each participant had to have suffered from being at risk of factors that could have decreased their resilience, called contextual risks. There were three themes that emerged from this study and they are strengths, realizations, and support systems. Within the strengths theme, there were several variables to gaining resilience: descriptions that were given to the participants growing up, coping skills, and self-control. These themes suggest that resilience is gained through a combination of predisposed characteristics, life changing moments, and influential people.

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