Community factors in the development of resiliency: considerations and future directions

Researchers have questioned why some children and adolescents are more resilient than others in the face of adversity and have identified several protective factors. The present paper focuses on one of these variables, namely, support from caring adults in the community. We present a brief review of this component of the resiliency literature along with a discussion of some of the issues and challenges raised by the findings. It is suggested that the evidence is substantial enough and the possible rewards associated with exploiting these findings considerable enough to warrant mounting wide-scale community-based efforts to assist vulnerable youth.