ABSTRACT
An arena of comfort, as formulated by Simmons and colleagues (Simmons
& Blyth, 1987; Simmons, Burgeson, Carlton-Ford, & Blyth, 1987), is a so-
cial context in which individuals can relax, feel at ease with themselves,
and let down their guard. A comfort arena provides a safe and accepting
place for the person to relax and rejuvenate so that stressors in other loca-
tions of the life space can be endured or overcome. This study addressed
key questions surrounding the comfort construct. In this chapter, we sum-
marize what we learned through this empirical assessment-the contribu-
tion this research makes to an understanding of adolescent development
and ameliorative intervention. Finally, we suggest fruitful directions for
further investigation.
