ABSTRACT
Resilience is the great confounder. It empowers those whose lives have not begun well. It emboldens the fainthearted and strengthens the weak. Childhood family environment characteristics predict resilience even after controlling for demographics, trauma exposure, maltreatment, and PTSD symptoms. In theory, at least, a higher trauma score ought to correlate with a lower resilience score—more difficulty as an adult ought to reflect more suffering as a child. Resilience, that magical human quality, is associated with different personality traits, better health, and surgical happiness but not with individual ACE scores. Resilience seems to intercept some of the damaging effects of childhood abuse and neglect.
