Childhood experience and subsequent resiliency. (Editorial)

Childhood Experience and Subsequent Resiliency

Do stable, secure conditions in one's early life assure growing up in fine psychological condition? Must very difficult, stressful experiences in childhood compromise one's later ability to cope? What is meant by, and why do we think it is a good thing to have, a "protected" childhood?

A recent conference, sponsored by the Institute for Mental Health Initiatives in cooperation with the American Psychological Association, dealt with these and other questions of why some children from stressful life experiences grow up OK and others do not, and, conversely, why some children from warm, loving, accepting and …