A review of the issues and debates surrounding the question of how children cope in situations of extreme hardship. The authors focus particularly on the concepts of risk and resilience and how they are understood in the research literature. They also examine the limitations of existing research. The discussion continues with an analysis of the term “trauma” and disagreements about the relevance of the diagnostic category of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Subsequent sections review the cultural aspects of children’s responses to adversity. The authors conclude that “given the present state of the art, use of the term resilience cannot be taken to imply a fully-fledged theory about how children deal with adversity, for the concept does not stand up to rigorous scientific interrogation, especially when translated across cultural domains” (p. 20). A description of the authors’ search methodology is not provided. (Description from Source)
