Resilience and Vulnerability
Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities

This book explores positive adaptation in at-risk children, providing suggestions for intervention and social policy.

Suniya S. Luthar (Edited by)

9780521001618, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 May 2003

608 pages, 17 b/w illus. 17 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 4 cm, 0.816 kg

'… brings together an extensive range of research material on the highly topical theme of resilience and vulnerability … a comprehensive coverage of the strands of the discussion.' Journal of Social Policy

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 through 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.

1. A resilience framework for research, policy, and practice: contributions from Project Competence Ann S. Masten and Jenifer L. Powell
Part I. Familial Adversities: Parental Psychopathology and Family Processes: 2. Young children with mentally ill parents: resilient developmental systems Ronald Seifer
3. Risk and protective factors for children of depressed parents Constance Hammen
4. Resilience and vulnerability among sons of alcoholics: relationship to developmental outcomes between early childhood and adolescence Robert A. Zucker, Maria W. Wong, Leon I. Puttler, and Hiram E. Fitzgerald
5. Maternal drug abuse versus other psychological disturbances: risks and resilience among children Suniya S. Luthar, Karen D'Avanzo and Sarah Hites
6. Resilience to childhood adversity: results of a 21 year study David M. Fergusson and L. John Horwood
7. Sequelae of child maltreatment: vulnerability and resilience Kerry E. Bolger and Charlotte J. Patterson
8. Risk and resilience in children coping with their parents' divorce and remarriage E. Mavis Hetherington and Anne Mitchell Elmore
9. Correlational and experimental study of resilience for children of divorce and parentally bereaved children Irwin Sandler, Sharlene Wolchik, Caroline Davis, Rachel Haine and Tim Ayers
Part II. Exosystemic and Sociodemographic Risks: 10. Rethinking resilience: a developmental process perspective Tuppett M. Yates, Byron Egeland and L. Alan Sroufe
11. Poverty and early childhood adjustment Elizabeth B. Owens and Daniel S. Shaw
12. Emerging perspectives on context-specificity of children's adaptation and resilience: evidence from a decade of research with urban children in adversity Peter A. Wyman
13. Holistic, contextual perspectives on risk, protection, and competence among low-income urban adolescents Edward Seidman and Sara Pedersen
14. Overcoming the odds? Adolescent development in the context of urban poverty Ana Mari Cauce, Angela Stewart, Melanie Domenech Rodriguez, Bryan Cochran, and Joshua Ginzler
15. Adaptation among youth facing multiple risks: prospective research findings Arnold Sameroff, Leslie Gutman and Steve C. Peck
16. Positive adaptation among youth exposed to community violence Deborah Gorman-Smith and Patrick H. Tolan
17. Perceived discrimination and resilience Laura A. Szalacha, Sumru Erkut, Cynthia García Coll, Jacqueline P. Fields, Odette Alarcón and Ineke Ceder
18. Promoting resilience through early childhood intervention Arthur J. Reynolds and Suh-Ruu Ou
Part III. Commentaries: 19. Toward building a better brain: neurobehavioral outcomes, mechanisms, and processes of environmental enrichment John W. Curtis and Charles A. Nelson
20. Genetic influences on risk and protection: implications for understanding resilience Michael Rutter
21. Resilience and vulnerability: an integrative review Suniya S. Luthar and Laurel Bidwell Zelazo.

Subject Areas: Paediatric medicine [MJW], Psychology [JM]