8 Risk and Resilience in Adolescence

Abstract

In this chapter, we are focusing on resilience in adolescents, as a way of drawing together the various themes discussed in this volume. We will also discuss the importance of parenting and its interaction with the temperament of the child in predicting positive outcomes for adolescents. We will begin by defining resilience and then discuss first individual factors and later family factors that are related to resilience. Although our primary focus in this book is on family factors, it is also necessary to acknowledge that individual factors such as gender, temperament, and attachment security play a role in the development and maintenance of resilience, and may also affect interactions with other family members and the quality of those relationships. Some of these individual factors will, of course, be genetic and some will be the result of early experiences in the family. Others will be the result of the interweaving of nature and nurture (Smart & Sanson, 2005). It is important to acknowledge that both individual or temperament factors and family factors are crucial to adolescent development.