Stress Risk and Resilience in Children and Adolescents

Stress Risk and Resilience in Children and Adolescents recognizes the complexity of the developmental processes that impact on coping and resilience and the importance of sociocultural factors. In this respect the relation between a stressor and an outcome depends on many factors including the individual's previous experience perception of the event coping skills and social supports. In turn each of these factors displays meaningful variation by developmental status social background and cultural context. The examination of individual differences in vulnerability to stress and risk factors has grown substantially over the past decade as it has become clearer that some children do in fact 'beat the odds.' In order to understand why some children succumb to even modest stress while others remain resilient in the face of what appear to be overwhelming stressors research has increasingly examined the processes and mechanisms by which children of different ages deal with adverse life experiences rather than merely studying the stressors themselves. Many problem behaviors have multiple causes and most children with one problem behavior also have others. The co-occurrence and/or interrelatedness of risk factors and problem behaviors is therefore an important area of research.