At the “Connect to Protect” international conference, social psychologist Theofilos Gkinopoulos presented a broader approach to the resilience of children and young people.

His key idea was that a child’s resilience should not be understood only as individual strength or the ability to endure hardship.

A child’s well-being and ability to overcome difficulties are strongly influenced by the environments and relationships in which they live and grow.

Individual and social components of resilience

Resilience is often described as a person’s ability to overcome difficulties, adapt to change and recover after difficult experiences.

However, this understanding can be limited if attention is focused only on the child’s individual characteristics.

Theofilos Gkinopoulos stressed that children’s resilience is also shaped by the family, school, peers, community and social services.

Attitudes in society, the influence of the media, and social and political conditions also play an important role.

Why the whole burden cannot be placed on the child

When a child lives with violence, poverty, discrimination or uncertainty, developing their personal skills alone is not enough.

For example, a child can be taught emotional regulation or problem-solving, but these skills may have limited impact if the child continues to live in an unsafe or unsupportive environment.

That is why it is necessary to work with both the child and their surroundings at the same time.

The role of family and school

The speaker highlighted the importance of supportive relationships.

Having trusted adults in the family, a safe environment at school and positive relationships with peers can help a child develop the ability to cope with difficulties.

At the same time, family tension, school violence or social isolation can weaken a child’s protective resources.

Building resilience should therefore also involve the work of parents, teachers and community professionals.

Resilience of community and social systems

The speaker proposed looking not only at the resilience of the child, but also at the resilience of the systems that support them.

This means assessing how prepared families, schools and social services are to respond to crises, change and emerging risks.

It is especially important that services can remain accessible and continuous in difficult circumstances.

Approaches relevant to child protection

This approach is particularly important when working with children who have experienced trauma, displacement or serious social hardship.

It implies that support programmes should include both developing the child’s individual capacities and strengthening their social environment.

Such an approach reduces the risk of placing on children the whole burden of overcoming circumstances beyond their control.