This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience, a construct connoting the maintenance of positive adaptation by individuals despite experiences of significant adversity. As empirical research on resilience has burgeoned in recent years, criticisms have been levied at work in this area. These critiques have generally focused on ambiguities in definitions and central terminology; heterogeneity in risks experienced and competence achieved by individuals viewed as resilient; instability of the phenomenon of resilience; and concerns regarding the usefulness of resilience as a theoretical construct. We address each identified criticism in turn, proposing solutions for those we view as legitimate and clarifying misunderstandings surrounding those we believe to be less valid. We conclude that work on resilience possesses substantial potential for augmenting the understanding of processes affecting at-risk individuals. Realization of the potential embodied by this construct, however, will remain constrained without continued scientific attention to some of the serious conceptual and methodological pitfalls that have been noted by skeptics and proponents alike.

The focus of this article is on the interface between research on resilience-a construct representing positive adaptation despite adversity--and the applications of this work to the development of interventions and social policies. Salient defining features of research on resilience are delineated, as are various advantages, limitations, and precautions linked with the application of the resilience framework to developing interventions. For future applied efforts within this tradition, a series of guiding principles are presented along with exemplars of existing programs based on the resilience paradigm. The article concludes with discussions of directions for future work in this area, with emphases on an enhanced interface between science and practice, and a broadened scope of resilience-based interventions in terms of the types of populations, and the types of adjustment domains, that are encompassed.

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Factors that allow children to maintain socially competent behaviors despite stress were examined among 144 inner-city ninth-grade students with a mean age of 15.3 years. Stress was operationalized by scores on a negative life events scale, and definitions of social competence were based on peer ratings, teacher ratings, and school grades. Moderator variables examined included intelligence, internal locus of control, social skills, ego development, and positive life events. Following theoretical models by Garmezy and Rutter, distinctions were made between compensatory factors (which are directly related to competence) and protective/vulnerability factors (which interact with stress in influencing competence). Ego development was found to be compensatory against stress. Internality and social skills proved to be protective factors, while intelligence and positive events were involved in vulnerability processes. This study also revealed that children labeled as resilient were significantly more depressed and anxious than were competent children from low stress backgrounds.Faced with life stresses, many children develop psychological difficulties, while others function well. Children in the latter group, labeled "resilient" or "stress resistant," defy expectation by developing into well-adapted individuals. The primary aim of this investigation was to explore variables that promote resilience, that is, that allow children to remain competent despite exposure to stressful life experiences.The phenomenon of resilience was examined among inner-city adolescents. Much of the previous research has been conducted with preadolescent and younger children Garmezy, Masten, & Tellegen, 1984;Masten et al., 1988;Werner & Smith, 1982) or with young adults (Quinton, Rutter, & Liddle, 1984;Werner, 1989). This study sought to determine whether variables identified as being protective at different ages served ameliorative functions during adolescence as well. Selection of an inner-city sample was based on findings of higher rates of adolescent behavior problems (e.g., juvenile delinquency) among underprivileged populations (Farrington, 1987;Snyder & Patterson, 1987). Epidemiological data such as these underscore the need for research on stress resistance among disadvantaged teenagers.Operational definitions of the two central constructs embedded within the major research question, that is, stress and competence, were based on earlier research in the area. Two © 1991 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. Requests for reprints should be directed to Suniya Luthar, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, 27 Sylvan Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519. approaches have commonly been used in operationalizing stress. One of these, termed the "life events method,' involves the use of self-report measures to obtain a count of stressful life events encountered in the recent past O'Grady & Metz, 1987). An alternative strategy has been to examine the separate effects of individual life stresses that are "ob...

The developmental psychopathology literature addressing issues of children's resilience and vulnerability in dealing with life stresses is reviewed. The contribution and methodological limitations of research on stress and competence are examined, theoretical concepts of resilience are discussed, and findings with respect to protective mechanisms, as well as data from longitudinal studies, are presented. Directions for further research are outlined.