Short Research Report: Exploring resilience development in a Taiwanese preschooler’s narrative: An emerging theoretical model

Individual resilience, that is, “an individual’s progressing development to adjust to life difficulties” (Lin, in press), is significant in preventing negative consequences, such as low academic achievement and dropping out of education (Goldstein & Brooks, 2005), mental health problems (Davydov, Stewart, Ritchie, & Chaudieu, 2010) and even suicide (Roy, Sarchiapone, & Carli, 2007). To avoid such results from occurring in human development, it is important to foster resilience in early childhood. There is however, a lack of resilience research at preschool level in both Western and Taiwanese literature. Furthermore, as resilience is key to success, it is necessary to explore children’s resilience in different cultures. Although resilience research in Western culture has predominated, recent cross-cultural studies have emphasized that the importance of cultural awareness in the literature is still overlooked (Ungar, 2008). Hence, this narrative study provides a cultural perspective by investigating a Taiwanese context and shifts the attention to preschoolers’ resilience development in both Western and Taiwanese contexts.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Education and Professional StudiesNo Full Tex