Finding ordinary magic in extraordinary times: child and adolescent resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Excerpt

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents tremendous challenges to child and adolescent health. It is expected that the COVID-19 crisis, including the disease and prolonged social distancing, will have a major impact on youth well-being [1‐3]. It is easy to envision how COVID-19 will be the impetus for a host of lingering negative outcomes. Schools are closed, businesses are shuttered, and families are adjusting to 24/7 interaction, while caregivers simultaneously navigate parenting, financial, and professional challenges and uncertainties. As Zhou and colleagues recently reported in this journal [4], Chinese adolescents have experienced very high rates of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 outbreak. Risk is real and warrants attention. And yet a sole focus on risk will miss resilience processes that can advance science, services, education, and policy aimed at understanding how children and adolescents respond to crisis. As such, we appreciate that Zhou and colleagues [4] also examined factors that may reduce risk for psychological distress. As Masten [5] observed two decades ago, “resilience does not come from rare or special qualities, but from the everyday magic of the ordinary, normative human resources in… children, in their families and relationships, and in their communities”. This ordinary magic in children, families, and communities has a crucial role in the scientific and public health response to COVID-19. …