What Is Resiliency?

Resiliency is the ability to cope with, adapt to, and overcome challenges. With resiliency training, children and families learn not just to meet challenges but also to become stronger in the face of challenges.

Developed by a UCLA-Harvard team, FOCUS teaches military children and families affected by multiple deployments to understand their emotional reactions, communicate more clearly, solve problems more effectively, and set and achieve their goals. Parents and children—from preschoolers to teens—learn to use tools that will better prepare them for each new deployment.

Families are directly impacted when a parent returns with significant levels of combat operational stress. A parent might return home and encounter deployment reminders in their daily life, leading to changes in their mood and behavior. These changes can be upsetting to children and spouses, and affect parenting and marital relationships. FOCUS helps families understand how reactions to deployment reminders can influence relationships and teaches skills to deal with them.