Elizabeth P. De Castro, PhD.
is a retired professor at the Department
of Psychology, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of
the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. She has been doing research on
children, childhoods, and children’s rights issues since the early 1986.
She has published extensively and supervised many of the landmark
research projects of the Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights
Resource Center on children in armed conflict, child abuse, sexual
exploitation of children, child domestic labor, child trafficking, child-
focused disaster management, child protection and governance,
community based mental and psychosocial support, and commercial
sexual exploitation of children, among others. She worked for UNICEF
East Asian and the Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) in Bangkok,
Thailand as a child protection specialist. At present, she serves as an
Advisory Board Member of the Mental Health and Psychosocial
Support Network (www.mhpss.net), Chair of the Board of Trustees of
Child Rights Coalition Asia, and Member of International Research
Steering Committee, Bamboo Project: International Research Project
on Resilience among Sexually Abused Children.
She has received several national and international awards, the most
notable of which are: The Outstanding Women in the Nations Service
Award (TOWNS) in the Philippines, and the Leo and Liesl Eitinger
Human Rights Award in Oslo, Norway, both in 1992. Elizabeth P. De Castro, PhD.
Cultural Roots
of Resilience in the
context of well-being
2021 Mental Health Research Summit Series No.2 July 19, 2021
Elizabeth P. De Castro, PhD.; R. Psych
Director, Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights Resource Center
What is Resilience?
Resilience refers to a patterns of positive
adaptation in the context of significant risk or
adversity
Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from
difficulties and tough problems.
It is an inference about a person’s life that requires
two judgments; 1) that the person is doing okay
and 2) that there is now or has been significant risk
or adversity to overcome
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Terminologies of Resilience
•Studies use different terminologies when referring to
the resilience approach; “strength based approach,
empowerment based approach, resilience based
model and a family and community resilience
approach” are just some of the languages used to
understand resilience.
•Studies reviewed do not necessarily use the term
“resilience approach” rather labels that more or less are
indicative of a resilience approach. This includes
“resilience based mentoring”, “person-centered
therapy” and “positive youth development”
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•We must not forget that the single word “resilience” does
not exist in many other countries like the Philippines where
we have English as “the one size fits all language” or the
dominant language of discourse reflecting the context of a
dominant culture.
•However, we can infer whether the concept of resilience is
embedded in the in-depth knowledge and evidence of the
impact of resilience on the lives of the Filipino children,
their families and community. Is there an evidence or
psychosocio-cultural roots of “resilience” in the Philippines.
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Culture and Indigenization Movement
Culture - meaning and information system shared by a
group of people and transmitted across generations
Indigenization – the act of making something more native,
transformation of some service, idea to suit a local culture,
especially through the use of more indigenous people and
practices in daily life.
It incorporates indigenous ways of knowing and doing,
incorporating world views, knowledge and perspectives
from indigenous cultures
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Indigenization Movement: Cultural beginnings and directions
1. Indigenization from without 2. Indigenization from within
(Exogenous) – the outside (cultural revalidation) – indigenous
culture is the source and culture is the source and the
elements are imported and process involves semantic
transformed into something elaboration or re-codification and
indigenous to the population systematic explication of implied
via translation, replication and theoretical frameworks, to produce
modification, cut and paste. knowledge that reflects the
indigenous experience and
realities.
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Why Sikolohiyang Filipino?
Reservations on the applicability of western models
in the Philippine and Asian context and culture
Misconceptions and assumptions about the human
being
Difference between individualist and collectivist
societies
Difference between contextualized and de-
contextualized societies
Based on Philippine history, language and culture
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Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Philippine Psychology)
Virgilio Enriquez. Ph.D.
Psychology born out of the experience, thought and orientation of the Filipinos,
base on the full use of culture and language (Pe-Pua, Protacio-Marcelino, 2000).
