Ann S. Masten (born January 27, 1951) is a professor at th
Institute of Child Development
at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

known for her research on the development of resilience and for advancing theory on the positive outcomes of children and families facing adversity. Masten received the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Service of Science and Society in 2014. She has served as president of the

Society for Research in Child Development The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...

and of Division 7 (Developmental) of the American Psychological Association. Masten's book ''Ordinary Magic: Resilience Processes in Development'' provides an optimistic perspective on children's natural resilience and ability to adapt to new experiences and challenging circumstances. This monograph explores how resilience can be nurtured in families, schools, and other social and community settings. It provides a guide for policy makers seeking to develop supports for children facing adversity due to poverty, family circumstances, or exposure to traumatic violence. With Barry Lester and

Bruce McEwen Bruce Sherman McEwen (January 17, 1938 – January 2, 2020) was an American neuroendocrinologist and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University. He was known for his work on the effe ...

, Masten is co-editor of the volume ''Resilience in Children.''

Biography

Masten received her Bachelor of Arts degree ''cum laude'' in Psychology and English at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1973. She went to graduate school at the

and obtained her Ph.D. in

Clinical Psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

in 1982. Masten joined the faculty of the Institute for Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1986. She holds the positions of Regents Professor of Child Development, Irving B. Harris Professor in Child Development, and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. Masten's research has been funded through grants from the

US Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

, the William T. Grant Foundation, the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, and the National Institute of Mental Health. Masten's work is recognized internationally. In 2013, she was appointed co-chair of the new Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally by the

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

. She served as the United States delegate at the International Congress on Psychology in Yokohoma, Japan in 2016, and was invited speaker at the 10th Annual Psychology Day at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

in 2017. Masten teaches a

MOOC A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, m ...

on Coursera titled “Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War: Global Perspectives". In an interview with MinnPost in 2014, Masten indicated that research by

Norman Garmezy Norman Garmezy (June 18, 1918 – November 21, 2009) was a professor of psychology who is known for his work in developmental psychopathology. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1950, Garmezy held appointments at Duke Unive ...

on resilience inspired her to leave her job at the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1 ...

in 1976 to collaborate with Garmezy at the University of Minnesota. Masten directs the Project Competence on Risk and Resilience at the University of Minnesota, which aims to increase understanding of resilience, i.e., positive adaptations to challenging circumstances encompassing poverty, homelessness, war, natural disasters, migration, and everyday life. International and domestic projects aim to identify optimal interventions and strategies for disadvantaged children to increase resilience and foster their success. As an example, Masten's team works on developing strategies to help homeless kids be resilient when faced with adversity.

Research

Masten's research focuses on factors that enhance the development of resilience in adolescents and families. She and her colleagues emphasize behavioral-psychosocial and neurobiological characteristics of resilience and how combining the two allows for a better understanding of resilience. Masten argues that competence and resilience are present in all children, and that all children need basic encouragement and opportunities throughout development in order to succeed. Her projects aim to inform policy makers on how to create effective environments to foster children's positive development and success. Although definitions of resilience may vary across cultures due to different standards for defining competence, across contexts, resilience is associated with processes of

self-regulation Self-regulation may refer to: *Emotional self-regulation *Self-control, in sociology/psychology *Self-regulated learning, in educational psychology *Self-regulation theory (SRT), a system of conscious personal management *Industry self-regulation, ...

and with

secure attachment Secure attachment is classified by children who show some distress when their caregiver leaves but are able to compose themselves quickly when the caregiver returns. Children with secure attachment feel protected by their caregivers, and they know ...

relationships. In a longitudinal study of 205 children from an urban community who were followed for ten years, Masten and her colleagues used multiple methods to examine children's growth in competence, the adversities they faced, and the psychosocial resources each child had available to them, such as optimism,

coping skills Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

, a sense of mastery or personal control, and social support. Children who were higher functioning intellectually and experienced higher quality parenting had better academic outcomes, conduct, and peer social competence, even when faced with extreme adversity. In work with Karin Best and Norman Garmezy, Masten emphasizes that human psychological development is buffered which allows children to adapt when faced with challenging or threatening circumstances. Children manage adversity better when they have positive relationships with responsible adults, are good problem solvers, and are engaging and have characteristics that are valued by themselves and others. Masten and colleagues observed that long-term problems in contexts of adversity were often associated with neurobiological damage and with severe perturbations to the normal relationships of children with their caregivers.

Representative publications

*Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. ''American Psychologist, 56''(3), 227–238. *Masten, A. S., & Coatsworth, J. D. (1998). The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments: Lessons from research on successful children. ''American Psychologist, 53''(2), 205–220. *Masten, A. S., Best, K. M., & Garmezy, N. (1990). Resilience and development: Contributions from the study of children who overcome adversity. ''Development and Psychopathology, 2''(4), 425–444. *Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: A building block for developmental psychopathology. ''Child Development 55''(1), 97–111.

References

External links

University of Minnesota Faculty Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masten, Ann American women psychologists 21st-century American psychologists University of Minnesota faculty University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Smith College alumni Living people 1951 births American women academics 21st-century American women 20th-century American psychologists