Emmy Werner
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Emmy E. Werner (1929 – October 12, 2017) was an American developmental psychologist known for her research on risk and resilience in children.


Early life

She received her
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from the
University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
and was a '' professor emerita'' in the Department of Human and Community Development at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
.


Career

Werner was best known for her leadership of a 40-year longitudinal study of 698 infants born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai — the island's entire birth cohort for the year 1955. The study found that many children exposed to reproductive and environmental risk factors (for instance,
premature birth Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 weeks, very early preterm birth is between 2 ...
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 that helped to balance out risk factors at critical periods in their development. Among these factors were a strong bond with a nonparental caretaker (such as an aunt, babysitter, or teacher) and involvement in a church or community group like the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...
. Her book ''Through the Eyes of Innocents'' tells the stories of children caught up in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in their own words.


Awards

* Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Child Development Award from the Society for Research in Child Development (1999) * Dolley Madison Presidential Award for Outstanding Lifelong Contributions to the Development and Well-being of Children and Families (1999) * Arnold Gesell Prize, German Society for Social Pediatrics (2001) *
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award (1999/2000) * Distinguished Friend of the University Award, UC Davis (2015)


Books

* Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). ''Vulnerable, but Invincible: A Longitudinal Study of Resilient Children and Youth''. McGraw-Hill. * Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1992). ''Overcoming the Odds: High Risk Children from Birth to Adulthood''. Cornell University Press. * Werner, E. E. (2000). ''Through the Eyes of Innocents: Children Witness World War II''. Westview Press. * Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (2001). ''Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience, and Recovery''. Cornell University Press. * Werner, E. E. (2002). ''A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II''. Westview Press. * Werner, E. E. (2006). ''In Pursuit of Liberty: Coming of Age in the American Revolution''. Greenwood Publishing Group. * Werner, E. E. (2009). ''Passages to America: Oral Histories of Child Immigrants from Ellis Island and Angel Island''. Potomac Books.


See also

*
Psychological resilience Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally or emotionally with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. The term was coined in the 1970s by a psychologist named Emmy E. Werner as she conducted a forty year long study o ...


References

*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


External links

*More information about Dr. Werner a
UC Davis Dept. of Human Ecology
Emeriti {{DEFAULTSORT:Werner, Emmy American women psychologists 20th-century American psychologists Developmental psychologists University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni University of California, Davis faculty 1929 births 2017 deaths 21st-century American women