Competence in the context of adversity: pathways to resilience and maladaptation from childhood to late adolescence.

Competent outcomes in late adolescence were examined in relation to adversity over time, antecedent competence and psychosocial resources, in order to investigate the phenomenon of resilience. An urban community sample of 205 (114 females, 90 males; 27% minority) children were recruited in elementary school and followed over 10 years. Multiple methods and informants were utilized to assess three major domains of competence from childhood through adolescence (academic achievement, conduct, and peer social competence), multiple aspects of adversity, and major psychosocial resources. Both variable-centered and person-centered analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized significance of resources for resilience. Better intellectual functioning and parenting resources were associated with good outcomes across competence domains, even in the context of severe, chronic adversity. IQ and parenting appeared to have a specific protective role with respect to antisocial behavior. Resilient adolescents (high adversity, adequate competence across three domains) had much in common with their low-adversity competent peers, including average or better IQ, parenting, and psychological well-being. Resilient individuals differed markedly from their high adversity, maladaptive peers who had few resources and high negative emotionality. Results suggest that IQ and parenting scores are markers of fundamental adaptational systems that protect child development in the context of severe adversity.

The structure and coherence of competence from childhood through adolescence.

The structure and coherence of competence from childhood (ages 8-12) to late adolescence (ages 17-23) was examined in a longitudinal study of 191 children. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test a conceptual model and alternative models. Results suggest that competence has at least 3 distinct dimensions in childhood and 5 in adolescence. These dimensions reflect developmental tasks related to academic achievement, social competence, and conduct important at both age levels in U.S. society, and the additional tasks of romantic and job competence in adolescence. As hypothesized, rule-breaking versus rule-abiding conduct showed strong continuity over time, while academic achievement and social competence showed moderate continuity. Results also were consistent with the hypothesis that antisocial behavior undermines academic attainment and job competence.

Children in poverty: resilience despite risk.

Two objectives provided the focus for the Conference on Community Violence and Children's Development that was jointly sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. One was to examine the evidence for deficit behaviors that characterized children reared in poverty; the second was to identify the characteristics of children who sustained their competencies despite being reared in comparable environments. These dual objectives took this form: "What can we conclude from studies of children, their families, and environments about characteristics that predispose children to maladjustment following exposure to violence, and about characteristics that protect children from such adjustment problems following, or in the midst of, violence exposure?"

Resilience in children's adaptation to negative life events and stressed environments.

Functional adequacy (the maintenance of competent functioning despite an interfering emotionality) is a benchmark of resilient behavior under stress. While resilient adults can be identified as adults who once experienced a great deal of despair as children, I am not prepared to mark off the construct of resilience because such people may carry with them a realistic baggage of sadness and unhappiness. The very nature of despair that is present for children of the ghetto, the status of minority children in today's America, all have a reality that can neither be ignored or denied. Perhaps a portion of resilient behavior is the evaluative awareness of a difficult reality combined with a commitment to struggle, to conquer the obstacle, and to achieve one's goals despite the negative circumstances to which one has been exposed, which were and remain evocative of sadness.

A factorial, reliability, and validity study of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale.

This investigation explored the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale, employing a large (n = 648) sample of children. Factor analysis suggested that the Devereux scale can be described by four factors, which were named Disruptive-Oppositional, Poor Comprehension-Disattention, Cooperative-Initiating, and Performance Anxiety. All four factors showed high internal consistency, and three of the four were stable over a 17-mo. period. Correlations of the four factors with academic achievement, IQ, socioeconomic status, and peer ratings of social competence are presented. All four factors showed significant relations with these variables, with Poor Comprehension-Disattention the strongest of all. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the Poor Comprehension-Disattention factor accounted for significant variance in academic achievement even after IQ was taken into account. Large differences between classroom means on the factor scores suggested that Devereux ratings for individual students may need to be interpreted cautiously.

Competence and stress in school children: the moderating effects of individual and family qualities.

This study examined the associations of stress exposure to various aspects of school-based competence in a normative sample of 205 children aged 8-13. Potential moderators of these relations, including child attributes of sex and IQ and environmental attributes of socioeconomic status (SES) and family qualities, were also studied. Stress exposure was indexed by a life event questionnaire. Competence was assessed by teacher ratings, peer assessments and school record data. Family attributes were derived from a set of rating scales completed by interviewers after 6 hours of interviews with a parent. Results suggest that the relations of stress exposure to competence vary as a function of individual differences as well as the competence criterion. Disadvantaged children, with lower IQ and SES, and less positive family qualities, were generally less competent and more likely to be disruptive at high stress levels. Advantaged children were more competent, and with stress positively engaged in school, but were not likely to be disruptive. Boys were less socially competent than girls and, when stress was high, appeared to be less protected by positive family qualities. Causal hypotheses for future research in this area are discussed.

Correlates of social and academic competence in middle childhood.

The correlates of social and academic competence were investigated in 9-14 yr old children. Factor analysis of multiple measures of cognitive functioning, excluding IQ identified three dimensions: (1) Social Comprehension; (2) Cognitive Efficiency and (3) Divergent Thinking. The social comprehension dimension was derived from measures of humor and social cognition. Although strongly related to IQ, Social Comprehension still had a substantial unique relation to social competence in a school setting, as assessed by teachers and peers. While this dimension was the best predictor of social competence, IQ was by far the most powerful predictor of academic competence.

The study of stress and competence in children: a building block for developmental psychopathology.

This article discusses the building blocks for a developmental psychopathology, focusing on studies of risk, competence, and protective factors. The current Project Competence studies of stress and competence are described, with particular attention to the methodology and strategies for data analysis. The authors present a 3-model approach to stress resistance in a multivariate regression framework: the compensatory, challenge, and protective factor models. These models are illustrated by selected data. In the concluding section, an evaluation of the project is offered in terms of future directions for research.

Later competence and adaptation in infants who survive severe heart defects.

A model of risk potential for developmental outcome was created based on cardiac, medical, surgical, and family-stress factors in 31 children with transposition of the great arteries who had undergone reparative open heart surgery utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass during infancy. Impact of these potential risk factors was assessed by 4 current neurologic measures (neurologic anatomic abnormalities, functional impairment, electroencephalograph [EEG], and Pattern Visual Evoked Potential [PVEP]) and 4 psychologic measures (IQ, achievement, perceptual-motor function, and behavior). Results indicated that adverse developmental outcome was significantly associated with the following medical risk variables: failure of palliative surgery to alleviate hypoxia, prolonged hypoxia, growth failure, congestive heart failure, absence of ameliorating shunting heart defects, stroke, and CNS infection; and two psychosocial moderator variables: socioeconomic status and current life stress. Analysis of a "cumulative risk score" indicated significantly higher risk scores in children with abnormal EEGs, PVEPs, and neurologic examinations. The cumulative risk score highly correlated with composite neurologic outcome (r = .62), IQ (r = -.66), achievement (r = -.60), and perceptual-motor function (r = -.48). While overall outcome was favorable for children with TGA who experienced a single risk event, outcome was compromised if multiple risk factors occurred.