ABSTRACT
Resilience is the capability to recover from crisis, set back or disaster when normally these events would carry a substantial risk of long-term psychological harm, e.g. major injury, significant bereavement, homelessness and abuse (Mitchell 2011; Stokes 2009; Johnson 2008; Ungar 2008; Clinton 2008; Masten 2001; Rutter 1987). Clinton (2008) argues that it is more than simply a capacity to return ‘to normal’ functioning but the ability to learn, adapt and grow in psychological strength from the situation, to inevitably be altered by the experience, but with a positive outcome. Similarly, it is important to understand that resilience isn’t just a personality trait, one that individuals are, or are not born with, instead it is agreed now by psychologists working in this field (Mitchell 2011, Clinton 2008, Masten 2001 and Rutter 1990, for example), to be ‘the interplay between internal strengths of the individual and external supporting factors in an individual social environment’ (Johnson 2008: 386).