For centuries, Filipino behavior has been analyzed and interpreted in the light of
western theories and methodologies. Enriquez (1976) takes into account the
study of :
1. emotions and experience knowledge (kalooban and kamalayan)
2. awareness of one’s surroundings (ulirat),
3. information and understanding (isip),
4. habit and behavior (diwa)
5. kaluluwa (soul).
The principal emphasis of Sikolohiyang Filipino is to foster national identity and
consciousness, social involvement and psychology of language and culture and its
applications to daily life.
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Pagkataong Filipino and Resilience
Pagkataong Filipno - Personality? Identity?
Pagpapaka–Tao – the art of being human,
possessing the characteristics of a human being
(katauhan). self efficacy, coherence and empathy,
(resilience?)
What are the traits or characteristics (katangian)
of the Filipino? What are the human values?
Who is the Filipino Personality? Sino ako bilang
Filipino?
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Konsepto ng KAPWA
Pagkataong Filipino
LABAS
By: Prospero Covar (Ibang-tao)
BABAW
MALAWAK
MAKITID
LOOB
(Hindi ibang-tao)
LALIM
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Levels of Interaction/Interconnectedness (Santiago)
(Antas ng Pagtutunguhan) Relationships
Ibang Tao (Outsider, not one of us)
pakikitungo (transaction, civility with)
pakikisalamuha (interaction with)
pakikilahok (joining, participating)
pakikibagay (in conformity with, in accord
with)
pakikisama (getting along with)
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Levels of Interaction/Interconnectedness
(Antas ng Pagtutunguhan) Relationships
Hindi ibang Tao (insider, one of us)
pakikipagpalagayang loob (mutual trust,
understanding, acceptance)
pakikisangkot (getting involved with)
pakikiisa (being one with, commitment)
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Filipino Behavior Patterns and Value Structure:
Surface, Core and Societal
Colonial/ • Hiya (propriety/dignity) Biro (joke)
Accommodative • Utang-na-loob (gratitude/solidarity) Lambing
Surface Value & (sweetness/caress)
Associated • Pakikisama (companionship/esteem) Tampo
Behavior Pattern (affective disappointment)
• Bahala na (determination)
Confrontative • Sama/lakas ng loob (resentment/guts)
Surface Value
• Pakikibaka (resistance)
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Filipino Behavior Patterns and Value Structure:
Surface, Core and Societal
Pivotal
Interpersonal • Pakikiramdam (shared inner perception)
Value
CORE VALUE • KAPWA (shared identity)
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Filipino Behavior Patterns and Value Structure:
Surface, Core and Societal
Linking
Socio- • Kagandahang-loob (shared humanity)
personal
Value
Associated • Karangalan (dignity)
Societal • Katarungan (justice)
Values • Kalayaan (freedom)
Reductionist/ • “social acceptance”
Functional • “social equity”
interpretation
• “social mobility”
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For the cultural roots of resilience, I would like to focus on
the concepts of Loob (inner self/will) and “Kapwa”.
Notions of inner strength (lakas ng loob at tibay ng loob)
When a person exhibits resilience, the atitudinal and
behavioral manifestations of these are Kabutihang Loob –
good inside (goodness), Kagandahang Loob - beauty inside
(kindness) and Kalinisang Loob – clean inside (pureness).
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Filipino Values/Virtues
LOOB: Salitang Bukal sa Pilipinong Karanasan ng Pagpapakatao
TAO PO.....Tuloy
(Ang daan patungo sa Loob)
“Tuloy kayo. Tao kayong pumarito. Tao rin naman kaming dinatnan ninyo.
Ipalagay ninyo ang inyong loob. Kapwa tao tayo.”
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Filipino Values/Virtues
Socio-personal Values: LOOB (inner self/will)
• lakas ng loob, tibay ng loob, sama ng loob
• kalooban (what lies within)
• nilooban (violated within)
• resonates with resilience and the depth of what lies within the
personhood (kalooban).
