Adolescent Resiliency to Family Adversity

The factors associated with adolescent resiliency to childhood adversity were examined in a birth cohort of 940 New Zealand adolescents studied to the age of 16 years. Resilient teenagers were defined by: (a) high exposure to family adversity during childhood and (b)an absence of a wide range of externalising problems during adolescence including substance abuse, juvenile offending and school problems. Resilient teenagers were characterised by significantly higher IQ ( p >.001), lower novelty seeking ( p >.01) and lower affiliations with delinquent peers ( p > .005) with these factors acting accumulatively to influence the probability of resilience to externalising problems.