Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities

Childhood resilience is the phenomenon of positive adaptation despite significant life adversities. While interest in resilience has burgeoned in recent years, there remains considerable uncertainty about what exactly research has taught us about this phenomenon. Integrated in this book are contributions from leading scientists who have each studied children’s adjustment across risks common in contemporary society. Chapters in the first half of the book focus on risks emanating from the family; chapters in the second half focus on risks stemming from the wider community. All contributors have explicitly addressed a common set of core themes, including the criteria they used to judge resilience within particular risk settings, the major factors that predict resilience in these settings, the limits to resilience (vulnerabilities coexisting with manifest success), and directions for interventions. In the concluding chapter, the editor integrates evidence presented throughout all preceding chapters to distill (a) substantive considerations for future research and (b) salient directions for interventions and social policies based on accumulated research knowledge.