Adaptive Systems for Student Resilience in the Context of COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a disaster, defined as an event that suspends normal activities and threatens or causes severe, community-wide damage (Masten&Motti-Stefanidi, 2020). While all school children and their families have been impacted by COVID-19 to some degree, the burdens are disproportionately being borne by children experiencing poverty and children from minority racial and ethnic groups. In this article, we consider resilience and risk in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on children’s developing adaptive systems. When adaptive systems are functioning well, most children will demonstrate resilience to disaster. The capacity of children’s adaptive systems to function well depends upon their developmental histories and the social and community resources available to them. We discuss how these factors contribute to children’s adaptation and close with recommendations for communities looking to support resilience to the varied adversities of COVID-19.