ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the adaptive capacities that are the hallmarks of adolescents’ psychosocial resilience. Writing in the Guardian newspaper in 2013, Misha Hussain expressed the opinion that resilience is probably the sexiest new buzzword in international development. The chapter explains theoretical and practical aspects of resilience to understanding the importance of the psychosocial approach to intervening with young people who use and misuse substances. Hussain’s and F. Grunewald and J. Warner’s opinions refer to the use of resilience as a construct in the field of disaster risk reduction and relief, and recovery after untoward events. Resilience concerns how persons, groups of people, communities and systems cope with major problems, adversity and untoward events to recover from distress and regain effective functioning. A recurring theme in the literature on psychosocial resilience is the power of connections and interactions between persons and groups of people, including their families, schools and youth organisations, on their resilience.
