Caregiving and developmental factors differentiating young at-risk urban children showing resilient versus stress-affected outcomes: A replication and extension

This study tested hypotheses from an organizational-developmental model for childhood resilience. In this model resilience reflects a child's mastery of age-salient objectives, in the face of substantial adversity, by drawing on internal and external resources that enhance processes of adaptation sp ecific to each developmental stage. Interviews were conducted with parents of 122 7- to 9-year-old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, 69 classified as resilient and 53 as maladjusted. Consistent with predictions generated by the model: (1) characteristics of a child's caregiving system and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress-af fected adaptations; and (2) variables reflecting emotionally responsive, co mpetent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilient status and mediators of other caregiver resources such as education, mental health, an d relational history. Identified predictors of resilient status, including competent parenting and caregiver psychosocial resources, largely replicate d findings from a prior study with sociodemographically comparable 9- to 12 -year-old children.