There is little disagreement that being resilient is an important quality for managing the vicissitudes we all experience over a lifetime. Data from the University of North Carolina’s life-course research emphasizes that resilience is not an innate trait but a process derived from the interplay between individual agency and historical context. The research indicates that while modern young people exhibit high emotional awareness, they often show lower distress tolerance when faced with logistical or systemic barriers. Hence, less resilient.
Today, young adults are more likely to experience anticipatory anxiety when confronted with unstructured problems or critical feedback. The absence of productive struggle in a world of on-demand services and curated social feeds has left the neural pathways associated with resilience underdeveloped compared to those who had to navigate a paper map or figure out how to fix a broken appliance reading an instructional manual rather than watching a video tutorial.
Another critical factor identified in the psychology of those raised in the 1960s and 1970s was the organic nature of social bonding. Peer groups formed and resolved conflicts without adult mediation or smartphone documentation. This consistent practice in social negotiation and reputation management created a robust social immune system increasing resilience.
The question that comes to mind is, “Are boys and young men less resilient than girls and young women?” Although the available data based on self-report seems to indicate that girls, especially teenage girls, are less resilient the caveat in the research suggests that boys do not reveal their vulnerabilities and anxiety as readily as girls. In addition, the data on losing our boys provides strong evidence that girls and young women both academically and professionally are doing a lot better than boys and young men. I would hypothesize that confusion about gender roles, for boys and young men, is contributing to diminished resilience with its obvious consequences of apathy and attraction to toxic masculinity.
For women the gains of the feminist movement have greatly expanded traditional female norms. Title IX opened the door for girls and young women to more fully participate in sports including those that formally only men enjoyed. Ice hockey, wrestling, mixed martial arts, flag football and boxing are all examples of contact sports that were considered unfeminine. Female athletes have increased their social capital among their peers and have gotten far more positive media exposure. There is also less emphasis on unrealistic body and beauty images that in the past has led to insecurity and low self-esteem for many women.
For young men, ironically, they are paying more attention to physical appearance even to the extreme of “Looksmaxxing” which is an example of the confusion young men experience about connecting with women that leads to self-absorption and blaming women for their failures. The uncertainty of gender norms facing boys and young men is a key contributor to a reduction in resilience, a quality, so necessary for coping with the demands of our complex high stress political and social climate.