Resilience: Revisiting the Concept and its Utility for Social Research

Researchers of resilience seek to understand why some people will recover from or avoid negative outcomes against the odds
associated with exposure to particular adversities. Over the last two decades the concept of resilience has experienced “burgeoning
interest” (Ungar, 2005, p. xvii). However, due to a lack of consistency in defining and measuring this theoretical construct
within and across disciplines, the recent explosion of literature on resilience has contributed more to confusion than clarity
among researchers and policy makers. In order to clarify the opportunities and pitfalls in store for future research, this
paper provides an overview of the historical development of the resilience concept and the different approaches to resilience
prominent today. It also addresses the relationship of resilience to the concept of risk. Since the majority of resilience
research is concerned with the development of children and adolescents, this review is youth-oriented.