Handbook of Resilience in Children (PDF)

Even the most significant technological and medical advances of the 21st century have been tempered by the increasing risk posed to children in the form of such stressors as poverty, victimization, and family dysfunction. To overcome such challenging societal pressures, children must become skilled in navigating through these turbulent times. With the proper support from parents, extended families, and communities, children are much more likely to experience positive development rather than dysfunction in their adult lives.

To help children overcome the everyday obstacles they face - that is, to beat the odds - the Handbook of Resilience in Children gathers into one volume the current scientific theory, clinical guidelines, and real-world interventions to address such issues as:

• The role of resilience in overcoming trauma, adversity, and abuse.


• The relationship between resilience and other protective factors.


• Resilience differences between boys and girls.


• Measuring and evaluating resilience in clinical practice.


• Using resilience in interventions with children and families.


• Examples of school and community resilience-building programs.

The Handbook addresses ways in which the hypothetical and theoretical concepts of resilience can be applied in practice. It provides clinicians, academics, and mental health professionals with the information needed to affect positive youth development.

"Drs. Brooks and Goldstein have gathered several of the prime movers in the fields of psychology, education, and social work and asked them to reflect upon the role and function of resilience from their unique vantage points. The result is a comprehensive, detailed, transdisciplinary examination of the impact of resiliency as well as specific strategies to foster this crucial trait in children and youth. The Handbook of Resilience in Children provides uswith a compass and a roadmap as we undertake this challenging journey with the children in our charge."

Richard D. Lavoie, M.A., M.Ed.

Visiting Professor

Simmons College, Boston

Author of It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend

"Given the many challenges and stresses facing our youth today, the Handbook of Resilience in Children is an important new contribution. It provides a range of research perspectives and recommendations that can be very helpful to mental health professionals, researchers, and clinicians. In addition, it is useful in thinking about the needs of children across the socioeconomic spectrum and those experiencing stress as a result of various conditions. Most important, the focus on resilience rather than pathology is welcome and useful."

James P. Comer, M.D., Associate Dean

Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry

Yale Child Study Center

School of Medicine