Kabutihang Loob – good inside (goodness)
Kagandahang Loob - beauty inside (kindness)
Kalinisang Loob – clean inside (pureness)
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Filipino Values/Virtues
Core Value: KAPWA (shared identity)
unity of the self and the other
Kita – you and I (dual we)
I, you and we together
Pakikipagkapwa-tao – treating the other as a fellow human being
(e.g. kapatid, kasama, kaibigan, kabiyak, kamag-anak, kasangga,
kaaway, kabit, etc.)
Ibang tao at hindi ibang tao: parehong kapwa
Various levels resonating with resiience: 1)level of trust, 2) level
of comfort 3) level of disclosure, level of concern and physical and
social distance.
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Filipino Values/Virtues
Pivotal Interpersonal Value: PAKIRAMDAM
Paki – please; Ramdam – to feel
paki gamit ang inyong pandama (senses)
(shared inner perception, heightened sensitivity, feeling for the
other)
Pakikiramdam, Nakikiramdam, Karamdaman, etc...
It is an emotional a priori that goes with Filipino personhood
and operates behind all Filipino values. This steering emotion
triggers the spontaneous voluntary actions that come with the
sharing of the self and service to others. 21
Vulnerability to Resilience Model for Children
There is now a growing shift from a “vulnerability model” to a
“resilient model” on child abuse and child protection issues.
Children are viewed as having the capacity to cope, adapt and
overcome traumatic experiences rather than as weak,
passive, helpless, dependent and incapable of doing things.
They are considered active agents in their own development
and not as passive victims of adversity (Giligan, 2003).
The concept of resilience is often associated with successful
adaptation, well being, positive functioning, and competence
(Lethar, 1993;Egeland, et.al., 1993) in the face of uncertainty,
chronic stress, and prolonged severe trauma.
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In the study of Bautista. et.al, 2001, attention was given
toward strengthening resilience to child abuse and sexual
exploitation by focusing on risk and protective factors.
The study presents narratives of abused children that reveal
their courage, resourcefulness, and capacity to cope with
distressing situations even without receiving intervention
from outside sources.
Manifestations of resilience were extracted from the
children’s stories.
Building resilience is to understand the activities that deplete
our energy (stressors in life) and those that help us bounce
back (the things that support recovery in life). It helps us
expand our window of tolerance and helps us identify the
signs when we find ourselves out of this zone and do
something about it.
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A more dynamic and complex nature present
resilience as a process of interaction and negotiation
with the social and physical environment and that it
varies across developmental domains. (Bautista,
et.al, 2001).
Thus, resilient children are those who can adjust to
different situations in life, who possess problem
solving skills, who assumes control over their lives
and more importantly remain hopeful about the
future (Boyden and Gibbs, 1996).
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Resilient themes in the Narratives of
Filipino Children (Bautista, et.al)
Accepting and adjusting to the demands of difficult
situations
cComp0etent functioning among difficult problems
Learning from adversities
Making the self as teacher and source of valuation
Pagtitiis, and seeing things in perspective
Finding happines in the midst of difficulties
Keeping sane in the face of traumatic experiences
Keeping a good and wholesome character amidst
deprivation
Havng an ethical mindset
Recoveinrg from past wounds
Therapeutic construction of reality
Being Other centered
Seeing situations as temporary
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Building Resilience among Children
Efforts to build youth resilience should aim to develop and
strengthen young people’s development from many angles,
supporting youth to reach their full potential within the
framework of their possibilities and resources.
Livelihood and vocational skills are essential for a self-
sufficient and financially secure future for any young
person growing into adulthood.
Life skills such as building up self-esteem, managing
emotions, promoting a positive self-image, negotiation
skills, problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-
making determine whether a young person’s knowledge
and experiences are put to use in a constructive way for the
individual and society. These life skills also influence to
what extent a young person is able to assimilate the
content from school-based and vocational programmes.
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Thank you!
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