webinar register page

NIMH Director's Innovation Speaker Series: Michael Ungar, Ph.D.

Diagnosing Resilience: A Multisystemic Model for Positive Development in Stressed Environments

Dr. Michael Ungar is the founder and Director of the Resilience Research Centre and Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. His international series of studies spans six continents and has changed the way resilience is understood, shifting the focus from individual traits to the interactions between individuals and their social, institutional, built and natural environments, including health and social services.

Using examples from his research and clinical practice, Dr. Ungar will explore the nature of young people’s patterns of resilience in contexts where children and adolescents are affected by social marginalization, migration, violence and mental disorder. His work is demonstrating that resilience can be assessed with sensitivity to culture and context, identifying factors that are most likely to have the greatest impact on behavioral outcomes at different levels of risk exposure. Dr. Ungar’s program of research provides support for an ecological, culturally sensitive interpretation of what resilience means to young people who experience extreme forms of adversity. In this lecture, Dr. Ungar shows that resilience results from both individual abilities to overcome adversity and the capacity of social and physical ecologies (including mental health care providers) to help young people navigate and negotiate their way to the resources they need to build and sustain well-being. Finally, aspects of hidden resilience (maladaptive coping) will be discussed as reasonable ways young people protect themselves from risk when growing up in challenging contexts.

For questions: InnovationSpeakers@mail.nih.gov. Sign Language Interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program should contact the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

Jan 14, 2021 03:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)