Adaptive coping under conditions of extreme stress: Multilevel influences on the determinants of resilience in maltreated children

The study of resilience in maltreated children reveals the possibility of coping processes and resources on multiple levels of analysis as children strive to adapt under conditions of severe stress. In a maltreating context, aspects of self-organization, including self-esteem, self-reliance, emotion regulation, and adaptable yet reserved personalities, appear particularly important for more competent coping. Moreover, individual differences in biological processes ranging from gene by environment interactions to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to brain organization related to emotion also are shown to influence the resilience in maltreated youth, highlighting the multifaceted contributions to successful coping.