NESCA is currently accepting Therapy and Executive Function Coaching clients from middle school-age through adulthood with Therapist/Executive Function Coach/Parent Coach Carly Loureiro, MSW, LCSW. Carly specializes in the ASD population and also sees individuals who are highly anxious, depressed, or suffer with low self-esteem. She also offers parent coaching and family sessions when needed. For more information or to schedule appointments, please complete our Intake Form.

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collective self-efficacy

16

Resilience during COVID-19: Collective Efficacy

By | NESCA Notes 2020

By Renée Marchant, Psy.D.
Pediatric Neuropsychologist

There is an array of research-proven factors shown to increase psychological and physiological resilience or “bounce-back” from stressful experiences, such as maintaining a social network and practicing healthy coping skills when in distress.

One important factor is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is distinct from self-esteem. Self-esteem is a judgement of self-worth whereas self-efficacy is a judgement of personal capability. People with a strong sense of self-efficacy:

  • View challenging problems as tasks to be mastered;
  • Develop deeper interest in the activities in which they participate;
  • Form a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities; and
  • Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments (Bandura, 1995).

The COVID-19 crisis has cultivated a closely related and critical construct, collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is a group’s shared belief in its capability to organize and execute actions required to achieve goals (Bandura, 1995). In other words, members of a community look out for each other, support each other in solving problems, and, in effect, improve their lives through combined efforts.

Collective self-efficacy is everywhere amidst this crisis. Social distancing is in itself a collective efficacy measure. Thousands of communities across the world continue to show everyday kindness for those in need and solidarity for those on the front lines. A few local Massachusetts examples are:

Collective efficacy is proven to increase resilience at a family level and at a community level. Collective efficacy is critical for navigating through, tolerating and “bouncing back” from this crisis. Collective self-efficacy can be cultivated and grown at home through small, meaningful and intentional acts.

Here are three research-proven “collective self-efficacy” enhancers to practice while you’re home with your family during COVID-19:

  1. Stay active in a cause for kindness and connection: Make art or compliment cards for first responders. Record a video and send to a local nursing home. Participate in an organized trip to the grocery store for vulnerable members of your community.
  2. Create collective mastery experiences: Mastery experiences are experiences we gain when we take on a challenge and succeed. Identify a “home project” such as organizing a closet together. Creatively problem solve how to cook a snack or meal with four ingredients already in your kitchen. Organize a family “work-out” exercise challenge.
  3. Encourage reflection and communication: Identify a small, realistic goal for each family member to accomplish each morning. Have each family member name a “take away” and “throw away” from their day in the evening. Share a “strength story” to reflect on a strength you and/or your family member showed that week. Consider using specific value-driven language to identify this strength (see examples from the VIA character strengths research studies below).

About the Author:

Dr. Renée Marchant provides neuropsychological and psychological (projective) assessments for youth who present with a variety of complex, inter-related needs, with a particular emphasis on identifying co-occurring neurodevelopmental and psychiatric challenges. She specializes in the evaluation of developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorder and social-emotional difficulties stemming from mood, anxiety, attachment and trauma-related diagnoses. She often assesses children who have “unique learning styles” that can underlie deficits in problem-solving, emotion regulation, social skills and self-esteem.

Dr. Marchant’s assessments prioritize the “whole picture,” particularly how systemic factors, such as culture, family life, school climate and broader systems impact diagnoses and treatment needs. She frequently observes children at school and participates in IEP meetings.

Dr. Marchant brings a wealth of clinical experience to her evaluations. In addition to her expertise in assessment, she has extensive experience providing evidence-based therapy to children in individual (TF-CBT, insight-oriented), group (DBT) and family (solution-focused, structural) modalities. Her school, home and treatment recommendations integrate practice-informed interventions that are tailored to the child’s unique needs.

Dr. Marchant received her B.A. from Boston College with a major in Clinical Psychology and her Psy.D. from William James College in Massachusetts. She completed her internship at the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and her postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, where she deepened her expertise in providing therapy and conducting assessments for children with neurodevelopmental disorders as well as youth who present with high-risk behaviors (e.g. psychosis, self-injury, aggression, suicidal ideation).

Dr. Marchant provides workshops and consultations to parents, school personnel and treatment professionals on ways to cultivate resilience and self-efficacy in the face of adversity, trauma, interpersonal violence and bullying. She is an expert on the interpretation of the Rorschach Inkblot Test and provides teaching and supervision on the usefulness of projective/performance-based measures in assessment. Dr. Marchant is also a member of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) and continues to conduct research on the effectiveness of family therapy for high-risk, hospitalized patients.

 

To book an evaluation with Dr. Marchant or one of our many other expert neuropsychologists, complete NESCA’s online intake form.

 

Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents (NESCA) is a pediatric neuropsychology practice and integrative treatment center with offices in Newton and Plainville, Massachusetts, and Londonderry, New Hampshire, serving clients from preschool through young adulthood and their families. For more information, please email info@nesca-newton.com or call 617-658-9800.