Emmy Werner

Emmy E. Werner (1929-2017) was an American developmental psychologist. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska and was a professor emerita in the Department of Human and Community Development at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Werner was best known in the field of child development for her leadership of a forty-year longitudinal study of 698 infants on the Hawaiian island of Kauai—the island's entire birth cohort for the year 1955.[1][2][3] The study supported the conventional wisdom that many children exposed to reproductive and environmental risk factors (for instance, premature birth coupled with an unstable household and a mentally ill mother) go on to experience more problems with delinquency, mental and physical health and family stability than children exposed to fewer such risk factors. Among Werner's most significant findings was that one third of all high-risk children displayed resilience and developed into caring, competent and confident adults despite their problematic development histories. She and her fellow researchers identified a number of protective factors in the lives of these resilient individuals which helped to balance out risk factors at critical periods in their development. Among these factors were a strong bond with a nonparent caretaker (such as an aunt, babysitter, or teacher) and involvement in a church or community group like the YMCA. She received numerous national and international awards.

Her book Through the Eyes of Innocents tells the stories of children caught up in World War II in their own words.[4]

See also

References
  1. Weir, Kirsten. "Maximizing children's resilience. Monitor on Psychology, September 2017. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  2. Konnikova, Maria. "How People Learn to Become Resilient". New York, New York: The New Yorker, February 11, 2016.
  3. Andrews, Tony. "'I put myself in standby mode': what makes a survivor?". London, United Kingdom: The Guardian, January 7, 2017.
  4. Werner, Emmy E (2001). Through the Eyes of Innocents. Basic Books.
  • Werner, E.E. (2004).What can we learn about resilience from large scale longitudinal studies? In "Handbook of Resilience in Children," New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
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