Definition
Popular media coverage of resilience portrays an image of the "superkid," the hero of a slickly packaged story of a youth who grew up in grueling circumstances and achieves a level of success beyond all expectations as well as an unblemished state of mental health.
We believe that the superkid's story is, at once, one of the most attractive, persistent, and distorted ideas associated with resilience today. There is no superkid. All children are vulnerable, and no one walks away from hardship unscathed. An inaccurate personification of resilience, the superkid stirs up controversy, derails theory and practice, and hurts the chances for real children who are strong and brave but do not escape hardship in a single dramatic stride.
Practical Misapplications of "Superkids"
The myth of the superkid can lead to:
- blaming the victims of hardship for their troubles.
- pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps attitudes and policies.
- acceptance of unrealistic standards of success for children of hardship.
- negative labeling and giving up on youth who are struggling but do not achieve superkid status.